This headline in the Minneapolis Star Tribune made me laugh: “Wisconsin Supreme Court lets polarizing union law pushed by Republican governor take effect.” And that was a news story, not an editorial.

…from page 52 of David Mamet’s The Secret Knowledge: Our politicians, left and right, are, to belabor the metaphor, the wastrel son: they are free to spend, to chase fantasies, and to squander resources, for the resources are not theirs, and there is no penalty for their misue or loss.

The incentive for consumers to make good choices in the market and for the market to respond to those choices is pretty much always going to be better than the incentive for voters to make good choices and for politicians to respond to those choices.

So while the private economy preforms the miracle of lowering the price for goods, the state, by force, keeps the cost of labor high. The result will be high unemployment for many, many years.

No single regulation or regulatory activity is going to deter innovation by itself, just like no single pebble is going to affect a stream. But if you throw in enough small pebbles, you can dam up the stream. Similarly, add enough rules, regulations, and requirements, and suddenly innovation begins to look a lot less attractive.

Kevin Drum and Harold Pollack are wondering why the NAACP and La Raza are teaming up with the banking industry to whine that new regulations are going to deny loans to poor and minority applicants

Scholars and journalists looking for projects might want to look into how, exactly, involvement in higher ed by organizations like BB&T and Koch differs from involvement by labor unions. Is one objectionable but not the other? Are both objectionable? Why or why not? It is important to note that possible corruption is not probable corruption.

The irony of Narcissism is that it combines a radical individualism—when you can’t recognize the needs of others, you can hardly be said to be connected to them in any way—with an insatiable need for approval and attention.