GOP “Social Darwinism” Quantified! Spend 50 Percent More than Clinton, Pennies Less Than Obama!
Posted: April 6, 2012 Filed under: Politics Leave a comment »http://reason.com/blog/2012/04/06/gop-social-darwinism-quantified-spend-50
The 5-Minute Speech that Got Judge Napolitano Fired from Fox News
Posted: March 14, 2012 Filed under: Politics, Voting Leave a comment »3 Lessons From the National Conversation About Sluts and Twats
Posted: March 9, 2012 Filed under: Politics, Uncategorized Leave a comment »Sent to you via Google Reader
3 Lessons From the National Conversation About Sluts and Twats
Michael Huemer – The Irrationality of Politics
Posted: February 22, 2012 Filed under: Politics, Protectionism, Terrorism Leave a comment »http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4JYL5VUe5NQ
Gene Healy on Why Law Professors Make Bad Presidents
Posted: February 7, 2012 Filed under: Politics, Uncategorized Leave a comment »Sent to you via Google Reader
Gene Healy on Why Law Professors Make Bad Presidents
Steve Chapman on Obama’s Continuation of Bush-Era Policies
Posted: January 5, 2012 Filed under: Median Voter Theorem, Politics, Uncategorized Leave a comment »Sent to you via Google Reader
Steve Chapman on Obama’s Continuation of Bush-Era Policies
An Illiberal Liberal
Posted: August 17, 2011 Filed under: Politics, Spontaneous Order Leave a comment »http://inertiawins.com/2011/08/17/an-illiberal-liberal/
KRAUTHAMMER: Obama as demagogue
Posted: July 24, 2011 Filed under: Politics, Uncategorized Leave a comment »Sent to you via Google Reader
KRAUTHAMMER: Obama as demagogue
“Underpants Gnomes” Political Economy – Art Carden – The Economic Imagination – Forbes
Posted: July 14, 2011 Filed under: Intentions vs. Results, Methodology, Politics, South Park, Uncategorized Leave a comment »http://blogs.forbes.com/artcarden/2011/07/14/underpants-gnomes-political-economy/
Donors to Obama got big government contracts through Stimulus
Posted: June 16, 2011 Filed under: Corruption, Politics, Stimulus, Uncategorized Leave a comment »Sent to you via Google Reader
Donors to Obama got big government contracts through Stimulus
Congress has become the least dangerous branch
Posted: April 12, 2011 Filed under: Politics Leave a comment »http://washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columnists/2011/04/congress-has-become-least-dangerous-branch
How Not to Care About Politics
Posted: April 6, 2011 Filed under: Politics, Voting Leave a comment »http://elidourado.com/blog/how-not-to-care-about-politics/
People Believe What Resonates With Their Beliefs: An Interesting Experiment
Posted: February 8, 2011 Filed under: Behavioral Economics, Democracy, Politics, Uncategorized Leave a comment »Sent to you via Google Reader
People Believe What Resonates With Their Beliefs: An Interesting Experiment
Goolsbee P’wnd
Posted: October 31, 2010 Filed under: Politics, Stimulus Leave a comment »http://mungowitzend.blogspot.com/2010/10/goolsby-pwnd.html
On The Tempests in the Tea Cups
Posted: October 22, 2010 Filed under: Politics Leave a comment »http://blogs.forbes.com/artcarden/2010/10/22/on-the-tempests-in-the-tea-cups/
Or, As Bob Higgs Says, ‘Rob-O-Voters’
Posted: October 15, 2010 Filed under: Health Care, Politics, Uncategorized Leave a comment »Sent to you via Google Reader
Or, As Bob Higgs Says, ‘Rob-O-Voters’
Media activity and public spending
Posted: September 20, 2010 Filed under: Corruption, Democracy, Politics, Voting Leave a comment »http://www.springerlink.com/content/h39235362l040156/
Politicians seeking reelection need voters to know what they have done for them. Thus, incentives may arise to spend more money where media coverage is higher. We present a simple model to explain the allocation of public spending across jurisdictions contingent on media activity. A politician seeking to maximize the probability of reelection will shift more money to jurisdictions where an extra dollar raises more votes because a larger share of the electorate is informed about his policy. The main prediction of the model is that media activity is higher in the core areas of media markets. This implies higher spending levels there and lower spending levels in remote jurisdictions. Empirical support for this prediction is found using United States data on county-level federal grant allocation, Designated Market Areas and the location of licensed television stations.
POLITICAL INFLUENCE AND THE INTERNAL REVENUE SERVICE
Posted: April 7, 2010 Filed under: Corruption, Politics, Taxes Leave a comment »http://www.cato.org/pubs/journal/cj19n2/cj19n2-8.pdf
All politicians are idiots and other obvious thoughts on high gas prices
Posted: April 5, 2010 Filed under: Environment, Oil, Politics Leave a comment »http://www.env-econ.net/2007/05/all_politicians.html
Don’t Do Unto Me as I Do Unto You
Posted: March 29, 2010 Filed under: Democracy, Politics Leave a comment »“He says “I understand people are going to criticize my decisions – I’m an elected official – but my wife, my kids, my neighbors are out of bounds.”
