This is the way the vast majority of economists and policy wonks write and think. Note the passive voice “will have to be managed,” which in practice means, “give people like me more power.” They are telling us that we need to make the distribution of economic outcomes more equal, and in order to do that we have to make the distribution of power more unequal.

But again, the US government does not have a lot of opportunities for revenue-enhancing investment–it’s far from clear that the best candidate, infrastructure spending, will yield enough revenue to cover its capital costs, and the spending opportunities go rapidly downhill from there in terms of cash flow. Yes, there may be benefits to the citizenry, but we cannot pay our bondholders in shorter commutes, lower crime, and enhanced carbon efficiency.

It is not Yen that Japan now finds itself short of, but potable water, medical supplies, bridging materials, constructional steel, and electric power. The BOJ cannot help deliver these more readily or more efficiently by debauching the currency via its attempt to divorce financial asset prices from the diminished earning potential they incorporate.

Over the last year or two, forces sympathetic to the Palestinian terrorists have gone to great lengths to break the Israeli blockade of Gaza. These terrorist sympathizers have pretended that the issue somehow relates to “humanitarian supplies,” when in fact food, medicines and other innocuous products have no difficulty being shipped into Gaza. The real purpose of these efforts to break the blockade, most notably the Mavi Marmara, has been to facilitate the shipment of weapons into Gaza for the purpose of murdering Israeli civilians. That was demonstrated once again yesterday.

The time has come for a robust debate on the proper role of unions–if any–in a free society. It is not obvious that the special treatment accorded to unions under current federal law is justified. No doubt any proposal to subject unions’ collective bargaining activities to the antitrust laws would provoke howls of protest, but with only 6.9 percent of private sector workers unionized, it is hard to make the case that unions are playing a vital role in the nation’s economy. If the debate is stripped of emotionalism and conducted on the basis of sound public policy, a consensus may well emerge that there is no reason to grant unions a specially favored legal status.

This film demonstrates all you need to know about the worldview of the American left, and it is completely barren of sound theory. They weave tales of demons all around, even as they lack the intellectual apparatus to understand events rationally. It really is pathetic. This film is a gigantic missed opportunity. They started to tell a good story and instead ended up chasing around ideological conventions and coming up empty handed. That said, if you can provide your own voice overs, Inside Job is worth an evening.

Our political leaders criticize other countries, particularly the OPEC countries, for restricting their oil production in order to drive up oil prices. But many US government policies restrict US oil production. Beyond the hypocrisy in this issue, it’s important to point out that US policies seem to be geared to helping OPEC maintain high oil prices.

I wish everyone would just put on their big boy britches and man up. Yes, news reporting is biased – always has been, always will be. Some analysis is required on the part of the reader or listener or viewer. If you can’t deal with it, then don’t partake.

The Economic Report of the President came out late last night. Among other things, it talked up wind and solar energy. Ken Haapala, Executive Vice President of the Science and Environmental Policy Project, comments