PRESTOPUNDIT -- "must readings" says Nick Schutz

The Economist does California.

Cover story -- Is California Back?

And don't miss this: "A bad place to do business? Too much regulation, too little infrastructure".

Quotable Seipp.

"these fish don't know they're wet, which makes shooting them in a barrel especially irresistible .. ". More Catherine Seipp.

Lead filled Mexican candy causing brain damage across California.

If any newspaper investigative report ever deserved a Pulitzer prize it's this one.

Blogging the Guild System.

"She's the Invisible Adjunct. Or at least, she used to be. After five years of being an adjunct and a year after starting one of the most popular academic Weblogs, she is giving up and getting out. More than a decade after entering graduate school with great promise, she hasn't landed that full-time, tenure-track spot she dreamed of. So although she's unsure what comes next, she is quitting the academy and shutting the blog down .. About 45 percent of all faculty members are now part-timers. Each year thousands of people with new doctorates in fields like history and English fail to find the tenure-track jobs they are chasing .. She believes that academe's cheerleaders should stop pretending that the Ph.D. is good preparation for other types of careers. It's not, she says. Being smart and stubborn enough to get through a Ph.D. program may mean you're smart and stubborn enough for lots of other things, but the actual Ph.D. is peculiar to an academic career. (She would, however, support redesigning master's programs to create practical graduate education for nonacademics.)

Speaking of programs, the Invisible Adjunct says there are simply way too many of them. Many graduate programs in many fields -- even beyond the humanities -- should be curtailed, and some should be eliminated entirely. "There's certainly a supply component to the problem," she says. "It's doing incredible damage to the profession. ... An undersupply of English literature Ph.D.'s would be the best thing to give them leverage."

She speaks passionately about the issues facing the academic profession, a profession she believes has allowed itself to fall into decline. Can't professors see that a system producing so many people who can't get jobs is not an indictment of the aspiring faculty members, but of the system itself? Or if you really think that these adjuncts aren't of high enough caliber to hire, then the graduate schools are failures, not the students.

The Invisible Adjunct, while sympathetic to those who demand labor unions for adjuncts, never embraced the role of activist. Sure, she says, anyone at the bottom of the economic system, like adjuncts, would be better off joining in collective action. But using that union to go from $2,500 per course to $3,000 is an incremental change that does not tackle the flawed structure.

"For all practical intents and purposes, the adjunct is a low-wage worker without benefits who can be hired and fired at will," she once wrote. "So in what way can the adjunct be an entrepreneur, except in his or her own mind?"

The trials and despair of the Internet's most famous run-of-the-mill adjunct highlight the vagaries of the two-tiered academic job system. (Whatever you do, don't call it a "market," the Invisible Adjunct would say.)

"We know that there are many, many good people chasing a shrinking pool of great jobs," Mr. Burke says. "There's no way to make room in the contemporary academy for all the people who would make great academics."

Perhaps seeing the failure of people like Ms. Adjunct might prompt the lucky tenured ones to get off their rhetorical high horses, he says. "One of my consistent feelings is that there shouldn't be anybody in academia that is too quick to regard their own position as a result of a meritocratic system," says Mr. Burke. "Anybody with a modicum of self-awareness knows there's a tremendous amount of luck involved. But that sits ill with our prevailing mythologies." More "Invisible Adjunct".

LA Times BR - Leftists only please.

"The LAT Book Festival, like the LAT Book Review, represents the world according to David Horowitz, in which there are no liberals, only the left and a few token anti-leftists for "balance." ..". More VIRGINIA POSTREL.

Michael Kinsley to LA Times.

This might -- might -- be a reason to get the Dog Trainer. But will the Times let Kinsley fire the North Korean trained jackboot communist? Inquiring readers want to know.

UPDATE: Patterico has this:

"In a rather startling admission, Times editor John Carroll says of the leftist Kinsley:

One of the things that appealed to me about Mike is that his political philosophy is more or less in keeping with our editorial page.

This frank admission comes in an announcement that describes Kinsley as "left-leaning" -- an accurate if somewhat understated description. At least the Times is owning up to its leftist editorial bias."

UPDATE II: Hugh Hewitt:

" .. good luck. The paper's in ghastly shape, a monopoly that can't command a respectable market share. Even a reinvigorated editorial page and opinion page won't help much given the senior staff's refusal to deal with the poisonous bias in the "news" reports and a spectrum of columnists off your new pages whose views run from left to hard, hard left. It is so irrelevant that few even bother to complain anymore, or even to read it because it just doesn't matter. It would be a wonderful thing to have a paper to read again, but I'll even settle for two, well-written, left-leaning pages a day."

Caldwell's

Hayek's Challenge: An Intellectual Biography of F. A. Hayek -- in its second printing -- continues to climb the Amazon charts.

Indeed, the second printing is selling faster than the first.

THE COMING GENERATIONAL STORM.

What You Need to Know about America's Economic Future by Laurence Kotlikoff & Scott Burns is ranked #71 at Amazon. From the book jacket:

In 2030, as 77 million baby boomers hobble into old age, walkers will outnumber strollers; there will be twice as many retirees as there are today but only 18 percent more workers. How will America handle this demographic overload? How will Social Security and Medicare function with fewer working taxpayers to support these programs? According to Laurence Kotlikoff and Scott Burns, if our government continues on the course it has set, we'll see skyrocketing tax rates, drastically lower retirement and health benefits, high inflation, a rapidly depreciating dollar, unemployment, and political instability. The government has lost its compass, say Kotlikoff and Burns, and the current administration is heading straight into the coming generational storm. But don't panic. To solve a problem you must first understand it. Kotlikoff and Burns take us on a guided tour of our generational imbalance, first introducing us to the baby boomers-- their long retirement years and "the protracted delay in their departure to the next world." Then there's the "fiscal child abuse" that will double the taxes paid by the next generation. There's also the "deficit delusion" of the under-reported national debt. And none of this, they say, will be solved by any of the popularly touted remedies: cutting taxes, technological progress, immigration, foreign investment, or the elimination of wasteful government spending. So how can the United States avoid this demographic/fiscal collision? Kotlikoff and Burns propose bold new policies, including meaningful reforms of Social Security, and Medicare. Their proposals are simple, straightforward, and geared to attract support from both political parties. But just in case politicians won't take the political risk to chart a new direction, Kotlikoff and Burns also offer a "life jacket"-- guidelines for individuals to protect their financial health and retirement.

Light blogging.

Blogging will continue to be light this week as I work on the Hayek Center web site and the TAKING HAYEK SERIOUSLY blog.

Ivory tower thieves.

"I managed to get my paper [on asymmetric price adjustment] published in Economic Inquiry in 1982, shortly after the idea appeared in a better journal, without citation of my work, by an assistant professor at Amherst (now a full professor there) who heard me outline the theory when he interviewed me on the job market in 1979-80 .. ". More ARNOLD KLING.

Shocking but perhaps not as uncommon as you might think. And it could have been worse -- in many disciplines the thief might have been a faculty member at his own university -- or even his major professor. It happens.

Durable goods orders smash forecasts.

"Orders for long-lasting factory goods rose 3.4 percent in March .. Economists had expected durable goods orders to rise 0.7 percent .. "The manufacturing sector is on fire," said Anthony Chan, chief economist at Banc One Investment Advisors .. ". MORE - "March Orders for Factories Top Forecast, Rising 3.4%".

Property rights -- the ultimate source of growth.

"The late Bernard Heitger looked at data from different countries from 1975-1995. He found that:

compared with the more traditional determinants of economic growth -- such as physical and human capital accumulation and the growth rate of the working-age population -- the impact of property rights is quite remarkable.... [I]t seems reasonable to classify property rights among the ultimate sources of economic growth ..

MORE -- "Economic Development, Property Rights, and War".

Robert Oppenheimer - communist.

""Oppenheimer had always denied membership in the Communist Party," said [Gregg] Herken, who was a senior historian at the Smithsonian Institution before joining the new Merced faculty. "Now, it's pretty clear he wasn't telling the truth." .. ". MORE - "New evidence of Communist membership debated by scholars of Berkeley scientist".

Herken's explosive new evidence of Oppenheimer's participation in the communist party (Joseph Stalin's organization in America) is discussed and evaluated in the article. Earlier evidence -- itself rather decisive -- was presented in Herken's 2002 book, Brotherhood of the Bomb .

