The rather symbolic arguments and passion demonstrated about the gas tax holiday illustrate the odd and quixotic nature of what catches our imagination. The $30 I save over the summer has more relevance to my life than the lost $$$$$ (hundreds?) out of my pocket each year, and the notion of security dribbles away as […]

Back on April 20th I presented my introduction to a book by Will Hutton: The Writing on the Wall. First, the book is 334 pages. The list of references 39 pages. There is a lot I could cover. But this is the Angry Bear which I view as being about US(of A). It is this […]

Paul Caron at The Tax Prof Blog provides a long listing of links to the furor over the gas tax issue. And he offers thorough review as well. I agree with the order of the listings in importance.

The Wall Street Journal and others are looking at the headline numbers and reporting that we are seeing another report of moderate employment declines like the last few. But hours worked fell -0.4%, a significantly laarger drop then in the last few months. Moreover, average hourly earnings were only up 0.1% and average weekly wages […]

The Vancouver Sun notes that a new carbon tax has begun in British Colombia. I do not know how it is implemented, but want to note the start of an experiment at the least. The carbon tax is a fiscal trip to the woodshed for energy consumers. A painful experience that we’re told is for […]

There is a steadily increasing drumbeat of accusations by American officials such as Rice, Mullen, CIA, regarding Iran’s role in Iraq and their nuclear capabilities, and more ultimatums from Maliki regarding militias.

The Milken Institute had a conference that included Professor Mark Thoma of Economist’s View, Felix Salmon of Market Movers, Yves Smith of Naked Capitalism, and Paul Kedrosky of Infectious Greed. The video is about an hour long, interesting especially after the first eight minutes, and lets you put a face to the names. Updated.

CoRev sends along the following information as the news hits the UK papers and today’s New York Times. UH OH! NASA, Jet Propulsion Laboratory announced that the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO) has flipped to its cool phase. The last time this happened was in 1946, and for the next three decades we had cooler than […]

Economy in state outpaces US growth Adds 4,600 jobs through March The Massachusetts economy expanded at a healthy clip in the first three months of the year despite a national economic slowdown, breaking with the recent past when the state suffered longer and deeper recessions than the rest of the United States. The University of […]

Special May Day Whittle by ilsm: GAO Testimony Apr 29 2008 on the widely commented upon DoD acquisition problems with the 95 Systems they reviewed this year. States part of the problems at the “What GAO Found” page: “In addition, only a small percentage of programs used two key systems engineering tools- preliminary design reviews […]