“Australian actress Nicole Kidman has raised the ire of anti-smoking groups by lighting up a cigarette during her press conference at the Cannes Film Festival.

Virginina Postrel in the New York Times: When the price of toys falls because Chinese suppliers make them cheaply, or the price of computer chips falls because of new designs or the price of manicures falls because there is a nail salon on every corner, that is not deflation. These are changes in relative prices, not the overall price level...

A wonderfully informative piece by Paul Kasriel explains that Greenspan has to keep rates low in order to keep the price of real estate pumped up. Faced with unprecedented declines in household net worth, the value of real estate becomes ever more important for political reasons. But the trendline on bankruptcy and foreclosure rates does not look promising. In short, Kasriel documents, Greenspan will likely lose this battle. Most revealing among all his charts:

• All friends of liberty should be concerned about this: “US Supports Global Anti-Smoking Treaty” (USA Today) 
• Inevitably, war amensia sets in: “Boycott of French Wine Losing Fizzle with Public.” (Washington Times, with a newly revamped website) 
• Here we go again: “BOJ

ONE: “The effect of the dollar’s plunge is a murky mix of pluses and minuses for consumers, businesses and investors.” (New York Times)

TWO: “The White House’s comfort with the dollar’s decline is seen by analysts as part of a government effort to talk up the economy.” (New York Times)

A good piece in ‘The Scotsman’, written by John Blundell of the Institute of Economic Affairs denouncing inheritance taxes as an assault on thrift and a spur to wasteful consumption, to the detriment of all.Positively Austrian in its message about ‘trivial’ expenditures

http://www.thescotsman.co.uk/business.cfm?id=564292003

New York authorities have found how to close the city’s budget deficit: cite business owners whose awnings have “too many words.”  Although most economists champion the role of government in the economy, I think this article shows once again that government basically is a mafia-structured organization that shakes down people.  At least Mafia services are such that people seek them out voluntarily. 

The “core divide in American politics now is not between liberals and conservatives, or between capitalists and socialists. It is between libertarians and communitarians,” says E.J. Dionne in the Washington Post.

Since January 2002 the U.S. dollar has fallen by 25.6% against the Euro and 13.2% against the yen.

From the New York Times, Fascinating look at the managerial and technical issues that can make or break retailing on the web: “...the rate at which electronic merchants turned browsers into buyers—the so-called conversion rate—was only 3.2 percent, nearly unchanged from last year. And the rate at which customers abandoned filled shopping carts before completing the checkout process grew to 49 percent, from 47 percent in 2001.”