Pat Tillman struck down in Afghanistan.

Another hero dies defending his nation.

China Crushes Hayek Inspired Study Group.

Details can be found here.

Immigration horrors - now routine.

"The doors of the small bungalow in Watts were chained and the windows covered with metal bars and plywood. Inside, about 110 barefoot and no doubt frightened men, women and children waited for their relatives to deliver ransom money, as much as $9,000 each, that would free them from the immigrant-smugglers, the coyotes, who held them under guard. The chain of misery was disrupted Wednesday by agents of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, tipped by one immigrant who had got out. Most of the illegal immigrants are in custody. The smugglers got away. Was this an exceptional event .. Apparently not. Commenting on the raid, local law enforcement officials said that, other than the large number of people in the house, there was nothing unusual except that most such houses and human smuggling rings go without federal notice ...

The victims include not just the people in such houses but cities like Los Angeles, the gateway and often destination for waves of immigrants. It is a problem that can be addressed only by the federal government, which is, as Los Angeles City Council member Janice Hahn put it, "turning a blind eye." .. ". More - "Broken Immigration Policy".

New book - Sowell's latest.

Affirmative Action Around the World: An Empirical Study by Thomas Sowell.

Fed rate hike - Bush booster shot?

"Alan Greenspan's belated admission that "deflation is no longer a threat" makes it more certain that he'll increase the Fed Funds rate in the coming months. Those hoping for a Bush victory in November should hope so ..

History shows that the presumed rate hikes will stimulate the economy in the near-term, while promising a bumpier economic ride over the long-term. Data compiled by Boston-based economics firm H.C. Wainwright shows that industrial production initially responds positively to rises in interest rates, with growth since 1955 averaging 4.9% when rates jump an average of 171 basis points. While not predicting a specific level of growth, David Malpass appears to agree with the Wainwright view. In recent reports the Bear Stearns chief economist has said he expects a rise in interest rates to "act as an economic accelerant."

But why? The answer isn't really very surprising. Going back to when the Fed began to cut interest rates in December of 2000, a number of economists said that rather than bring rates down gradually, the Fed should do it all at once. Their reasoning was that just as knowledge of future tax cuts can cause economic actors to push activity into the future, so too will telegraphed interest rate cuts cause individuals and businesses to wait to transact/build/invest until the Fed signals rates have hit bottom ..

If investors were to be given a signal that rates are to rise sooner rather than later, we should expect the above analogy to come into play again, only this time in the reverse. David Malpass thinks that individuals and businesses will take a "get it while you can" approach to rising rates, and lock in "mortgages, as well as commercial and industrial loans" while rates are still low..

Wainwright president David Ranson wrote in the Wall Street Journal in 1981 that "loose or tight interest rate policies don't create or destroy GNP outright - they merely reschedule it." Indeed, while rising rates can certainly stimulate economic activity in the near-term, the Wainwright study shows that this comes at the expense of long-term growth, with industrial production on average plummeting to .9% 18 months after the Fed has finished increasing rates ..

Did it ever make sense that by waving a magic wand 12 "wise men" could create economic growth? It's illogical, and as the Wainwright research makes clear, factually untrue .. all should hope that those in charge recognize that there are limits to what they can accomplish. Interest rate machinations geared toward stimulating or shrinking the economy cause economic actors to game the economic system, as they shift economic activity backward or forward depending on the direction of rates ..

Assuming an eventual hike in rates is the beginning of a pattern whereby the Fed were to attempt to manage growth through interest rate movements, investors would have reason to be nervous. Markets don't like economic instability, and returning to the H.C. Wainwright Economics study, economic growth since 1955 has been very uneven when interest rates have moved around a lot. Perhaps unsurprisingly, economic growth is most impressive over the long-term when rates move the least .. ". More -- "Rate Hikes Would Help President Bush"

Kudlow channels Knut Wicksell.

"Wicksell�s monetary model is a simple one. When the central bank�s policy rate is placed above the economy�s so-called natural rate, then money is tight. When the rate is set below the economy�s potential to grow and invest, then money is easy. Confirming this, commodity prices (including gold) will rise or fall depending on central bank policy. Over the past year the pronounced rise in commodity prices and the fall in the dollar have been signaling that excess money from the Fed has created a mild inflationary potential. That Alan Greenspan has apparently decided to remove some of this liquidity excess is a good thing and a prudent decision .. ". More Larry Kudlow.

A's for Everyone.

"In 1966 at Harvard, 22% of all grades were A's; in 2003, 46% of all grades were A's. Similarly, a UCLA study reports that in 1968, 22% of all grades at 18 colleges and universities were A's, but by 2002 that percentage had risen to 47%. � A recent Princeton University study reports that between 44% and 55% of all grades at the Ivy League schools, MIT, Stanford and the University of Chicago are A's today. � Less than 10% of all grades given out at Duke University are Cs, according to an article by Duke professor Stuart Rojstaczer; in 1969, more than 25% were .. But grade inflation also reflects a decline in standards that we should be worried about. When more than half of all grades are A, it is unlikely that any rigorous standard is being satisfied. Grade inflation is symptomatic of a profession that no longer is discerning enough to separate according to degrees of merit .. ". More "Way That Grades Are Set Is a Mark Against Professors".

100,000 visits.

Someone this morning was Site Metered visitor 100,000. Thanks for stopping in.

R.I.P.

Biologist John Maynard Smith has died.

Don't miss the photo.

KANSAS CITY -- "National Endowment For The Arts & Crafts Criticized For Funding Giant Macram� Penis".

Sierra Club & Immigration.

Richard Lamm & other challengers are crushed by Sierra Club candidates unopposed to mass immigration into the United States.

Illegal Immigration.

HOUSTON -- "Rumor of immigrant raid clears apartments, leaves school desks empty".

Uncompetitive U.S.A. - science & engineering also-ran.

"I was just out in Silicon Valley, checking in with high-tech entrepreneurs about the state of their business. I wouldn't say they were universally gloomy, but I did detect something I hadn't detected before: a real undertow of concern that America is losing its competitive edge vis-�-vis China, India, Japan and other Asian tigers .. [Executives] pointed out that the percentage of Americans graduating with bachelor's degrees in science and engineering is less than half of the comparable percentage in China and Japan, and that U.S. government investments are flagging in basic research in physics, chemistry and engineering. Anyone who thinks that all the Indian and Chinese techies are doing is answering call-center phones or solving tech problems for Dell customers is sadly mistaken. U.S. firms are moving serious research and development to India and China.

Craig Barrett, the C.E.O. of Intel, noted that Intel sponsors an international science competition every year. This year it attracted some 50,000 American high school kids. "I was in China 10 days ago," Mr. Barrett said, "and I asked them how many kids in China participated in the local science fairs that feed into the national fair [and ultimately the Intel finals]. They told me six million kids."

For now, the U.S. still excels at teaching science and engineering at the graduate level, and also in university research. But as the Chinese get more feeder stock coming up through their high schools and colleges, "they will get to the same level as us after a decade," Mr. Barrett said. "We are not graduating the volume, we do not have a lock on the infrastructure, we do not have a lock on the new ideas, and we are either flat-lining, or in real dollars cutting back, our investments in physical science .. ". More TOM FRIEDMAN.

Climate change "science" -- not yet finished, not yet sound.

"[recent work exposes the] shakiness of the three main arguments which comprise the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) case for a human influence on climate change.

Argument one asserts that ground-based temperature measurements have been corrected adequately for environmental effects, including especially the urban "heat island" effect, and that the pattern of global change in temperature which results -- about a 0.60 C increase over the last 100 years -- is likely to have a human cause. In actuality, that part of the claimed increase in temperature which occurred over the last 20 years is contradicted by two alternative measurements of atmospheric temperature made from weather balloons and satellites, the patterns of which agree with each other and show little or no long-term trend of temperature change. At the very least, this discrepancy casts doubt on the adequacy of the heat island correction which has been made to the records.

Argument two, after papers by statistician Michael Mann and co-authors, asserts that both the peak magnitude and the rate of temperature increase over the last 100 years are exceptional by comparison with the preceding 900 years. But recent published papers by other scientists have demolished this argument and shown that Mann's work is statistically unsound; both its historical analysis and its projected peak of warming at the recent turn of the century are now known to be flawed. And anyway, irrespective of recondite statistical arguments, many earlier published geological studies show that the rate and magnitude of climate change over historic times lies within the envelope of natural variation.

