q2L95k Awesome article.Thanks Again. Really Cool.

Promoted by John because this topic is so, well,...stimulating. ;)

I agree with Ernest Istook when he says "Stimulus is Washington’s code word for a spending spree and government giveaways. Most of the proposals we're hearing fit that category."

I'm of the same opinion Mr. Istook shared in a recent post called "Stimulus" = More Big Spending in which I borrowed/stole the title of this post.

He shares:

GMU economist, Russ Roberts, has some thoughts to share on the idea of "economic stimulus" for the economy.

The audio version aired on NPR and both the audio and written versions can be heard/seen at NPR's website . The audio version is a little over 3 minutes long.

Roberts:

My online dictionary defines stimulus as something that "rouses or incites to activity." Sounds like the perfect prescription for an ailing economy.

The Case for Realism

A short post which takes (yet another) critical look at the hiring of William Kristol at the NY Times. Links to great Salon piece that rebuts the NY Times' "balance of views" defense for hiring Kristol. The article explains that none of the NYT columnists are very different from Kristol....they only vary in temerity and targets for US assertion.

A choice quote:

Yuck. What a terrible debate. Not really my style. Thanks, MSNBC. NOT.

Typical Russert "toughness": Grill'em with bad questions and demand a straight answer. What a moron.

Ezra Klein agrees :

Oh wait...he was. :(

My, my, how he speaks differently when he isn't at the Fed .

Click ahead to about 3:50 for a passage and then to about 6:00. If you stand his rambling, double speaking, Greenspan-ese, start earlier.

Hat tip to Kling at EconLog :

The Boston Globe reports :

Mayor Thomas M. Menino embarked on a highly public campaign yesterday to block CVS Corp. and other retailers from opening medical clinics inside their stores, an effort that exposed a rift between Menino and the state's public health commissioner, a longtime ally.

As I posted a few months ago (without generating much attention...*shrug*), Barack Obama's key economic adviser is Austin Goolsbee, a preeminent Behavioral Economist . Obama seems to have taken well to his approach and it shows in his policy ideas...if you actually get to hear them amid all the bland talk of CHANGE! and HOPE!...;)

srPdJA Wow, great blog post.Really thank you!

Is the FairTax just another way of having unlimited IRAs ?

The merits and demerits of the Huckabee tax plan are identical to the merits and demerits of a vastly liberalized IRA policy.

Greg Mankiw shows an interesting quote from an economics textbook in France:

"Economic growth imposes a hectic form of life, producing overwork, stress, nervous depression, cardiovascular disease and, according to some, even the development of cancer."

What are they writing in health books? that masturbation causes blindness?

NHsKVJ Really appreciate you sharing this article.Much thanks again. Much obliged.

American Heritage Dictionary -
soph·ism (sŏf'ĭz'əm) Pronunciation Key
n.

1. A plausible but fallacious argument.
2. Deceptive or fallacious argumentation.

[Middle English sophime, sophisme, from Old French sophime, from Latin sophisma, from Greek, from sophizesthai, to be subtle, from sophos, clever, wise.]

best answer at the debate . And if you didn't see it live or via youtube (like here), you'd never hear about it because it surely won't get any play in the media.

Always interesting to look at the Census figures for each year. They just released estimates for state population change from July 1, 2006 to July 1, 2007.

Tyler Cowen links to a recommendation from the Am. Prospect:

Congress should simply outlaw adjustable-rate mortgages, which basically ask borrowers to treat their home mortgages like stocks...Congress should also ban private lenders and brokers from issuing sub-prime loans of any kind.

To which Tyler responds:

David Frum is is trying to be cool . Yep, he sees other yawning beltway insiders taking silly pokes at Ron Paul that look like they took about 5 minutes of research....from reading other such pieces...and decides to join the fun. After all, other pundits are doing it, right?

Well, some people took notice of Frum's foppishness.

First, Tom Woods has a short piece called David Frum: I'm Smarter than Ron Paul

Woods:

When dealing with an issue like greenhouse gas-induced climate change, productive discussion needs to stay focused on the practical questions: what is the general nature of the risk, and how can we mitigate the risk. Discussions of climate change often become sidetracked by non-productive investigations into the detailed nature of the risk, which are often initiated by individuals who are afraid that general recognition of risk implies that particular strategies/policies must be adopted. I hope to keep this discussion on track by starting with these two declarations:

Hat tip to my fellow left libertarian traveler and STILL (hahaha sorry, buddy ;p) Democrat, Logan, over at Freedom Democrats for this video.

There have been many discussions recently which center on fundamental mistakes that media pundits, politicians and just the general public make when dealing with economics. Some of these are probably due to ignorance and some are definitely due to the desire to push an ideological point of view. The most troublesome are where positions are taken on policies when the evidence itself is in dispute.