Open thread August 11, 2015
Economic Cycles
Economic Cycles Even with the rebound in second quarter growth, first half growth was still under 2%. Moreover, newly revised real GDP data reports even slower growth over the past few years. For some five years the consensus has forecast stronger growth right around the corner, despite the fact that it has consistently been too […]
Is there any limit on Judges power to impose their will under threat of prison ?
I am too upset to summarize the facts of the case or even choose a link from this google search, but I think that Judge Randall Rogers has just launched an assault not only on the US Constitution but on any limit on his power whatsoever. I think it is vitally important that we resist […]
Libertarianism Simplified: the Three Proper Powers of Government
In your basic Austrian style Libertarianism Government only has three proper functions: External Defense, Internal Policing, and Enforcement of Contracts. Or we could simplify all that as: Protection of Private Property, Protection of Private Property, and Protection of Private Property. It really is that simple, at least once you define private beliefs and personal freedom […]
CBO Aug 7, 2015: Monthly Budget Review for July
Monthly Budget Review for July 2015 Bolding mine: The federal government’s budget deficit amounted to $463 billion for the first 10 months of fiscal year 2015, CBO estimates. That deficit was $2 billion larger than the one recorded during the same period last year. If not for shifts in the timing of certain payments (which […]
Republican Debate After Report; Because You Can’t Have a Post-mortem if Nobody Dies
Well I didn’t watch the debate (no TV right now) but I did follow two live-blogs, one from the NYT and the Guardian, and two Twitter feeds from Digby and TBogg as well as periodic check ins on news sites so got the overall reaction. My conclusion? Little to no winnowing of the field, at […]
Open thread August 7, 2015
Hiroshima and the Elided Moral Question
Today is the 70th anniversary of the first deployment of a nuclear weapon against humans. Something that was followed three days later by the second and so far last such deployment. Which raises any number of moral questions. One is there something particularly immoral about nuclear warfare that does not apply to other methods, for […]
Swedish Privatization of Education Fails
This is important. Amazingly, socialist Sweden attempted radical partial privatization of its schools with about one fourth of students now attending publicly financed privately managed schools (roughly charter schools). This daring reform was followed by a dramatic decline in scores on the PISA international standardized test including the largest decline in math scores of all […]