Stable Genius Liberal

Peter Schiff: In the 19th century we were quite undemocratic in the way government ran, and we benefited from that lack of democracy.

Someone should ask Mr. Schiff if women, blacks, the Irish et al; benefited from that lack of democracy as much as he imagines he would have.

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If you want to grow slightly alarmed about the American future, contemplate not just the scale of our trade deficit with China but the fact that our largest export to them by a wide margin is soybeans. America’s Customers Are Mostly Nearby

Lost Leonardo da Vinci Mural Behind False Wall?

My first thought was Oh, no…Dan Brown is going to write another novel now.

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(via ThinkGeek :: Japanese Kigurumi Cosplay Pajamas)

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Mayan calendar didn’t have a leap year. So it would already be Mayan year 2013.

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Low-income students with high test scores are less likely to finish college than high-income students with low test scores (via Equality of Opportunity? Never Mind – NYTimes.com)

Mankiw: Capital Gains vs. Ordinary Income, a little puzzle on policy.

If you have a job, the money you are paid for your work is ordinary income. If you buy an asset at one time and sell it later for a higher price, the profit you made from holding it is a capital gain. But is it really that easy? Consider five examples, and see if you can identify what is ordinary income and what is a capital gain.

Really great explanation. A must read.

Cenk Uygur: A Challenge to Rush: Prove Your Ratings

How many listeners does Rush Limbaugh have? Well, in the press there are only two numbers you’ll ever see – 20 million or 15 million. Those are large numbers, so that is why Limbaugh is taken seriously and is believed to be influential. I’ve got news for you – those numbers are a total fabrication. They’re made up out of whole cloth. You want to know where the 20 million number came from? It was first printed in Billboard magazine back in 1993.

Cenk doesn’t buy Rush’s claim and neither do I. There has never been an independent accounting of his listener count. He doesn’t subscribe to any of the radio ratings services. Back in Air America days, there was a discussion that Rush was only in the top-ten in one of the top 20 markets. He had been in the top 25 in NYC only once in the prior 36 months.

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‘Axis of Evil’ Author David Frum on Breitbart (by SamSeder) …writes the guy who coined axis of evil. (Source: https://www.youtube.com/)

The invisible welfare state of the top one percent

“Indirect social policies offer benefits that are comparable to direct social benefits both in their purposes and in their costs,” Mettler and Koch write. “Both are targeted to specific groups of people, aimed to reward some kind of activity or some class of persons whom policymakers deem worthy of public support. From an accounting perspective, as well, both types have the same effect: They impose costs on the federal budget, whether incurred through fiscal obligations or lost revenues.”

Notice the complete lack of discussion of austerity for the parts of the welfare state that support the wealthiest?