It sounds like folks inside the Obama administration and Congress are thinking about a VAT to make up for all of the additional revenue they're going to need to cover their massive increases in spending. This would be a terrible, horrible, no-good idea for anybody who likes growth rates higher than in Europe. The one…
My, The Tangled Webs We Weave
Here is a great lecture given by Murray Rothbard on the early history of the Federal Reserve. It's interesting listening to how closely inter-related so many of the actors were in this event: Treasury Secretaries who were close allies of Rockefeller and Morgan (who were both in favor of a monetary/banking cartel), Senators making mysteriously…
Good News? Bad News?
Preliminary CO2 emissions estimates are now available, and in the US, apparently, there was a 2.8% drop in CO2 output. Steven Heyward notes that the bulk of this is estimated to have come from energy efficiency rather than an economic downturn. Looking at the chart, 3 of the 4 years with drops happened to occur…
DBA Notes
Here are a few DBA notes while I'm still in Germany. I've finally had a chance to clear out my mailbox, and these came up in the clearing process. - David McKinney has an ingenious method for using a CTE to fake a linked-list in SQL Server. I will probably use this many a time…
Dasher
A fellow I took a couple of accounting courses with regularly criticizes lack of accessibility as a problem with websites. By doing a few relatively simple things (not using graphics for your text, using appropriate headers and markup, tagging your images, etc.), you can make an Internet experience significantly easier for somebody who is, say,…
Hearts And Minds…
Obama continues to show why he's so much better than that insufferable cowboy when it comes to foreign affairs: this time, he's played bait-and-switch on the Japanese, sending as their ambassador a fund-raiser after saying that he would send a well-respected political scientist. Not such a smart idea, and after appointing a good ambassador to…
More On The One-Party State
I disagree with Arnold Kling and agree with Bryan Caplan. I'm not so big on the "ethnic voting bloc" idea when it comes to long-term political trends. Ideas matter in these things, as well as cycles. This is different than local politics, where one-party politics can spring up. There is significantly more information on the…
(Not Quite) Beyond Parody
Mark Steyn has a brilliant article on what kind of jobs the "stimulus" package is "saving or creating." A sample line: By the way, these jobs aren’t for everyone. 'Knowledge of ARRA' is required. So if, say, you’re the average United States senator who voted for ARRA without bothering to read it, you’re not qualified…
Austrian Economics In Iraq
Bob Murphy has done us all a favor and hosted the first in a series of essays regarding a Marine's experience in Iraq. In this essay, the Marine describes how his group was able to help a village to thrive: by providing security and allowing people to get back to doing what they really want…
Are Republicans Doomed?
There's been some gloating and heartbreak (depending on which side you are) about the Republican party being finished as a national party. Considering that six year ago, the shoe was on the other foot (the Emerging Republican Majority and whatnot), I think we can chalk a lot of that up to exuberence and a desire…
36 Chambers - The Legendary Journeys: Execution to the max! 