The third IPCC argument rests upon complex computer models which attempt to predict the rate of warming for the increasing rate of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere through to the year 2100. However, these models are unable to simulate 20th century climatic history accurately, and also fail when tested against the last 20 years of accurate data from satellites and weather balloons. A primary reason for the mismatches is probably that the computer models assume an unrealistically high temperature sensitivity for atmospheric greenhouse gas accumulation.

The flaws in these three IPCC arguments are cumulatively fatal. But, in addition, it has become increasingly apparent lately that the 1,000-year interval which is the context for most IPCC advice and analysis is a completely inadequate period over which to assess global climate change. The focus of discussion, therefore, is shifting away from the short-term mechanisms studied by meteorologists and climatologists, to attending more to the knowledge base for climate change which exists in the geological record over tens and hundreds of thousands of years .. ". More "Climate Change: A Longer View".

Kudlow -- there's too much money.

"As a nod to strong price trends in gold and commodities, as well as rising bond yields � all traditional harbingers of excess liquidity and mounting inflation � many investors would like to see a bit less money created by the central bank. I believe that a few small restraining steps now will save the Fed, the stock market, and the economy a lot of high-interest-rate angst down the road. Up to now the Fed has ignored forward-looking commodity- and financial-price signals in favor of an �output gap� model of inflation, which argues against broad price increases so long as under-utilized resources and idle capacity exist in the economy. This output-gap approach is reminiscent of the �cost-push� arguments of the inflationary 1970s, whereby wages, not money, were fingered as the principal inflation culprit. The Fed�s output-gap argument, while dressed in new scientific garb, also looks a lot like the old Phillips-curve tradeoff between falling unemployment and rising inflation. That also failed dismally as a policy guide during the �70s. Why monetary decision-makers fight the overwhelming historical evidence that inflation is always a monetary problem is hard to fathom, yet they do .. ". More LARRY KUDLOW.

Clinton school plan.

If a new proposal by Sen. Hillary Clinton passes, U.S. taxpayers would pay for "basic education for all children throughout the world". I kid you not. Here's a forecast -- look for Bush Republicans taking up the Clinton plan and repackaging it as "compassionate conservativism".

Oil-for-Blood-Money.

"At least three senior United Nations officials are suspected of taking multi-million dollar bribes from the Saddam Hussein regime, U.S. and European intelligence sources tell ABCNEWS. One year after his fall, U.S. officials say they have evidence, some in cash, that Saddam diverted to his personal bank accounts approximately $5 billion from the United Nations Oil-for-Food program .. Most prominent among those accused in the scandal is Benon Sevan, the Cyprus-born U.N. undersecretary general who ran the program for six years .. documents have surfaced in Baghdad, in the files of the former Iraqi Oil Ministry, allegedly linking Sevan to a pay-off scheme in which some 270 prominent foreign officials received the right to trade in Iraqi oil at cut-rate prices .. [Including] Charles Pasqua, former [French] minister of interior [and] Bernard Merimee, former French ambassador to the United Nations .. ". More "U.N. Officials Bribed by Saddam".

Baby formula vs. BMWs vs. Medicare & slot machines.

"Old people consume far more resources than children do; even after considering the cost of education, a typical child in the U.S. consumes 28% less than the typical working-age adult, while elders consume 27% more, mostly in health-related expenses ..

In nations rich and poor, under all forms of government, a broad social trend is absolutely clear: As more and more of the population moves to urban areas in which children offer little or no economic reward to their parents, and as women gain in economic opportunity and reproductive control, people are producing fewer and fewer children ..

In the U.S., the direct cost of raising a middle-class child born this year through age 18, according to the Department of Agriculture, exceeds $200,000, not counting college; the cost to the parents in forgone wages can easily exceed $1 million. And while Social Security and private pension plans depend critically on parents' replenishing the nation's human capital, they offer the same benefits, and often more, to those who avoid the burdens of raising a family ..

Even more sobering are the implications for modern civilization's values. As urbanization and globalization continue to create a human environment in which children become costly impediments to material success, people who are well adapted to this environment will tend not to reproduce. Many others who are not so successful will imitate them. So where will the children of the future come from? Increasingly they will come from people who are at odds with the modern world�who either "don't get" the new rules of the game that make reproduction an economic liability, or who believe they are (or who in fact are) commanded by a higher power to procreate.

Such a higher power might be God, speaking through Abraham, Jesus, Mohammed, or some latter-day saint, or it might be a totalitarian state. Either way, such a trend, if sustained, could drive human culture off its current market-driven, individualistic, modernist course, gradually creating an antimarket culture dominated by fundamentalism�a new dark ages. History records a similar shift in third-century Rome, when pagan fertility collapsed, while that of early Christians did not. If modern secular societies are to survive, they must somehow enable parents to enjoy more of the economic value they produce for everyone when they sacrifice to create and educate the next generation .. ". More "Which Nations Will Go Forth and Multiply?".

Article adapted from The Empty Cradle : Freedom and Fertility in an Aging World by Phillip Longman.

Immigration fight splits Sierra Club.

Wine and cheese people debate the candidacy of Richard Lamm.

Are you pulling your weight?

Unless you sent the federal government $21,671 this year you're not. The government spent $21,671 per household last year. Here's the breakdown of how that money got spent.

For many Americans, that $21,671 spent by the Federal government would be every penny they earn.

(via Marginal Revolution).

The government vs. food safety.

"Creekstone Farms is a little slaughterhouse in Kansas with an idea that would have had Adam Smith's mouth watering. Faced with consumers who remain skittish over mad cow disease � especially in Japan � Creekstone decided that all its beef would be tested for mad cow, a radical departure from the random testing done by other companies. It was a case study in free-market meatpacking entrepreneurship. That is, until the Bush administration's Department of Agriculture blocked the enterprise, apparently at the behest of Creekstone's competitors. According to the Washington Post, Creekstone invested $500,000 to build the first mad cow testing lab in a U.S. slaughterhouse and hired chemists and biologists to staff the operation. The only thing it needed was testing kits. That's where the company ran into trouble. By law, the Department of Agriculture controls the sale of the kits, and it refused to sell Creekstone enough to test all of its cows. The USDA said that allowing even a small meatpacking company like Creekstone to test every cow it slaughtered would undermine the agency's official position that random testing was scientifically adequate to assure safety .. ". More "Entrepreneurship Gets Slaughtered".....

The Bubble Economy.

"The sharpest analysis I heard was from Li Ruogu, the deputy governor of China's central bank. He even used the "B" word: "If credit is growing as fast as it has been, we will be concerned about a bubble," he said, adding that the central bank had raised reserve requirements for Chinese banks this month partly "to send out the message that we are concerned about overheating of the economy." Li warned that the central bank could also raise interest rates soon, a move many analysts think is overdue. Li said inflation during the first quarter was running at an annualized rate of over 12 percent. "If that trend continues, we will be in the position to raise interest rates," he warned .. Li also cautioned that the United States shouldn't assume that China will keep buying U.S. Treasury securities indefinitely. If the United States doesn't protect the value of the dollar so that it is a stable "anchor," China will eventually move to hold its reserves in a basket of currencies, he said .. ". More "Is China's Economy Overheating?".

Free speech under attack.

Again. This time at Cornell, where the NAACP is attempting to shut down student newspapers.

Incompetence on the 9th circuit.

Patterico nails the whacky 9th circuit.

250 pinhead professors vs. 250 million American shoppers.

"Everything is based on the consumer first," said Edna Bonacich, a sociology professor at the University of California, Riverside. "Is this the way we want to live?" .. " . more WAL-MART vs THE PROFESSORS.

ALSO -- WAL-MART vs The World

The U.N.'s blood money.

