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U.S. Default Would Not Be Unprecedented | The Freeman | Ideas On Liberty: "During its 235 years as a sovereign entity the United States has defaulted on three separate occasions … and has also intentionally liquidated debt via inflation."
"During the 1933 banking holiday declared by President Franklin Roosevelt immediately after his March 4 inauguration, the federal government refused requests for interest payments in gold, remitting only currency instead. Congress later ratified this action by formally invalidating gold clauses….
Meanwhile, as reported in The Economist (2011, June 23), the US Treasury failed to redeem $122 million of Treasury bills on time after another debt ceiling debate in 1979. This episode was purely a technical default, arising from systems issues…."
Friday, July 29, 2011
How to Get Real Spending Cuts | Michael D. Tanner | Cato Institute: Commentary
How to Get Real Spending Cuts | Michael D. Tanner | Cato Institute: Commentary: "Budget history is flush with promises of cuts some day in the future — but some day never actually comes. This is especially true when budget savings are anticipated not from actually eliminating programs, but from making government 'more efficient.'"
"Republicans should not get hung up on seeking any particular amount of spending cuts. The dollar amount matters far less than getting the structural and institutional changes that will actually bring down the size, cost, and intrusiveness of government in the future.
Republicans should push hard for a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution — and not one that simply requires a balanced budget, but one that includes meaningful spending limitations. If they can't get the two-thirds vote that such an amendment would require, they should at least insist on a statutory spending cap. Republicans should also insist on fundamental structural changes to Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.
In the end, this is not really a debate about budgeting or the size of the national debt. It is a debate about whether we will have a limited constitutional government or a European-style social democracy. Winning that debate will not be a question of whether there is an agreement to cut $2 trillion over ten years rather than $1.5 trillion. If Republicans get an extra $500 billion in cuts on paper, but leave the structures of big government in place, they will find out down the road that nothing has really changed."
"Republicans should not get hung up on seeking any particular amount of spending cuts. The dollar amount matters far less than getting the structural and institutional changes that will actually bring down the size, cost, and intrusiveness of government in the future.
Republicans should push hard for a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution — and not one that simply requires a balanced budget, but one that includes meaningful spending limitations. If they can't get the two-thirds vote that such an amendment would require, they should at least insist on a statutory spending cap. Republicans should also insist on fundamental structural changes to Medicare, Medicaid, and Social Security.
In the end, this is not really a debate about budgeting or the size of the national debt. It is a debate about whether we will have a limited constitutional government or a European-style social democracy. Winning that debate will not be a question of whether there is an agreement to cut $2 trillion over ten years rather than $1.5 trillion. If Republicans get an extra $500 billion in cuts on paper, but leave the structures of big government in place, they will find out down the road that nothing has really changed."
RealClearMarkets - The Truth About the Debt-Ceiling Fight
RealClearMarkets - The Truth About the Debt-Ceiling Fight: "We have been told that failing to raise the debt ceiling would precipitate a 40% cut in government spending. Since most of what the government does is illegitimate, that would not be unreasonable at all, actually, but even on the Tea Party critics' own terms, the numbers tell a different story. If the debt ceiling is not raised, it would represent a 16% decrease from Bush's 2009 budget request of $3.11 trillion, decried by both the right and the left as overspending.
It would represent a 26% cut in government spending from Obama's 2010 budget request"
"To go back to Bush-level spending would require $0.70 trillion of borrowing until the end of 2012, around which time, revenues would begin exceeding government expenditures."
It would represent a 26% cut in government spending from Obama's 2010 budget request"
"To go back to Bush-level spending would require $0.70 trillion of borrowing until the end of 2012, around which time, revenues would begin exceeding government expenditures."
Thursday, July 28, 2011
Um, uh, ah: In praise of verbal stumbles. - By Michael Erard - Slate Magazine
Um, uh, ah: In praise of verbal stumbles. - By Michael Erard - Slate Magazine: "A University of Rochester lab published a paper this spring showing that kids over 2 were more likely to pay attention to an unfamiliar object if the speaker said 'uh' before stating its name. Presumably, this tactic gives children a leg up on parsing an adult's speech. Take the example of the mother who says to her child, 'No, that wasn't the telephone, honey. That was the, uh, timer.' The 'uh' indicates that there's a word coming up that might be new and unfamiliar, so extra attention is required."
Man Uses Phone Glitch to Bond Out of Florida Jail - FoxNews.com
Man Uses Phone Glitch to Bond Out of Florida Jail - FoxNews.com: "The phone system charges inmate accounts for calls but refunds the money if the call doesn't go through. But the system was reimbursing inmates twice for incomplete calls.
Authorities say Stone repeatedly made calls and hung up until he had more than $1,250 -- enough to bond out of jail."
Authorities say Stone repeatedly made calls and hung up until he had more than $1,250 -- enough to bond out of jail."
A Pretense of Regulatory Reform - Gary Galles - Mises Daily
A Pretense of Regulatory Reform - Gary Galles - Mises Daily: "Sunstein wrote, 'Since the 1970s, milk has been defined as an 'oil' and subject to costly rules designed to prevent oil spills.' But the EPA has now concluded the burdens were unjustifiable, and given dairies an exemption saving them $140 million a year. Unfortunately, rather than demonstrating that Americans no longer need worry about abusive regulations, it illustrates the opposite.
The fact that a clearly nonsensical and costly policy persisted for decades, despite multiple 'reforms,' reveals that almost no attention is actually given to outdated and overly burdensome regulations. But when public outrage becomes severe, a few idiocies must be recognized and sacrificed to pretend regulatory responsibility. Once such a minimal reform diminishes outrage, Americans will again stop paying much attention to the regulatory bureaucracy, and the constraints on abusive regulations will once again shrivel."
