Economic growth serves as the prominent standard for measuring the performance of an economy. However, what is published as the gross domestic product (GDP) does not represent production but reports overall spending. The calculation of economic growth is based on the nominal gross domestic product deflated by a price index.
In this H-net review, our book Tariffs, Blockades, and Inflation: The Economics of the Civil War, is both attacked (no surprising) and recommended (all to the good):
An interesting item from Jeff Jarvis: “eBay is fast becoming one of the largest employers in America. Of course, it hardly employs anyone, but it enables a lot of people to employ themselves and run their own businesses: 724,000 people are using it as their full, or part-time employment, up 68 percent from a year ago; another 1.5 million use it to supplement their income.”
Thanks to Eric Scheske and The Daily Eudemon.
According to this article in the Guardian, the average amount of bribes in Russia has risen 700% over a recent period in which prices in general have risen 70%. Furthermore, fewer bribes are being paid, so it may not be said, actually, that corruption is spreading (perhaps it is “rising”).
Intriguing trailer here for the upcoming movie adaptation of the anarchist comic book V for Vendetta.
Today’s Paul Krugman column is quite interesting, but not because it presents good arguments, but because it contains so many fallacies. His entire column makes a big deal about a decision by Toyota to build a plant in Canada, which he claims proves the superiority of Canada’s somewhat more extensive welfare state compared to the United States.
Rep. Richard Pombo (R-CA) proposed a protectionist amendment to energy legislation that is designed to derail CNOOC Ltd’s acquisition of Unocal. Pombo’s proposal “would require the Energy Department to identify all of the energy assets China has sought to invest in [and] review whether China’s investments in energy assets have been done on market-based terms free of government subsidies...”
Be sure to see Murray Rothbard’s piece up this morning on LRC: Sell Out and Die. He argues that compromising principle is ultimately self defeating for any ideological movement. It causes the movement to be absorbed into the regime and lose the edge that is necessary for bringing about real change. It originally ran in a publication called CADRE which probably had a circulation of half a dozen. In any case, now it is available for all.