"The U.N. began the Oil-for-Food program after the first Gulf War to provide humanitarian relief for the people of Iraq. Saddam Hussein was to sell Iraqi oil, two-thirds of the proceeds of which would be used to buy food and medicine, generate electricity, build houses and help the country recover. The U.N. would get a 2.2% fee on each barrel of oil sold. But with Saddam running the program and the U.N. only pretending to pay attention, corruption quickly dominated the process. Saddam added a 20-cent kickback fee to every barrel sold, which soon became 30, then 50 and finally 70 cents a barrel. Add to that the profit from Iraqi oil smuggled to Syria, Turkey and Jordan, and kickbacks on the humanitarian materials shipped into Iraq, and Saddam was raking in as much as $2.5 billion each year in illicit revenue to build up his military, his palaces and his power. The U.S. General Accounting Office estimates Saddam's total illegal revenues from the Oil-for-Food program to have totaled more than $10 billion. Why would the U.N. delegate total, unsupervised authority to run the program to Saddam? Perhaps because Iraq and the other nations whose companies were participating in the scam didn't want appropriate procedures and controls applied to their ventures. Teresa Raphael, the editorial page editor of The Wall Street Journal Europe, has seen a spreadsheet listing the companies Saddam had approved for oil purchases. It included 11 French middleman concerns, (150 million barrels sold to them), 14 companies in Syria (120 million) and dozens of Russian firms (more than a billion barrels), the president of Indonesia, the Palestine Liberation Organization, "the director of the Russian president's office" and former French foreign minister Charles Pasqua. Most stunning is Benon Sevan, the U.N.'s assistant secretary-general, whom his boss, Kofi Annan, designated to run the Oil-for-Food program. Mr. Sevan was allocated 14 million barrels of oil and disposed of 7 million of them. As all this information became public over the past year or so, U.N. lawyers refused to allow identification of the kickback firms; it was, they said, "privileged information which could not be made public." Mr. Annan then suggested "an independent high-level inquiry" to clean up the U.N.'s sordid image. Absolutely not, said France's U.N. ambassador, Jean-Marc de la Sabiliere, for the U.N. Iraqi accounts were managed by a French company, BNP Paribas .. ". More on "Oil-for-Food" at the U.N.. UPDATE: Wat it Oil-for-Terror?

The Rule of Law.

"What is stunning is that men and women in the throes of such hideous suffering and brutality were still concerned about adhering to Jewish law. In the lowest depths of the Nazi hell, in a place of terror and savagery that most of us cannot fathom, here were human beings who refused to relinquish their faith -- who refused even to violate a religious precept without first asking if it was allowed. Violence, humiliation, and hunger will reduce some people to animals willing to do anything to survive. The Jews who sought out Rabbi Oshry -- like Jews in so many other corners of Nazi Europe -- were not reduced but elevated, reinforced in their belief, determined against crushing odds to walk in the ways of their fathers. Some Jews fought the Nazis with guns and sabotage, Rabbi Oshry would later say; others fought by persisting in Jewish life. In the end, Responsa from the Holocaust is a chronicle of courage and resistance -- and a profound inspiration to believers of every faith .. ". More Jeff Jacoby.

In debate.

It's Barro vs. Krugman. (via Marginal Revolution).

The Carnival of Capitalists.

Hosted this week over at The Knowledge Problem.

"Deflation" -- PrestoPundit gets the last laugh.

"Any lingering concerns about deflation seemed to be dispelled last week after the government reported brisk March retail sales and the biggest surge in consumer prices in more than two years .. ". More "THE WEEK: The Price of Money Goes Up".

Mark Steyn.

Buy his new book.

The money pump.

"The stock and bond market bubbles, followed by the real estate bubble, are effects of monetary inflation flowing into financial assets. But consumer price inflation has been low or non-existent, right? Many of us think that inflation has been in the 7-10% range for some years now, but has been hidden by government manipulation of the inflation measure .. Evidence of rising prices is now leaking into the indexes [and] awareness of inflation now hitting the mainstream .. ".More "Inflation Goes Public".

The Regulated Toilet.

An American nightmare presents a geyser of opportunity to innovative American firms.

Friedman Prize.

John Blundell on Friedman Prize winner Hernando de Soto.

The Roaring 00's.

"Led by bustling business activity in the US and Asia, the global economy has finally begun a strong revival - one that some see turning into a sustainable boom. Worldwide economic growth could hit 4 percent or higher this year, well above what was forecast just months ago .. "The strongest performance in a generation," reckons Michael Mussa, a former International Monetary Fund (IMF) chief economist who forecasts world growth hitting 4.75 percent this year.

The world may enjoy "solid growth that goes on and on and on" - rather than boom and bust, adds Richard Reid, an economist in London with Citigroup, the largest American banking firm .. ". More "Worldwide economy roars ahead".

Don't you love it. The central bankers lower interest rates well below the natural rate of interest, and elite economists begin predicting the repeal of the business cycle. Happens every time.

Awaiting the boomer die-off.

"The first George Bush once said he thought the Persian Gulf War would cure America of the Vietnam syndrome. He was wrong. There is no cure for the Vietnam syndrome. It will go away only when the baby boom generation does, dying off like the Israelites in the desert, allowing a new generation, cleansed of the memories and the guilt, to look at the world clearly once again .. ". More CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER

Ravenwood pays his taxes.

"I'm neither rich nor poor, but every year I have the joy of paying about 35% of my income to taxes. That doesn't even include all of the sales taxes, car taxes, property taxes, and taxes levied on telephone service, electricity, gasoline, etc, etc, etc. But this is tax time, so I'll just concentrate on the 35% that I pay in federal, state, and social security taxes. What do I get for my 35%? Well for starters, I get a social security system that I'll never use .. ". More "Buyer's remorse".

Getting real with economic growth statistics.

"if there is one thing the Austrian School teaches, it is the fundamental importance of the division of labor. Another is the crucial element of time and of the instrumentality of capital in mastering this. Yet another Austrian teaching is the key role played by individual entrepreneurs in disposing of scarce resources to meet current and prospective consumer demand. A final one is the function of saving in facilitating this role. On this basis, we can recast the official statistics, with all their provisos and precautionary notes, in a radically different way. We can maneuver them using an approach first outlined by Professor Reisman, to give us a feel for what Hayek depicted as a "right-triangular arrangement of production in the modern economy." To achieve this, we take the Bureau of Labor Statistics' (BLS) input-output tables that show, in addition to the now-familiar GDP numbers, all those intermediate business-to-business flows that are later simply cancelled out. Adding imports to the domestic total�to include total, not just net, exports�leaves the sum of business revenues from sales to other businesses, to end consumers, to government, and to foreigners. Subtracting depreciation and profits from this, we are left with above-the-line business costs. To these we can add the entries for net inventory accumulation and gross fixed investment, which represent below-the-line outlays. Thus, we have identified the total of all domestic productive spending. We can compare this to the sum of personal consumption and government expenditures and residential real estate "investment" to determine the scale of domestic exhaustive spending. In 2001, productive outlays came to a grand total of $18.2 trillion, against which was $7 trillion in personal consumption, $1.8 trillion in government spending, and just under $1/2 trillion laid out for real estate, for a domestic exhaustive use of $9.3 trillion. Thus, it could be argued, the circulation of money�hence also the transfer of goods and services�through the real economy amounted not to $6, not to $8, nor even $10 trillion, but to a whopping $27.5 trillion. Some two-thirds of this represented not the final consumptive exhaustion of wealth emphasized in the orthodox approach, but intertwined, mutually worthwhile, purposefully-undertaken, non-automatic entrepreneurial expenditures .. ". More "The Anatomy of Growth".

China.

One year in a place called Zhangjiagang.

John Kerry

gets a Purple Heart -- and a ticket out of Vietnam.

Scott Ritter got Saddam Oil Money.

Former U.N. weapons inspector Scott Ritter received $400,000 from a U.N. "Oil-For-Food" profiteer with ties to the Saddam Hussein regime. In other words, blood money.

Girls smarter than boys.

Young females learn skills earlier, spend more time studying and do complex tasks better than young males .. More on "Young Female Chimps Outsmart Males".

Thomas Sowell.

"It is truly a triumph of rhetoric over reality when people can believe that going into politics is "public service," but that producing food, shelter, transportation, or medical care is not .. ". More Thomas Sowell -- random thoughts on the passing scene.

Ann Coulter.

