U.S. Adopts Aggressive Tactics in Iraq (MSNBC): “Col. David Hogg, commander of the 2nd Brigade of the 4th Infantry Division, said tougher methods are being used to gather the intelligence. On Wednesday night, he said, his troops picked up the wife and daughter of an Iraqi lieutenant general. They left a note: ‘If you want your family released, turn yourself in.’”
The recent wave of sports stadium and arena construction is costing the U.S. Treasury more than $100 million annually because the projects have been financed with tax-exempt bonds. At least 38 major league sports venues have been built or rebuilt using nearly $7 billion in tax-exempt financing since 1990, according to a Washington Post review of more than 40 professional baseball, football, hockey and basketball projects.
I liked Jeffrey Tucker’s column on the tax rebate. I hadn’t been following that rebate thing very closely, so I was SHOCKED to find a check for $1200 from the IRS in my mail yesterday. And I can’t say I’m upset about it. I was wondering where I was going to get the money to pay my next quarterly estimated income tax payment, due in September, and here it is!
Terror Betting Dropped(Sky News): “The Pentagon has abandoned plans to set up a ‘terror stock market’ in which investors could bag cash by successfully predicting terrorist attacks. US defence chiefs had hoped the market would have been a valuable tool in second guessing when terror strikes would occur.” See also Google News for Terror Stock Market.
Because of their minority status, most budding Austrian economists must endure graduate training in the mainstream orthodoxy before earning their Ph.D.s. As a recent graduate of New York University, I thought it might be useful to highlight some of the major differences I perceived between Austrian economics and the neoclassical, New Keynesian paradigm. The following list is by no means exhaustive, nor do I claim that it represents the essential tenets of Austrian theory.
Could this be the reason why Austrian thinkers tend to live to very old age? The Scotsman reports that “New research from sociologist Dr William Cockerham and colleagues from the University of Alabama in the United States has found that differences in attitudes to looking after your body and your health are predicted by your political allegiances.
GARY NORTH: “The stock market is rising. Long-term interest rates are rising, indicating a recovery, which the public expects will bring price increases. Mortgage rates are rising, indicating that the housing boom is getting close to the end of its rope. Manufacturing is contracting and has been for four consecutive months. Employment is contracting. So, is the glass half empty or half full? Are the lagging employment and manufacturing statistics no longer providing an accurate view of the future?
Vietnam worries next tariff dispute will be about shrimp (AP): “After losing a major trade dispute with the United States over catfish tariffs, Vietnam is worried about the possible impact on an even bigger market: its shrimp.” Also, from Radio Australia, “US shrimpers say low-priced shrimp from Vietnam and other Asian and Latin American countries is being dumped on the US market.
Republican guru Paul Weyrich, head of the Free Congress Foundation, has just sent a message on the letterhead of Coalitions for America to all Congressmen, calling for an increase in the federal gasoline tax. It is a uniquely wonderful and constitutional tax, he tells his fellow Beltwayers, reminiscent of George Washington and the other Founding Fathers.
Lots of talk about William Gale’s testimony to the House Committee on the Budget, July 24: “[T]he fiscal problems the country faces are unlike any other the country has faced in their origin and nature. We will likely have to find a new way of dealing with them. The notion that federal spending can be held to its post-WW II norm of about 18 or 19 percent of GDP seems virtually impossible to maintain without severely cutting the major entitlement programs or eliminating the rest of government.
