I keep hearing on CNBC and reading at some blogs that if cars get better mileage that people will drive more by enough to offset the improved mileage. I can see that people could drive more because of the savings. But to argue that reducing mileage by 20%, for example will lead to people increasing […]

Information Clearinghouse gets a h/t for this article in LA Times — – May 9, 2008: In 1961, Dwight D. Eisenhower, in his famous farewell address as president, warned of the “acquisition of unwarranted influence” by what he called the “military-industrial complex” in the United States. Today, however, the “large arms industry” of Eisenhower’s day […]

The Medicare Carnival at Facing Up has been posted. Ken Houghton and coberly are in the big tent!

Reader Arne, a long time and well informed commenter submitted to Tuesday’s Social Security post a list of seven deceptively simple in form questions to get my take on them. Which I gave in comments. Unfortunately what HaloScan gives it can take away and a time this morning both his questions and my answers had […]

Bloomberg carries an article noting that credit was tight but there appeared to be plenty of money for commodities. Here is another piece of the action. Credit is scarce but not capital. Mortgage-ravaged banks and Wall Street firms often have to borrow from the Federal Reserve, as lender of last resort, to meet current bills. […]

The Washington Post reports: With scores of lenders unable to come up with money to provide student loans, the Department of Education is preparing to exercise broad new powers in the coming weeks that could fundamentally recast how millions of students pay for college. This initiative could transform the federal government from a guarantor of […]

A few days ago in a post on Greg Mankiw we got into a discussion of stock market valuation where vtcouger wondered about using 10 year trailing earnings to evaluate stocks. vtcouger wondered why Benjamin Graham recommended using 10 year trailing earnings rather then one year trailing earnings. Remember, Benjamin Graham was writing in the […]

Watching Cspan at lunch of the House debt on taxes and energy Rep Emanual stated there are currently 9300 unused oil drilling permits in the US. The counter to the statement was from Rep McCrery: There must be a reason for them being unused. Yes, obviously if they are unused there is a reason. Any […]

Greg Mankiw, clearly distracted by his former collaborator’s wife having been denied a tenured position at Harvard, quotes Fred Bergsten in the WSJ, Instapundit-style: By effectively killing “fast track” procedures that guarantee a yes-or-no vote on trade agreements within 90 days, lawmakers in Washington, led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, have destroyed the credibility of […]

By ilsm Carlyle Group just bought Booz Allen Hamilton which does $3.5 (about $5B total corporate revenues) a year “consulting” for DoD. Now Carlyle owns the consultants who will “advise” the DoD to keep to the “strategy and structure” of the think tanks and support investing in more and more potentially useless things from companies […]