As my friend Mark LeBar points out to me in a private e-mail (quoted here with Mark’s permission): “Interesting that Rep. Driehaus himself doesn’t take my wife, my kids, my body, or anything else about me, to be ‘out of bounds’ when he legislates. It’s all up for grabs in the legislative process; there are no bounds to what he is entitled to impose on me through force. Probably he should not be surprised that people become less inclined to respect those ‘bounds’ – which are, indeed, bounds of decency – when the political class has so far rejected and replaced common decency with its officious and intrusive will.” “
http://cafehayek.com/2010/03/dont-do-unto-me-as-i-do-unto-you.html
Student-loan reform slid into health care law
Posted: March 29, 2010 Filed under: Health Care, Health Insurance, Politics, Uncategorized Leave a comment »http://m.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/mar/29/student-loan-takeover-slips-through-with-health-ca/
Daniel J. Smith
Sent Via Mobile Phone
Was that foreign aid … or a campaign contribution?
Posted: March 29, 2010 Filed under: Democracy, Foreign Aid, Politics, Uncategorized Leave a comment »Sent to you via Google Reader
Was that foreign aid … or a campaign contribution?
Do Powerful Politicians Cause Corporate Downsizing? — by Lauren Cohen, Joshua D. Coval, Christopher Malloy
Posted: March 29, 2010 Filed under: Corporatism, Corruption, Democracy, Economic Distortion, Politics, Uncategorized Leave a comment »Sent to you via Google Reader
Do Powerful Politicians Cause Corporate Downsizing? — by Lauren Cohen, Joshua D. Coval, Christopher Malloy
This paper employs a new empirical approach for identifying the impact of government spending on the private sector. Our key innovation is to use changes in congressional committee chairmanship as a source of exogenous variation in state-level federal expenditures. In doing so, we show that fiscal spending shocks appear to significantly dampen corporate sector investment and employment activity. These corporate reactions follow both Senate and House committee chair changes, are present among large and small firms and within large and small states, are partially reversed when the congressman resigns, and are most pronounced among geographically-concentrated firms. The effects are economically meaningful and the mechanism – entirely distinct from the more traditional interest rate and tax channels – suggests new considerations in assessing the impact of government spending on private sector economic activity.
Daniel J. SmithSent Via Mobile Phone
The People Who Wrote the ObamaCare Bill Have Exempted Themselves from Its Provisions
Posted: March 26, 2010 Filed under: Corruption, Health Care, Health Insurance, Politics Leave a comment »“While everyone else in the United States — from the top corporate executives to the grocery store checkout clerk — will be forced to buy their insurance through heavily regulated state-run exchanges, the health care bill excludes one group: the [congressional] leadership and committee staff. Yes, that’s right. The very people who wrote up this bill are refusing to be included themselves. Given the narrow definition of “congressional staff” on page 158 of the health care bill, the Congressional Research Service memo believes that courts will not require “professional committee staff, joint committee staff, some shared staff, as well as potentially those staff employed by leadership offices” to go through the exchanges. President Obama and his family are also exempt from the law.”
Rule of Law vs. Rule of Men
Posted: March 25, 2010 Filed under: Corruption, Government, Law, Politics, Uncategorized Leave a comment »Sent to you via Google Reader
Rule of Law vs. Rule of Men
Democrats Dump Anti-War Lovers
Posted: March 25, 2010 Filed under: Afghanistan, Iraq, Obama, Politics, Uncategorized, War Leave a comment »Sent to you via Google Reader
Democrats Dump Anti-War Lovers
HT: Dr. Adam Martin
A very expensive tow truck and fence
Posted: March 25, 2010 Filed under: Health Care, Health Insurance, Logrolling, Politics, Uncategorized Leave a comment »Sent to you via Google Reader
A very expensive tow truck and fence
The Petoskey News Review reports:
U.S. Rep. Bart Stupak, D-Menominee, is denying swelling accusations that he accepted a kickback in the form of $726,409 Federal Aviation Administration utility grants to shift his vote to support health care reform on Sunday.
The congressman has found himself in the middle of a vicious Republican backlash after accepting that an executive order from the president would be sufficient to prevent federal dollars from funding abortions under the Senate heath care reform bill.
Stupak called the allegations “grasping at straws” by conservative opponents.
“It is absurd to think I would change my vote for a tow truck and a fence to keep deer from walking onto the runway of an airport in Escanaba,” Stupak said. “I have long advocated for comprehensive health care reform and voted in favor of the House health care reform bill — a fact that many opponents of health care reform can’t seem to acknowledge.”
The grants were for a $179,209 for Delta County Airport in Escanaba to install a 10 foot fence, a $85,500 for Alpena Regional Airport to acquire friction measuring equipment and $461,700 to install lighted signs on the runway at Chippewa County International Airport near Sault Ste. Marie. The grants were officially announced Friday, two days before Stupak decided to alter his vote.
I’m glad to know Bart Stupak is a man of principle. He wouldn’t sell his vote for a tow truck and a fence. But how about for $726,409 worth of benefits for his constituents? And the timing of the announcement was just a coincidence.
Daniel J. SmithSent Via Mobile Phone
Schoolhouse Rock Parody: How a Bill REALLY Becomes a Law
Posted: March 22, 2010 Filed under: Logrolling, Politics, Special Interest Groups Leave a comment »http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kEe1nWxGb5s
Logrolling
Posted: March 19, 2010 Filed under: Corruption, Logrolling, Politics, Public Choice Leave a comment »http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704207504575129560620280910.html