"Last week, 9-11 commissioner John Lehman revealed that "it was the policy (before 9-11) and I believe remains the policy today to fine airlines if they have more than two young Arab males in secondary questioning because that's discriminatory." Hmmm ... Is 19 more than two? Why, yes, I believe it is. So if two Jordanian cab drivers are searched before boarding a flight out of Newark, Osama bin Laden could then board that plane without being questioned. I'm no security expert, but I'm pretty sure this gives terrorists an opening for an attack. In a sane world, Lehman's statement would have made headlines across the country the next day. But not one newspaper, magazine or TV show has mentioned that it is official government policy to prohibit searching more than two Arabs per flight .. ". More ANN COULTER.

Inflation Surges.

"Consumer prices rose by 0.5 percent in March, which would translate to an annual inflation rate of more than 6 percent .. ". NY Times -- "Unexpected Surge in Consumer Prices Fans Inflation Fear".

This explains a lot.

"Suppose that you are a middle manager in a big company that faces a problem that requires an innovative technical solution. Two firms come to you, one offering to solve the problem for $300,000 and the other offering to study the problem and produce a plan for $500,000. Which do you recommend to senior management? I can say, based on personal experience, that the only career-enhancing move is to recommend hiring the firm that will study the problem. That is Churchill's "strange paradox" as it applies in the corporate bureaucracy. Fortunately, I learned my lesson inside a large firm, before I started my own business. It taught me that when you pitch a product or service to a big company, you should position your offering as a tool for analysis rather than as a solution. I know many bitter entrepreneurs who have clever solutions and no profits to show for it, because they failed to appreciate the strange paradox. What Churchill found is that when a group of leaders is confronted with a problem that makes them uneasy, they take out their frustration on those who suggest ways of dealing with the problem. Discomfort with a problem leads many people to develop a passionate hatred for the solution .. ". More ARNOLD KLING.

Money madness.

Service on merely the interest cost of the national debt will require the expropriation of the equivalent of 4 1/2 week's pay from the average American worker. Meanwhile, Congress is funding bridges to nowhere as a mechanism for looting you and stuffing that cash in the pockets of the privileged. Call it what it is -- criminal behavior.

The revolution will be blogged.

And so will Wal-Mart. (via the Mises blog).

Bridges made of Gold.

"Even by the standards of Alaska, the land where schemes and dreams come for new life, two bridges approved under the national highway bill passed by the House last week are monuments to the imagination.

One, here in Ketchikan, would be among the biggest in the United States: a mile long, with a top clearance of 200 feet from the water � 80 feet higher than the Brooklyn Bridge and just 20 feet short of the Golden Gate Bridge. It would connect this economically depressed, rain-soaked town of 7,845 people to an island that has about 50 residents and the area's airport, which offers six flights a day (a few more in summer). It could cost about $200 million.

The other bridge would span an inlet for nearly two miles to tie Anchorage to a port that has a single regular tenant and almost no homes or businesses. It would cost up to $2 billion .. ". More "Bridges to Nowhere".

You're FIRED.

"Jamie Gorelick should step down from the [9/11] commission at once. If she fails to do so on her own, her fellow commissioners should ask her to step aside. Her role as the architect of a policy that hampered the work of federal agents to track down suspected terrorists makes her unfit to pass judgment on the alleged failures of others .. ". More Linda Chavez

Business & Econ Blogging.

Don't miss this weeks Carnival of the Capitalist .. as I nearly did.

Steyn - Americanism vs. British Imperialism .. and those damn Frenchmen.

"When you look at the current hotspots of the Islamist threat � Iraq, the Khyber Pass, Kashmir, the West Bank, Sudan � America is spending a lot of time mopping up the failures of British imperialism � or, to be more charitable, of late-period fag-end fainthearted British imperialism. Eight decades ago, London botched the birth of both Iraq and Palestine because of excessive deference to the modish transnational umbrella of the day � League of Nations "Mandates". Then, as now, the tricky business was keeping the French on side: in the Colonial Office memoranda of the day, certain phrases recur like the haunting refrain of a gloomy chanson on an old 78 with the needle stuck � Emir Faisal assures Sir Herbert Samuel, High Commissioner for Palestine, that "he does not wish to complicate matters between the British and the French"; the Cabinet Finance Committee instructs Sir Percy Cox, High Commissioner for Mesopotamia, to avoid "antagonising the French". The lessons of the 1920s are as pertinent for Guardianesque transnationalists as for Rumsfeldian neocons .. ". More MARK STEYN.

Taking Hayek Seriously.

How's that for the title of a new blog? I'm posting this to let regular PestoPundit readers know that blogging will be light over the next few days as I help launch the new TAKING HAYEK SERIOUSLY group blog featuring many of the biggest names in Hayek scholarship. I'm rather excited about the venture. More details later.

The Lies of the LA Times.

Patterico nails the LA Times again.

FAILING THE USS COLE.

Blogger Thomas Galvin has an indepth report tracking what happened and what we knew day by day, week by week. A remarkable story and a remarkable piece of research.

Those who died.

Malaria.

The NY Times (!) -- "What the World Needs Now Is DDT".

The Times they are a'changin'.

OC rug maker named manufacturing "czar".

"Bush's nominee for assistant Commerce secretary for manufacturing and services is Albert A. Frink Jr., cofounder of Santa Ana-based Fabrica International. Frink, a Latino, started the company in 1974. Fabrica employs 400 people, all in Orange County ..". More "Bush Selects Orange County Executive for Manufacturing Czar".

Massive Asian dollar stockpile.

"A massive buildup of U.S. dollars held by Japan, China and other Asian countries is fueling increasing unease among analysts and policymakers, who fear it poses risks to the fragile American economic recovery and global financial stability. Collectively, Asian countries hold foreign exchange reserves � mostly in dollars � valued at more than $2 trillion .. ".More "Asia's Stockpiles of Dollars Pose U.S. Economic Risks".

1,000,000 in just 3 years.

Immigration nightmare -- 1,000,000 new residents inundate Southern California in last 3 years. Quotable: "Southern California's residential growth over the last three years is akin to scattering the entire population of San Francisco and Marin counties among communities from Ventura south to San Ysidro, a flow of humanity measured in worsening traffic jams, escalating housing costs and portable classrooms parked on school campuses .. ". More SoCal POPULATION EXPLOSION.

It's Vietnam flashbacks all over again.

"When I was in college, El Salvador was Vietnam. When I was in Washington, Kuwait was Vietnam. Afghanistan was briefly Vietnam when we hadn�t won the war after a week. It�s Warholian: in the future, all conflicts will be Vietnam for 15 minutes.

Vietnam was an anomaly. Vietnam was perhaps the least typical war we�ve ever fought, but somehow it�s become the Gold Standard for wars � because, one suspects, it became inextricably bound up with Nixon, that black hole of human perfidy, and it coincided with the golden glory years of so many old boomers who now clog the arteries of the media and academe .. ". More LILEKS.

Jean-Francois Revel's "Anti-Americanism".

"The reason that Revel's attitude toward the US is so strikingly different from most of his compatriots is not difficult to find: indeed, one finds it on the very first page of this book, when the author reveals that he lived and traveled frequently in the US between 1970 and 1990. During this time, he had conversations with "a wide range of Americans - politicians, journalists, businessmen, students and university professors, Democrats and Republicans, conservatives, liberals and radicals, and people I met in passing from every walk of life". This simple action - talking to actual Americans and asking them what they think, as opposed to blindly regurgitating European conventional wisdom about what Americans think - was obviously the critical step in separating Revel from the smug, chauvinistic sheep who predominate in his intellectual class .. ". More BOOK REVIEW -- Anti-Americanism by Jean-Francois Revel.

Beating Poverty.

"``This is the first generation in all of recorded history that can do something about the scourge of poverty. We have the means to do it. We can banish hunger from the face of the Earth.'' -- Hubert Humphrey, 1965

Turns out, Humphrey was wrong. At the time, we really did not ``have the means to do it'' because we did not yet know how to banish poverty and hunger. Today we do.

The answer is not foreign aid, which is corrupting and often worse than useless. In many cases, it actually further impoverished an already poor country. Enriched urban elites bought luxury goods, while donated food and socialist controls drove down the local price of food, ruining the farmers on whom these subsistence economies had depended.

We now know that the secret to curing hunger and poverty is capitalism and free trade ..

.. free markets and free trade are lifting tens of millions of people out of poverty in India and China. And what has been the Democratic reaction to the prospect of fulfilling Humphrey's (and their party's) great dream? Fear and loathing. Democrats today thunder against the scourge of ``outsourcing'' ..

