Trade With China Is Heating Up As a Business and Political Issue (WSJ): “Although many U.S. corporations are seeking to tap into China to make and sell their products, a lengthening queue of U.S. industries are petitioning the government for relief from Chinese imports; more than one-fifth of the cases in which U.S. companies accuse overseas competitors of selling products below cost now involve China. U.S.
Model-Rocket Bill Stirs Debate (NY): “Legislation pending in the Senate would exempt some model-rocket propellants from toughened restrictions on explosives that were imposed by Congress last year in response to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.
he ball shot down the left-field line, and the Yankees’ speedy second baseman, who had singled in the inning, raced toward third base. With two outs in the eighth, the Yankees down by 3-2 and the ball caroming off the outfield wall, the third-base coach faced a decision on which the season would turn: should the runner try for home? Then the professor stopped the VCR.
This one has the makings of a real good one. David Beito, a libertarian from History News Network, sent me a note that his old blog is now wrapped up within a new group blog with other historians, including two excellent scholars notable among libertarians, Jeff Hummel and Thomas Fleming. Here is the announcement:
David DeRosa writes on Bloomberg.com: “Iraq’s local currency, the dinar, is going to be reissued, removing from circulation banknotes carrying the picture of Saddam Hussein. Indeed that face has to go, but why shouldn’t the dinar also go? It can be replaced with the U.S. dollar.”
Though news coverage of Enron has evaporated, its aftereffects remain. This supposed crisis led to an expansion of leviathan in the form of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act of 2002. Unfortunately, the costs of this act are not getting anywhere near as much coverage as the ‘crisis’ that fueled support for it.
Are Americans Too Far Under Water? (CNN.com): “Alan Greenspan believes household balance sheets are cleaner after a long economic slowdown, promising stronger consumer spending in the near future. But other economists worry those sheets might need another run through the wash. ... According to research by Northern Trust economist Paul Kasriel, in every recession since World War II the ratio of household debt to assets has fallen.
The New York Times runs a piece on the various estimates of how much spam costs the nation--as if anyone could possibly know that, consider all the complications and tradeoffs, and sum them up in a figure like $10 or $20 billion. The article includes a contrary point of view: “Peter S. Fader, a marketing professor at the Wharton School who has studied e-mail, says the research firms’ estimates vastly overstate the actual cost of spam.