The fact that a clearly nonsensical and costly policy persisted for decades, despite multiple 'reforms,' reveals that almost no attention is actually given to outdated and overly burdensome regulations. But when public outrage becomes severe, a few idiocies must be recognized and sacrificed to pretend regulatory responsibility. Once such a minimal reform diminishes outrage, Americans will again stop paying much attention to the regulatory bureaucracy, and the constraints on abusive regulations will once again shrivel."
Tuesday, July 26, 2011
Mystery Inmate in U.S. Refuses to Reveal Name - FoxNews.com
Mystery Inmate in U.S. Refuses to Reveal Name - FoxNews.com: "A mystery man believed to be his 70s has been locked up in a Utah jail for more than three weeks and has baffled investigators because he refuses to reveal his identity or provide any details about his life."
Why can't he keep is privacy? Shouldn't the 5th amendment cover this?
"Harris said the man was arrested July 1 in the underground police parking garage, about 45 miles south of Salt Lake City. He said an officer spotted the man peering into city vehicles. The man was asked to leave several times but refused and was arrested."
3 weeks in jail for trespassing?!?!?
Why can't he keep is privacy? Shouldn't the 5th amendment cover this?
"Harris said the man was arrested July 1 in the underground police parking garage, about 45 miles south of Salt Lake City. He said an officer spotted the man peering into city vehicles. The man was asked to leave several times but refused and was arrested."
3 weeks in jail for trespassing?!?!?
Lying about Libya - Ryan McCarl - Mises Daily
Lying about Libya - Ryan McCarl - Mises Daily: "Simply put, what was sold to the American public as a humanitarian intervention morphed almost immediately into unreserved support of one side in Libya's civil war and a commitment to overthrowing Libya's existing government."
"In Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya, among other places, we have chosen sides in distant conflicts and showered our favored groups with weapons, military training, legitimacy, and cash, only to end up going to war against these same groups just a few years or decades later.
We supported the Mujahideen, which included many future members of the Taliban, during the Soviet war in Afghanistan in the 1980s; we supported Saddam Hussein's Iraq in the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s; and we largely normalized relations with and sold weapons to Gaddafi's Libya during the George W. Bush administration."
"In Afghanistan, Iraq, and Libya, among other places, we have chosen sides in distant conflicts and showered our favored groups with weapons, military training, legitimacy, and cash, only to end up going to war against these same groups just a few years or decades later.
We supported the Mujahideen, which included many future members of the Taliban, during the Soviet war in Afghanistan in the 1980s; we supported Saddam Hussein's Iraq in the Iran-Iraq War of the 1980s; and we largely normalized relations with and sold weapons to Gaddafi's Libya during the George W. Bush administration."
Could You Modify It ‘To Stop Students From Becoming This Advanced?’ | Cato @ Liberty
Could You Modify It ‘To Stop Students From Becoming This Advanced?’ | Cato @ Liberty: "Khan’s programmer, Ben Kamens, has heard from teachers who’ve seen Khan Academy presentations and loved the idea but wondered whether they could modify it “to stop students from becoming this advanced.”
This attitude is a natural outgrowth of our decision to operate education as a monopoly. In a competitive marketplace, educators have incentives to serve each individual child to the best of their ability, because each child can easily be enrolled elsewhere if they fail to do so. That is why the for-profit Asian tutoring industry groups students by performance, not by age. There are “grades,” but they do not depend on when a student was born, only on what she knows and is able to do."
This attitude is a natural outgrowth of our decision to operate education as a monopoly. In a competitive marketplace, educators have incentives to serve each individual child to the best of their ability, because each child can easily be enrolled elsewhere if they fail to do so. That is why the for-profit Asian tutoring industry groups students by performance, not by age. There are “grades,” but they do not depend on when a student was born, only on what she knows and is able to do."
A(nother) Bad Month for Obamacare | Michael F. Cannon | Cato Institute: Commentary
A(nother) Bad Month for Obamacare | Michael F. Cannon | Cato Institute: Commentary: "a survey by McKinsey & Co. found that up to 30 percent of firms may respond to Obamacare's incentives to drop health benefits by — get this — dropping health benefits."
"children on Medicaid were refused appointments by 66 percent of specialists and had to wait 22 days longer for an appointment than kids with private insurance. The main culprit is Medicaid's price controls, which one survey reports 24 states plan to ratchet down even further.
Obamacare expands coverage mostly by cramming another 25 million Americans into that program."
"Acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal literally tried to sell an appeals court on the idea that the individual mandate isn't all that oppressive because Americans can choose poverty as an alternative to complying.
Before another appeals court, Katyal implicitly admitted that, if the mandate were deemed constitutional, Congress could force Americans to buy non-health care products too, like long-term care insurance."
"Medicare's chief actuary announced that under reasonable assumptions — as opposed to those contained in Obamacare — the law increases Medicare's unfunded liabilities by trillions of dollars."
"children on Medicaid were refused appointments by 66 percent of specialists and had to wait 22 days longer for an appointment than kids with private insurance. The main culprit is Medicaid's price controls, which one survey reports 24 states plan to ratchet down even further.
Obamacare expands coverage mostly by cramming another 25 million Americans into that program."
"Acting Solicitor General Neal Katyal literally tried to sell an appeals court on the idea that the individual mandate isn't all that oppressive because Americans can choose poverty as an alternative to complying.
Before another appeals court, Katyal implicitly admitted that, if the mandate were deemed constitutional, Congress could force Americans to buy non-health care products too, like long-term care insurance."
"Medicare's chief actuary announced that under reasonable assumptions — as opposed to those contained in Obamacare — the law increases Medicare's unfunded liabilities by trillions of dollars."
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