Yet more reasons why bailouts are a bad idea: Incentivizing the government to lie …

Good stuff. The Report’s authors also explain in great detail: (i) why it’s difficult, if not impossible, to determine whether China’s currency is undervalued and the precise extent of that undervaluation; (ii) why a significant appreciation of the RMB probably won’t affect the US-China trade balance, could make Chinese producers more, not less, competitive, and could harm American consumers, import-using manufacturers and borrowers; (iii) why China hasn’t allowed its currency to float freely (hint: it has nothing to do with predatory trade practices); and (iv) why transitioning to a market-based currency is in China’s long-term economic interests. The authors even document scholarly arguments against the United States’ making China’s currency its top trade policy priority, and they calmly explain that doing nothing will eventually take care of the “imbalance” problem (“Even without adjustment to the nominal exchange rate, over time the real rate would adjust as inflation rates in the two countries diverged”). All in all, the CRS report is a solid assessment of the economic facts and policy arguments surrounding the China currency issue, and it makes clear that 99% of what you hear on the issue from the White House, Congress and (unfortunately) a lot of reporters and pundits out there is totally and utterly wrong.

A theme that runs with approval throughout Jonathan Alter’s review of recent books on modern “liberalism” is that “liberals,” in contrast to their mindless Cro-Magnon opposites, overflow with ideas (“The State of Liberalism,” Oct. 24). Indeed they do. But these ideas are almost exclusively about how other people should live their lives. These are ideas about how one group of people (the politically successful) should engineer everyone else’s contracts, social relations, diets, habits, and even moral sentiments.

It is actually impossible to pick a representative basket of goods and services. Moreover, and more importantly, even if one could pick such a basket, bubbles caused by inflation can form in equities, commodities, land prices, housing, or other assets. Please remember this is a global economy. Prices, especially commodity prices, are set at the margin, and based on global demands, not just on demands in the US. Many have misguidedly pointed to rising commodity prices as proof of inflation. All things considered, that “proof” pertains not to the US, but rather to China where credit, monetary, and price inflation are all clearly running rampant.

This is not an election on November 2. This is a restraining order. Power has been trapped, abused and exploited by Democrats. Go to the ballot box and put an end to this abusive relationship. And let’s not hear any nonsense about letting the Democrats off if they promise to get counseling.

Economics isn’t just about trade statistics, retail sales, or GDP. It is the very pith of life.

Bottom Line: The highest-income quintile has four times more people working per household than the lowest quintile (2.08 earners vs. 0.48), and individuals in those households are far more likely to be well-educated, married and working full-time in their prime earning years. In contrast, those individuals with low incomes are far more likely to be less-educated and working part-time, and either very young or very old living in single-parent households. Given these significant differences in household characteristics, it’s not too surprising that there are huge differences in incomes among American households. It’s also very likely that those individuals in the highest quintile were once in the lower quintiles before they acquired job experience and education, and they’ll likely be in a lower quintile again when they retire.

There’s a long tradition of classical liberalism – boasting names such as Adam Smith, Wilhelm von Humboldt, Madison, Jefferson, Tocqueville, Macaulay, Gladstone, Cobden, Mencken, and Hayek – based on the understanding that forced “charity” is not generosity; that no agency better serves the narrow and anti-social goals of the truly greedy than does the state; and that individuals left to regulate their own affairs with a minimum of interference from government will create extensive and deep patterns of social cooperation that are far more effective at meeting human needs than will any bureaucracy or program imposed by the state.

The contrast with Europe is stunning. The streets there are clogging with protestors who desperately want to keep perks and pensions that are driving their countries into insolvency, while responsible leaders do everything they can to impose fiscal sanity before everything comes crashing down. In America, protestors (a.k.a the Tea Parties) have taken to the streets to keep our irresponsible leaders from going in the same direction. In response, Obama says America’s irrational fear has made voters stupid. But what’s irrational about saying that we shouldn’t be rushing into a condemned building everyone else in the developed world is rushing out of?