Advisory Opinion

Oil and Terrorism

Arnold Kling explains why efforts to wean ourselves from the consumption of foreign oil, as a means to combat Saudi funding of terrorism, are a bad idea.

Tax the Rich!!!

It's all about incentives -- something liberals just can't understand:

The reason America's standard of living is high - and why our poor would be considered middle class in the majority of other countries - is because we produce so many goods and services per person. Monetary rewards, and/or a desire to break out of one's current economic class, are largely what motivate us to produce those goods and services.

Raising taxes on the rich reduces those monetary rewards, which in turn lowers the incentive to work harder or smarter. That's bad enough. To raise taxes on the rich while reducing them on the middle class - Kerry's plan - reduces that incentive even more.

It's akin to your boss cutting your pay if you put in longer hours, and raising your pay if you work shorter hours.

Actually, lowering taxes on the middle class and raising them on the rich harms economic growth even more than leaving middle-class tax rates intact while raising them on the wealthy. It results in what economists call a higher marginal tax rate - the tax rate on what you earn above a certain dollar amount. It is marginal tax rates - not overall tax rates - that so affect our incentive to produce. Why put in extra work if the extra income that comes with it is going to be taxed higher?

Liberals don't care. Their only way to political power is through redistribution, so they'll be for that no matter what. Political power is their goal. Period.

The Effects of Communism

A picture is worth a thousand words.

Bush's Economic Vision

Tyler Cowen has some great suggestions.

Krugman

Don Luskin links to his own National Review article on the O'Reilly-Krugman debate, and responds to those who thought O'Reilly bullied Krugman. Good stuff.

VoIP

The Anal Philosopher thinks he's being ripped-off by his telephone company. I came to the same conclusion concerning my phone service. Here's my solution: Drop the DSL and switch to a cable modem Internet connection. That way you don't have to pay for the telephone line (which DSL requires). Also, cable Internet is generally faster. Then use Vonage for your phone service. They're not burdened with the FCC-imposed mandatory charges and taxes that the phone companies are. So, for example, you can get 500 minutes (including long distance) for $15 bucks, plus only about $3 in taxes and other charges. A good deal.

Housing Bubble?

Arnold Kling has a helpful column up at TCS on the putative housing bubble. He's offering financial advice too.

Housing Bubble?

Tyler Cohen has thoughts and links on whether we are in a housing bubble. His small bit of advice: "If you are investing in multiple real estate purchases, as opposed to just buying a home, ask yourself the following question? If a "dirty bomb" went off in my area, would I still be a wealthy man?"

This exact concern has had me wondering for some time whether it even makes sense to buy a home here in Manhattan.

Economics and Religion

Tyler Cohen has a very interesting post on those two topics.

Silly Me

CS Monitor: "In the search for answers to grinding poverty, the world's rich nations have decided on a new tack. It's radical in its simplicity: For poor people to succeed, let them start a business."

And all along I had thought the solution was world government . . .