Stable Genius Liberal

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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?

How German Solar Has Made All German Electricity Cheaper

The Fraunhofer Institute found that – as a result of the Merit Order ranking system – solar power had reduced the price of electricity on the EPEX exchange by 10 percent on the average, with reductions peaking at up to 40 percent in the early afternoon when the most solar power is generated.

Its amazing how public policy can work when it isn’t subverted by zealots and shills chanting Drill Baby Drill.

TPM Confirms Andrew Breitbart Dead At 43

I wasn’t a fan. And I disliked his involvement in the political discussion as he made everything he touched toxic. But if you are cheering his death then you are a ghoul. His wife and kids don’t deserve the pain of seeing you cheer his suddent death.

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Pundits in good standing have been expected to make calls for bipartisanship that involve pretending that Republican politicians are actually the kind of statesmen the party used to contain, but no longer does. Looking Back With Shrillness – NYTimes.com

Why Nations Fail: Uzbekistan Extractive institutions in action

Like almost all nations that are poor, Uzbekistan fails because its people operate under extractive economic institutions, which provide few incentives for investment or technological ingenuity, and force people to engage in activities that they do not wish or are not well-suited to (such as farmers being forced to grow crops that they don’t want and children being forced to pick cotton rather than learn in school). And the important point is this: these extractive economic institutions are not there by mistake. They have been designed this way for the benefit of the elite. There was no coerced child labor in Uzbekistan when cotton was produced by state-owned firms.

Amazing article from a new favorite blog.

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A good rule of thumb is that if politicians are talking about the price of gas, they’re talking nonsense. This week is no exception. Higher gas prices: The Republican plan to blame high gas prices on President Obama. – Slate Magazine

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After we sat down, we asked the waitress for a coffee. She thanked us for our order and immediately turned and walked out the front door. My friend explained that the owner of the bookstore/café couldn’t get a license to provide coffee. She had tried to just buy a coffee machine and give the coffee… Continue reading Untitled

ScienceNOW: Findings suggest that privilege promotes dishonesty

To see whether dishonesty varies with social class, psychologist Paul Piff of the University of California, Berkeley, and colleagues devised a series of tests, working with groups of 100 to 200 Berkeley undergraduates or adults recruited online. Subjects completed a standard gauge of their social status, placing an X on one of 10 rungs of a ladder representing their income, education, and how much respect their jobs might command compared with other Americans. The team’s findings suggest that privilege promotes dishonesty. For example, upper-class subjects were more likely to cheat.

Freakanomics’ bagel story reports the same findings. There was more theft of bagels at the wealthier client sites and more theft on executive floors.

O’Reilly and Dobbs to Obama: Be More Socialist!

O’Reilly and Dobbs were saying that Obama should be taking more coercive action than he’s taking. Against whom? Oil companies. Both O’Reilly and Dobbs emphasized that U.S. oil companies don’t own the oil they think they own. Who owns it? We do, according to O’Reilly and Dobbs. And not we, as in you and me, but we, as in the U.S. government. Dobbs advocated “jaw-boning” oil companies into charging lower prices. He also advocated some kind of government slush trust fund that the oil companies would fund with a special tax. Both O’Reilly and Dobbs got upset about oil companies exporting gasoline. So, based on this and other O’Reilly/Dobbs pronouncements, exports of oil products are bad, exports of other products are good, and imports of almost everything are bad. They must have a very interesting economic model.

Henderson is being just a little unfair to O’Reilly. But other than that, this is just too good not to share.