• European State Bailouts Return With a New Look (Bloomberg): “The bailout -- for two decades the most reviled of economic solutions -- is back in fashion. Paris, naturally, is the hub. Last week, the French government unveiled a 7 billion-euro ($7.94 billion) rescue package for Alstom SA, the engineering giant, made up of loan guarantees and new shares.

The Wall Street Journal reports ($) that the US Navy has discovered the benefits of the free market in setting wages for jobs.  Under the old system, all sailors in the same job classification were paid the same wage, and job assignments were made by navy command.  ‘”The old system was Stalin-like,” says Rear Adm. Jake Shuford, who is in charge of the redesign.’.

Increasing Export of White-Collar Jobs a Cause for Concern (USAToday): “White-collar employees have long believed their jobs were safe from the economic forces that have shifted millions of factory jobs to foreign countries in the past 30 years. Not anymore. It’s not just clothing and electronics being made by workers in India and China and similar places.

Graduates Settle for Less as their Degrees Gather Dust (Houston Chronicle): “Chisom Uluh hoped to use his University of Houston communication degree to produce movies or TV shows. Today, he’s selling mattresses. Anna Knippel graduated with a degree in business administration a year ago, ready to help companies set up computer networks. She’s now interpreting sign language at Houston Community College.  Rice economics graduate Renata Escovar got turned down for a waitressing job.”

1. 1.

Nearly two years after the multiple hijacking that led to the destruction of the Twin Towers--an event that might have been prevented had restrictions on armed pilots not been imposed by the federal government--the Transportation Security Administration has certified fewer than 100 pilots to carry guns, according to the AP, though many pilots would like to. (Thanks 

To Insurers, a Long, Free Ride Is Looking Risky (NYT): “Coverage [for brokerage houses] varies from policy to policy, but typically the insurers promise to cover up to $100 million for each customer, with no limit on the total number of customers. If a huge brokerage firm with millions of clients and hundreds of billions in client assets collapsed, the insurers say, the policies could bury them in an avalanche of claims.

• US Eyeing Complaints Against Modeling Agencies(Reuters): “The suit, filed in Manhattan federal court, alleges the agencies fixed models’ commission rates at 20 percent, twice the 10 percent allowed by state law for employment agencies. The models alleged that the defendants conspired to evade state pricing regulations by calling themselves model management companies.

The piece by Manuel F. Ayau (”An Unfree Trade Agreement for Central America“) in the WSJ is outstanding—and an uncharacteristic editorial choice for a paper that uncritically backed Nafta:

Guatemala’s President Alfonso Portillo remarked recently that the Central American region has discarded protectionism, recognizing it as a pernicious privilege and a barrier to economic development.