Breakfast Links

Posted by Jeff Carter
on February 15th, 2012

Thomas Sowell published three very insightful essays, here is 1, 2, and 3. Professor Sowell teaches at Stanford, and received his doctorate in economics from the University of Chicago. He can back up his statements with math.

Interesting, for a constitutional law professor there are many law professors that think he is unconstitutional. Don’t take one person’s word for it, there are others.

House Republicans acquiesce on the payroll tax. Politics is about making sausage. Ever see it made? It’s messy.

When assessing the pace of economic recovery, Keynesians will point to the fact we have positive GDP growth and say we wouldn’t without stimulus. Classic economists differ. Their opinion is we would have had economic recovery without stimulus, and the current recovery would have been much more robust without stimulus. There is an opportunity cost to the stimulus and it’s in slower growth today.

Investment banking may be hazardous to your health. Maybe Mayor Bloomberg could ban it? Or maybe bankers ought to be forced to wear labels like cigarette packs?

The UK inflation blog. Looks like they expect inflation to drop off dramatically. What that means depends. It also looks like a lot of Europe will be in recession, inflation tends to drop off in recessions.

The MF Global trustee will share documents. Why is this taking so long? Government cover runs deep. Stotler didn’t take this long and neither did Barings or other famous bankruptcies.

Taking the nanny state mentality to a new level: In North Carolina they have lunchbox inspectors. If I lived there I might send my kid with Twinkies and Fritos.

Interesting interview with Peter Thiel.

Never been a better time to be an individual investor. What do you think?

The Economics behind the Civil War. Interesting, lots of things boil down to economic incentives. Structure them correctly, and you will have a system that functions well. Incorrect incentives lead to major problems.

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