Steven Malanga, writing in City Journal, makes a case the city-funded convention centers and their subsequent expansions in the end are a waste of money. The expansion of thesecenters is usually justified by a government-funded study purporting to show that the center will stimulat the local economy. But,
Christopher Anderson has discovered a way to “use common crops to soak up contaminants in soil from gold-mining sites and return the areas to productive agriculture.” The harvested gold pays for cleaning up the site, and training the locals in agriculture.
A man “who believed the solution to every human problem was death.” Simon Sebag Montefiore’s new biography of Stalin, reviewed by R. Pipes in the NYT.
The stock and bond market bubbles, followed by the real estate bubble, are effects of monetary inflation flowing into financial assets. But consumer price inflation has been low or non-existent, right? Many of us think that inflation has been in the 7-10% range for some years now, but has been hidden by government manipulation of the inflation measure. See for example:
Wal-Mart is increasingly under attack in communities that have invited Wal-Mart to locate there, by outsiders, mostly representing labor unions, legal advocy groups such as ACORN, and trial lawyers. This article describes some of the innovations that Wal-Mart has brought to retailing. Their philosophy has been to lower prices by lowering costs and lowering their own profit margin.
Is the title of an unintentionally humorous editorial from the Financial Times. The editorial is unsigned, a fact that may provide its author with great relief in the years to come.
Ex ante and ex post: What Does Rod Stewart Really Know Now? by Art Carden, Walter Block, Stephen Carson (Washington University in St. Louis, Loyola University in New Orleans)
Having to do your taxes is always a mournful occasion, as we all know. But having to do them during an election year is an even sadder experience. Not only do you struggle with forms and documentation that have no inherent reason, and have to pay an amount far beyond what reason would dictate, you are also constantly bombarded with by political candidates reminding you that the main use of those dollars will be to support policies you oppose and fund bribes to buy other people’s votes.