[What we are witnessing today is] a radical reversal of the older liberal vision of America as helpmate for the poor and suffering of the world. Interestingly, the Democrats have enough residue of this old vision that they cannot admit to having betrayed it. They pretend they are engaged in altruism. They say what they really want is for trade agreements to grant foreign workers the same labor and environmental standards that American workers enjoy ..

Unfortunately, the ruse is transparent. Everyone understands that imposing U.S. standards on Mexican or Chinese factories is a way to make them noncompetitive. They lose their one comparative advantage: radically lower costs. The factories will shut down. And their workers, rather than being helped, will be sent back to the rural destitution they had fled in hope of a better future. You can say, too bad. You can say, Americans count for more. What you cannot deny, however, is that the Democrats have given up the mantle of tribune of the world's poor .. ". More CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER.

Steyn on Dems & the Terror War.

"If you take a walk on the wilder side with the cyber crazies, you realise that the real liability for the Democratic party is not the loonies but the leadership: though they�re more tonally savvy and use fewer four-letter words, the party�s most prominent figures have signed on to the same worldview as the nutters � the war in Iraq was a crock cooked up by Cheney to enrich his oil buddies, etc. Somewhere between Afghanistan and Iowa, a bunch of hitherto dull, unremarkable senators bought into the central tenet of the deranged Left � that hatred for the Bushitler trumps all other considerations. Or as Al Gore recently howled, trying out his latest new accent, �Heee-aaaah be-aaah-tray-ud us!� The degrees of separation between the fringe and the mainstream have vanished: Ted Kennedy quotes approvingly Karen Kwiatkowski, who calls the US a �maturing Fascist state� and predicts senior administration officials will wind up �sitting beside Hussein in the war crimes tribunal� .. ". More MARK STEYN.

DVDs -- Technology vs. Copyright Privileges.

WAL-MART will sell an RCA DVD player which allows consumers the freedom to edit out crap they don't want to watch from the Hollywood dreck they put into their DVD player. The ability to advance consumer freedom through technology often requires getting around government grants of monopoly privilege through copyright and patents.

Kerrey on the Terror War.

"After 9/11 we could not afford either to run the risk that Saddam Hussein would be deterred by our military efforts to contain him or that these military deployments would become attractive targets for further acts of terrorism .. the June 25, 1996, attack on Khobar Towers that left 19 American airmen dead happened because of our containment efforts. Sailors had also died enforcing the Security Council's embargo and our pilots were risking their lives every day flying missions over northern and southern Iraq to protect Iraqi Kurds and Shiites.

It is my view that a political victory for terrorism in Iraq is a much greater danger to us than whether or not we succeed in capturing Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan. Victory in Iraq will embolden radical Islamists as much as our failure to recognize the original danger of their declaration of war against us .. ". More BOB KERREY.

California University Spending.

"We don't need no stinkin' engineers". Debra Saunders on the California University which would like to "cut academic meat, while sparing junk-food scholarship".

Bill Hobbs

on the American entremanurial spirit.

April 13 -- Tax Freedom Day in California.

The citizens of 40 other states will already be working for themselves by the time California reaches Tax Freedom Day, according to the Tax Foundation. Tax freedom day has already come and gone in dozens of states, but it's another week in the mines here in California.

The obligation of curvee royale in France -- forced labor owed to the state for the repair of roads -- "was one of the most potent causes of the [French] Revolution". For much of the 1800s the curvee royale was three day. Most of us in California will be working our modern curvee royale for 80 days and more.

Contemplate this:

According to the Tax Foundation, if current laws are unchanged, the national Tax Freedom Day will rise an additional 17 days -- from April 11 in 2004 to April 29 by the year 2014.

In Los Angeles your state and local taxes would be $7,705 on a family income of $75,000. In Las Vegas, where thousands of Southern Californians have moved, your state and local taxes would be $3,928.

LCD vs. Plasma.

"LCD TVs are predicted to nudge out most competition in the '50-inches and smaller' category .. ". More GIZMODO.

Productivity & America's Kick Ass Econony.

"Since 1995, the U.S. has enjoyed a productivity renaissance. The McKinsey Global Institute breaks the economy down into 60 sectors. U.S. workers are the most productive on earth in at least 50 of them. Productivity gains cause standard of living increases. Productivity gains lead to employment gains. If history is any judge, yesterday's excellent job numbers could mark the beginning of another surge in job creation. As William W. Lewis, a former McKinsey partner, writes in The Power of Productivity about half the U.S. productivity gains have occurred in just two sectors, wholesale and retail trade. We've gotten really efficient at getting stuff from the hands of manufacturers to the hands of consumers. These innovations have had more important effects on how people really live than anything done in Washington .. ". More DAVID BROOKS. (via Virginia Postrel).

Whose Liberalism?

"I continue to think that an argument for classical liberalism over modern liberalism cannot be premised on pragmatic/ utilitarian/ consequentialist terms alone. I think the question to pose to Brad is this: do you want a social environment based on the primacy of the individual and on negatively-defined rights?" More Lynne Kiesling.

Immigration -- Britain in an uproar.

One-legged roof tilers and other British immigration scandals: "The government had lost control of immigration." And a British minister resigns.

Corrupt Europe.

Now it's the head of the Bundesbank.

Mixing Science & Politics.

Gregg Easterbrook on the hypocricy of the Union of Concerned Scientists.

More Immigration & the Welfare State.

Tyler Cowen replies to Brad DeLong on liberalism, immigration and the welfare state.

UPDATE: Brad DeLong responds. Quotable: "I'm not a cosmopolite: I care about myself and my family first; my friends second; my country third; and the world fourth. There are policies that would be good for the world as a whole and yet be bad for my country, and I would have to think long and hard before advocating such policies ... When the share of commodities that can be cheaply traded across national borders is large, trade can effectively substitute for migration. To the extent that freer trade avoids (some of) the political problems generated by freer migration, we economists should concentrate our attention on the first rather than the second ... From a cosmopolitan world perspective, almost all of the costs of maldistribution come from income gaps between nations and very little come from within-nation inequality. Development is far more important from a world welfare perspective than social insurance within rich countries."

Cutting Edge Technology.

Coming to you from the engineering capitals of India, China and South Korea. Meanwhile, America is expending its treasure on post-grad work in Literature, Sociology, and Political Science, otherwise known as Advanced Anti-Liberal Studies. And in an not unrelated development, Americans in droves are turning their backs on the wealth producing fields of engineering and the physical sciences. What can we do to help the geeks in their losing competition with the freaks?

Here's a suggestion -- change the funding system of the university. And here is how. Combine the wealth producing fields of science and engineering into independent universities completely outside the control of the wealth consuming disciplines -- with absolutely independent funding structures. Just a thought.

PNW Salmon.

Wild run vs. Hatchery Salmon and Endangered Species Act

Packing Oranges -- Kepler's Conjecture Proved.

Or is it? "A proof is sometimes a fuzzy concept, subject to whim and personality. Almost no published proof contains every step; there are just too many . .". more NYTimes -- "In Math, Computers Don't Lie. Or Do They?"..

Lefty love for [yet another] Nazi philosopher.

"The charitable reading of all of this is that [Alan] Wolfe is being a tad Straussian, hiding his real attack on the academic Left � which actually likes [Nazi legal theoriest Carl]Schmitt � by feinting an attack on Coulter & Co. Indeed, maybe this is even a wink-and-a-nod to Friedrich Hayek's allusion to "lovers of liberty in all parties." If that's the case, I salute Wolfe, even if I fear that he's being too clever by half.

And then there's the uncharitable reading: namely, that Wolfe is being deliberately sloppy, or intellectually dishonest, by mounting a sweeping guilt-by-association attack on conservatives who have no actual association with a "Nazi philosopher," while breezily forgiving the Left for having a deep, lasting, and revealing association with not just one � but many .. ". more Jonah Goldberg.

FOOTNOTE: Hayek dedicated The Road to Serfdom to "Socialists of All Parties". I've never come across any allusion to "lovers of liberty in all parties" in Hayek's work.

LA Times wins Pulitzers.

These articles on The Wal-Mart Effect were award this years Pulitzer prize for national reporting.

And these editorials on the overspending crisis in Sacramento by Bill Stall were awarded the Pulitzer prize for editorial writing.

Immigration & California.

