The Red White and Blue Pill
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.
‘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.
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.
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
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