Says the Communist Robert B. Reich: “Over the past four decades, the share of federal revenues coming from corporations has dropped by two-thirds, from 21 percent of government revenues in 1962 to only 7 percent last year. Who’s made up the difference? You and me, of course.” One question Mr. Reich: Who is the corporation? Uhhh, “you and me, of course.”
Alexei Bayer and Kenneth Silber, writing in the WSJ, say that failure of price indexes to rise more substantially discredits the economics profession (why the spate [or is it slew?] of such pieces?).
Among several named fellowships for summer studies at the Mises Institute are those named for O.P. Alford, III. Here is an article (from March 1996) about his life and work. It had not previously been in the database.
It is rare that public intellectuals are held to account for their past positions relative to “adjustments” made later in light of events. So it is particularly satisfying to read Marcus Epstein’s devastating chronicle of National Review’s unacknowledged flip-flop on the Iraq War—a chronicle made necessary because NR itself has so far not admitted its own culpability in the calamity, much less admitted that the war’s critics proved wholly correct.
Alex Tabarrok is concerned about an asteroid hitting the earth, and he thinks that government should take on the problem. Asteroid collision prevention is, he says, one of the few “public goods” the he supports.
Campaign finance reform never works, unless its goal is simply to create new regulations and stifle political speech. But this is beside the point. As long as the government has the power to pick winners and losers in business, market-actors will have an incentive to invest, by whatever means necessary, in political influence.Soft money, hard money, issue ads, PACs, “bundling,””party-building activity,” federal matching funds, and so on.
Wal-Mart is screwed. According to new commentary, it appears that Aldi, a super-discounter that generally serves low-income neighborhoods (on this continent, anyway), may be prove to be a formidable foe for Big-Box Behemoths. Their recipe for success includes chain-specific brands, amazingly low prices, high quality, small stores.