Those clicking over from the Volokh Conspiracy can find my postings on immigration here and my many posts on the overspending crisis in California here.

HeadsUp: The best coverage of the immigration crisis, the California overspending crisis, and the confluence of the two has come from KFI640's John & Ken radio talk show, a program which has more listeners than the LA Times has readers.

What's your major.

At more and more universities it's entrepreneurship. Via The Entrepreneurial Mind.

Outsourcing.

It's a good thing. Bruce Bartlett has the details.

Immigration & the Welfare State.

Tyler Cowen presents the case for expanded immigration and a somewhat restricted welfare state -- it's a serious argument. I come out differently in my conclusions, an argument I'll expand on later. But the view staked out by Cowen requires serious attending to by those who come out with a different position on either mass immigration or a beefy welfare state. Quotable: " The bigger the welfare state, the more the costs of immigration are socialized in an unfair, unsustainable, and undesirable way. So immigration and the welfare state are substitutes at the relevant margin. I choose immigration .. I prefer high growth, minimum domestic transfers, and a higher rate of immigration. Growth plus resource mobility is the best anti-poverty strategy we are likely to find. And this recipe is closer to classical liberalism than to modern liberalism. I might also add that the United States, through immigration, satisfies the Rawlsian formula better than does Western Europe."

UPDATE: David Bernstein joins the conversation.

This week's

Carnival of the Capitalists hosted by Crazy Pundit.

America's

privatized warriors.

Are economists worth $138,000?

That's the median income at the top 17 government universities. OK, let's do the math -- that must be 10� for every misuse of significance testing, math modeling, the scientific concept of "prediction", or the so-called "rationality hypothesis" in the course of a year. Just kidding.

Wal-Mart vs. Microsoft.

Don't bet against Wal-Mart. Quotable: "It looks like I'm going to have to reconsider something I'd been taking for granted -- that Linux on the desktop, and especially the laptop, was a non-starter in the operating systems race .. ". More Dan Gillmor.

Testing Einstein.

"Gravity Probe B will test .. how the Earth's rotation twists and drags space-time around with it .. the twisting effect, called frame-dragging, has never been directly detected .. ". More BBC NEWS.

Morally Bankrupt Republicans Rule Washington.

The spend, borrow and steal Republicans pass a "highway" bill. Quotable: "The highway bill marks the absolute termination of the Gingrich Revolution ushered in by the 1994 Republican sweep .. Republicans are determined to pass a bill filled with earmarked spending for individual members of Congress. The 1982 highway bill contained only 10 earmarks. The 1991 bill, the last highway bill passed under Democratic leadership, contained 538 such projects. But the addiction for pork has grown so large that the current bill contains at least 3,193 earmarks."

Hayek vs. Stiglitz - The Economics of Bundling.

"Selling items in a package rather than separately is known as bundling. Bundling is viewed with suspicion by politicians, and it has long been considered an activity that justifies interference in markets. For example, in 1948, the Supreme Court banned "block booking," in which movie studios sold movie theaters movies as a package .. At least since [George] Stigler's critique of the Supreme Court decision on "block booking," economists have known that sellers do not engage in bundling as a way of forcing consumers to pay for what they do not want. However, the economic theory of why sellers do engage in bundling is unsettled ..

In the real world, competition is almost always messy. This leads to what I call the conflict between Hayekians and Stiglitzians. Friedrich Hayek believed that local knowledge is important, so that messy markets should be left alone. Joseph Stiglitz believes that economic theory of imperfect markets is important, so that government should intervene. Stiglitzians look for opportunities to fine tune the market whenever it departs from the theoretical model of perfect competition. In theoretically perfect markets, there is no bundling. Stiglitzians can rationalize government intervention in any situation where there is bundling. In practice, however, their choices are somewhat arbitrary. The Europeans recently decided that Microsoft is not allowed to bundle a media player with its software, although nobody stops automobile manufacturers from bundling media players (car stereos) with their products. In theory, the government could intervene everywhere it finds bundling. It could stop stores from offering two-for-one specials. It could ban frequent-flyer miles, which are a form of bundling. It could force cable TV operators to offer service by-the-channel instead of as a package, or by-the-minute instead of by-the-month. It could force cable TV operators to offer service by-the-minute, by-the-channel, for that matter. A Stiglitzian economist could come up with a theory to justify such interventions, based on analysis that fits some features of a market while leaving out others. However, it is impossible for an economist to have a complete picture of the industry's cost structure, the tastes of consumers, potential substitutes, and potential innovations -- all of which need to be taken into account in order to determine the effect of bundling. The Hayekian view is that it is better to allow local knowledge to be applied in a market with messy competition than to ask a central planner to try and dictate outcomes based on his own incomplete information .. ". More Arnold Kling.

Science & Politics.

The NY Times describes the leftist Union of Concerned Scientists as a mere "advocacy group" in a story on the Bush science team's point by point refutation of the UCS's recent partisan attack on the administation. By this definitional logic, we should stop referring to the Times as a left leaning newspaper and begin referring to it as "advocacy group".

Love Bugs.

After 16 years sucking roots, now it's time to mate. And billions of periodical cicadas -- those that didn't get squished or eaten -- will do just that across the Eastern United States. Quotable: "Up to two inches long, periodical cicadas can sound like 'hamburger meat hitting a hot skillet'."

Steyn on Germany.

"Right now, Germany plays host to 175,000 Americans - military personnel plus their families - and reducing that number to 80-90,000 would leave a big hole in an economy that's already looking like a Swiss cheese. See the recent story in Bild: "Can't We Do Anything Any More in Germany?" Also the cover of Der Spiegel: "Germany: A Joke." The joke keeps getting better. Karl Peter Bruch, a state official in Rhineland-Palatinate who's lobbying the Americans to change their minds, put it this way: "We realised that our installations are in grave danger. And then came the question, what can we do to make us more attractive?" "Our" installations? As Daffy Duck famously remarked after losing yet another verbal duel with Bugs Bunny and getting his bill shot off: "Hmm. Pronoun trouble." As to what Germany can do to make itself more attractive to the Yanks, how about this? Spend less time running around playing Mini-Me to Jacques Chirac's Doctor Evil. Just a thought ..

America's main "overstretch" lies not in Afghanistan or the Horn of Africa, but in its historically unprecedented generosity to its wealthiest allies. "The US picks up the defence tab for Europe, Japan, South Korea and Saudi Arabia, among others," I wrote. "If Bush wins a second term, the boys will be coming home from South Korea and Germany, and maybe Japan, too." Well, the second term is not quite here. But America has already quit Saudi Arabia, and plans for South Korea and Germany are well advanced. When scholars come to write the final chapter in the history of the European continent, the six-decade US security guarantee will be seen as, on the whole, a mistake. Not for America, but the Continentals. The so-called "free world" was, for most of its members, a free ride. Absolving wealthy nations of the need to maintain credible armies softens them: they decay, almost inevitably, into a semi-non-aligned status.

.. if Don Rumsfeld wants a light, mobile 21st-century military, the last place to base it is the Continent: given that the term "ally" is now generally used in the post-modern meaning of "duplicitous obstructionist", it's not unlikely that any future Saddamesque scenario would see attempts to throw operational restraints around the use of US forces in Europe. This weekend, for example, nearly 60 per cent of French electors voted Socialist, Communist, Fascist or Green. Most of the rest voted for the "ruling centre-Right" - ie, Chirac. Does that sound like an "ally" that's ever again likely to grant overflight rights to the USAF? Better a nice clean flight plan direct from Missouri or Diego Garcia.

.. Germany has a shrinking economy, an ageing and shrivelling population, and potentially catastrophic welfare liabilities. Yet the average German worker now puts in over 20 per cent fewer hours per year than his American counterpart, and no politician who wishes to remain electorally viable would propose closing the gap. Germany, like much of Europe, has a psychological investment in longer holidays, free healthcare, early retirement, unsustainable welfare programmes, decrepit military: the fact that these policies spell national suicide is less important than that they distinguish Europe from the less enlightened Americans.

.. Germany has paid $132 billion and then some to France, Belgium, Italy and co in net EU contributions. And, as predicted, bankruptcy looms. From Belgian steel to Italian agriculture to French colonial subventions, the entire European project has been financed by Germany. Even a rare fellow contributor such as Britain owes its brief romance with the Common Market to German success: in stagnant pre-Thatcher Britain, the business community looked enviously across the Channel and figured that yoking the British economy to Europe would cut 'em a little piece of that rich German stollen. But there's no stollen left to steal: Germany is the sick man of Europe, and too risk-averse to try any cure other than sugary placebos such as the dismal "Year of Innovation" Mr Schr�der has declared 2004 to be. He has appointed an Innovation Council. The first sign of a genuinely innovative culture is that it's too busy innovating to have an Innovation Council .. ". More MARK STEYN. UPDATE: DVH -- Lovin� Europe by Leavin�.

LA Times readers want to know ..

"Why did the original [LA Times] story [on Antonin Scalia] have so many errors that made Scalia look bad?" Patterico has the juice.

Effort to Gut California Three Strikes Law.

"The initiative is a pig in a poke. It's being sold as a combination "child protection" bill and a reasonable amendment of Three Strikes. It is neither. It is a wish list for defense attorneys .. And calling it a "child protection" act is one of the most brazen lies I have ever seen. This initiative will result in the release of violent criminals who will victimize children. More Patterico's Pontifications.

France.

"French dirigisme is saved from the utter disaster that Americans often predict for it by the relentless intellectual elitism of its educational system .. The famous grandes �coles are designed to produce a competent, if arrogant, elite, who are destined from their early adulthood to control everything from politics to telecommunications .. ". From a review of the book Sixty Million Frenchmen Can't Be Wrong : Why We Love France but Not the French

PC Police.

Columbia University, founded in 1754, has removed the Christian cross from it's official Columbia Univerity logo.

California in Crisis.

Public employees earn 6 figures and retire at 90 percent pay at age 50, community college teachers work 4 days a week, 9 months of the year and are paid $160,000+, prison guards earn tens of thousands more than school teachers -- you get the idea. California has the 8th highest tax burden in the nation, and still overspends its tax base by more than 9 billion dollars every year. OC Register's STEVEN GREENHUT explains CALIFORNIA'S OVERSPENDING CRISIS.

Blog Recommends.

Glenn Reynolds, Hugh Hewitt, Roger Simon and James Lileks pick their favorite blogs.

California in Freefall.

The well known NABISCO plant along I-5 in Buena Park is halting production. Quotable: "Last week's news that the cookie and cracker plant is closing shook the 235 workers and left them wondering what will happen next. Many of them have worked at the plant for 20 years or more. During that time, the manufacturing job market in California has turned almost pitch black, leaving the soon-to-be jobless workers with few options .. California has lost 355,000 manufacturing jobs in the past three years, according to the Employment Development Department. And unlike the national employment numbers, manufacturing in California will still have a hard go of it because of the high costs of doing business in the state, said Jack Stewart, president of the California Manufacturers and Technology Association.

The cost of doing business is 32 percent higher in California than in neighboring states, he said. That includes soaring workers-compensation costs, high energy costs and expensive environmental regulation. Companies often increase productivity by buying better equipment and cutting workers, he said. Those jobs than move to cheaper states. Nevada, together with Texas and other neighboring states, have lower wages, lower energy costs and lower taxes, Stewart said.

"It's pretty much a no-brainer where you are going to move production," he said.

Source: OC Register -- "Nabisco closure plants seeds of concern".

Michael Kelly.

A collection of his last writings is out: Things Worth Fighting For: Collected Writings

Kelly, of course, was the Atlantic Monthly war correspondent killed during the taking of Baghdad.

Worth a read -- Ron Rosenbaum, "We Miss Mike Kelly". Quotable: "I�m still bitter about Michael Kelly�s death. This is something I realized when I went to an event in his memory on March 17, nearly a year after he was killed in a Humvee while covering the war in Iraq. I didn�t expect to get as upset as did. I hardly knew Mike Kelly; we shared an editor, Robert Vare, and our paths had crossed while writing for him. In addition, I�d written a couple of pieces for Mike (and Vare) when Mike was editing The Atlantic. But I think I know from those few encounters why he meant so much to the people who really did know him well. There are some people who strike you immediately by a kind of natural goodness that goes beyond good nature. Like obscenity in the Supreme Court opinion, natural goodness is something that�s hard to define, but you know it when you see it .. ". More Ron Rosenbaum.

UPDATE: USNews has an interview with Kelly's widow.

And here is Atlantic Monthly editor Robert Vare on Kelly.

Also. The Atlantic Monthly has this: "It was Koppel who brought Mike's personal effects, including those notebooks, back to his family. He writes [in the introduction to Things Worth Fighting For]:

"The sacrifices that both Michael and I had imposed on our wives and children had been the subject of one long, late-night conversation in the desert. Many marriages in our profession don't survive the separations and the accumulated pressures of lengthy and dangerous assignments. We marveled at the enormous generosity and toughness of our wives and how fortunate we were in the freedom they had given us. There's never a truly equitable payback, but as we talked that night, I don't think it occurred to either of us that Michael might be denied even the opportunity to try."

It is impossible for someone with young kids not to be moved by those like Kelly -- good men with a purpose -- who died leaving young kids.

Bush vs. Kerry.

"Whichever one is elected, we're going to get a moderately social democracy with a moderately multilateralist foriegn policy, with moderately increasing levels of spending and regulation of high-profile industries, and roughly level taxation. From a [liberal] perspective, worrying excessively about whether an elephant or a donkey overseas it all is rearranging the deck chairs on the titanic .. ". more Asymmetrical Information.

Union Made - Rustbelt USA.

Fortune magazine on The Sinking of Bethlehem Steel (subscription required for the juice of the article). Bottom Line: corporate bosses let unions bankrupt the company through wage, health and retirement obligations, which far outstripped inflation. These same corporate bosses also looted the company, with the highest wage and benefit packages in corporate America. A sad case of America at its very worst.

John Kerry.

John Kerry and the Phoenix Project make the Boston Globe, sort of.

Leftywood.

Sitcoms joins the Hollywood Hate Bush club.

Richard Clarke.

"the climactic confession ``I failed you'' -- the one that packed the emotional punch -- was entirely disingenuous. Clarke did the mea culpa then spent the next 2 1/2 hours of testimony -- as he did on every talk show known to man and in the 300 pages of his book -- demonstrating how everyone else except Richard Clarke had failed .. Clarke's clever pseudo-apology -- we failed, meaning, they failed -- played perfectly to the families in the gallery, who applauded and warmly embraced the very man who for 12 years was the U.S. government official most responsible for preventing a Sept. 11. A neat trick .. ". more Charles Krauthammer.

U.S. Manufacturing.

"A U.S. manufacturing index unexpectedly rose last month as production increased and more factories added workers than at any time since Ronald Reagan was president. ``Plain and simple, this report tells us that the manufacturing sector is smoking,'' said Stephen Stanley, chief economist at RBS Greenwich Capital in Greenwich, Connecticut. ``The breadth of the expansion as well as its speed is breathtaking.'' The Institute for Supply Management's factory index for March rose to 62.5, close to a two-decade high of 63.6 in January, from 61.4. The index has now exceeded 50, signaling expansion, for 11 months. The number of Americans filing initial unemployment claims dropped to 342,000 last week from a revised 345,000 and producer prices rose less than expected in February, the Labor Department said in Washington. The purchasing managers' employment index rose to 57, the highest since December 1987, from 56.3 the prior month .. " more Bloomberg.

CHRISTOPHER HITCHENS.

On Fallujah and the war.

John Kekes.

"This coercive stifling of opinion permeates daily life, not just our campuses. It is very hard to think of an area of life that is free of the exhortation of intrusive moralizing .. ". more JOHN KEKES.

Jobs.

Here they come. Non-farm payrolls expand by 308,000 in March.

Blog Profile.

The American Spectator profiles The American Thinker.

Leftist Tufts vs. Academic Freedom.

"You don't have to be at Tufts for too long before you notice one thing: there is not a whole lot of diversity here .. Sure, Tufts can boast of an ethnically diverse faculty .. If you look more than skin-deep, however, you'll notice that this place resembles more closely a political party .. ". more Philipp Tsipman, Tufts Daily

Area Studies Scholars vs. America.

"Many of the professors who benefit from Title VI subsidies are actively hostile to the idea of training students who might serve in our defense or intelligence agencies .. ". more Stanley Kurtz.