Newmark's Door

"The Forgotten Man of the Tax Debate"

Interesting testimony from a small business owner.

Now, finance theory, at least the one called the Modigliani-Miller theorem, argues that the market is basically indifferent to how a business is financed. Debt or equity, it matters not. If taxes are so high that I can’t save cash to reinvest in my business, it doesn’t matter, because if the expected return of investment in my business is greater than the cost of capital, the market will provide.

However, neither Modigliani nor Miller has been in contact with my banker, who seems unaware of financial theory. When we expanded our farm recently by purchasing a neighboring place, the lender required at least 35 per cent of the purchase price as a down payment. That would be cash. It mattered not the capital gains tax rate, the cost of capital, the expected return, or what Obama considers fair. Business is hard and cash is king.

"What You Need to Succeed—and How to Find Out If You Have It"

No surprise--at least to me--it's more than test scores and Ivy League degrees.

"Where the Jobs Will Be in 2020"

Geographic, not occupational. 

Think warm weather. And, of course, Washington D.C.

"On the horrors of getting approval for an ice-cream parlour in San Francisco"

Want greater economic growth? This is the kind of crap that we should stop ASAP.

Link via Instapundit.

Also: "Tech startups facing unexpected challenge: the government".

"The Admiring Ignorant"

Short essay on the joys of teaching English comp to today's youth:

In terms of an academic lifetime, I'm still a relative newborn, yet I feel like I know a bit more about the frustration and exhaustion that might cause a college professor to wonder if he had wasted his life. I once received a paper wherein the student claimed that "John Lenin" had used his career in the Beatles as a stepping stone to seize control of Russia; last year, I read a paper that advanced the idea that "back in the day" — by which the writer meant the 1990s — people didn’t commit adultery, and homosexuality didn't exist.\

Our system was designed--and one reason we should revere it--to balance the rights of majorities and minorities

Two different topics, two different lines of analysis, but they reach the same important conclusion.

Mike Munger: "Can't Help It: Majorities Suck".

Majorities suck. Why would anyone expect to find rectitude in the multitude?

And if we don't trust majorities to choose morality / religion / restrictions on speech for the rest of us, why would anyone trust voters to pick the right candidate? After taking these abuses, I'm warming to the Electoral College. It recognizes the importance of states in the Constitution, it increases motives for participation in battleground states, and it gives voters in small states more of a say. Sure, there are good arguments against the Electoral College, but just saying that "majorities should always get their way" means you need to go back to school.

The US is not a democracy. We don't trust majorities, because of stupid stuff like slavery and the Alien and Sedition Act, and the Patriot Act, and Prop 8. There is nothing special about the majority will, it's just what most people happen to believe.

Ross Douhat: "Catholics, Conscience and Contraception".

The logic that he’s applying to orthodox Catholics could be applied just as easily to the Amish, the Jehovah’s Witnesses, Orthodox Jews, and a host of other groups that don’t have the kind of institutional resources that Roman Catholicism can muster in its own defense. Yes, sometimes state interests are compelling enough to trump religious liberties, and defenders of this mandate have every right to make that case. But the argument that the state’s interests can trump religious liberties so long as the group of people being asked to violate their consciences is small enough is not an argument at all. It’s just a raw appeal to power.

"‘The Left’ and Public Choice Theory"

Superb post. In the current intense debate about the role of government public choice theory is the trump card of conservatives. (Link via Cafe Hayek.)

From a public choice standpoint, however, if the modern social democratic state is the major source of special interest power then by far the most effective way to reduce this power would be to dismantle the apparatus of anti-competitive intervention in markets. This does not require an egalitarian fantasy land where all inequality is abolished. Rather, it requires a framework of limited government where inequalities which reflect superior performance and entrepreneurial ingenuity are welcomed but where those that reflect the power of crony capitalists, crony union bosses and public sector bureaucrats are reduced to a minimum.

"Caterpillar shuns home state for N.C."

How's it going, Illinois? Sooner or later, anti-business policies catch up with you.

"The Galileo of Global Warming"

As Arte Johnson might say, "Verrrry interesting."

So if Svensmark is right, lower solar radiation means more cosmic rays, more clouds, and a cooler Earth, while higher solar radiation means fewer cosmic rays, fewer clouds, and a warmer Earth.

Those who have followed the global warming controversy over the years may recall that cloud-formation is one of the major gaps in the computerized climate "models" used by the consensus scientists to predict global warming. They have never had a theory to explain how and why clouds form or to account accurately for their effect on the climate. Svensmark has smashed through this glaring gap in their theory.

"Mass Hysteria in Upstate New York"

Hysteria--you know its Greek root, right?--is apparently real.

Larry Kotlikoff for president!

About time we had an academic economist as president!

And if Larry won, we'd probably get the bonus of having my old boss, Ed Leamer, be Secretary of the Treasury. A Bayesian econometrician in the Cabinet would have to be good, right?

Some say buy, some say sell: one reason why we have markets

Sell. Sell now! "The insiders are selling heavily".

No, buy. Buy! "The cash conundrum revisited".

The famous Valentines for the Fed Twitter feed

Thrill to the outrageous humor of econonerds:

I'd like to borrow you overnight and then hold you to maturity.

Roses are red, violets are blue, thank you for Twist and, of course, QE2!

Hey baby, we're too big to fail.

When I get that feeling I want quantitative easing. [Ed. note: Marvin Gaye, call your office.]

Animation of annual Bakken shale oil production, 1985 to 2010

Drill, baby, drill.

Link via Carpe Diem.

One of the horrors of living on the Upper West Side

Chain stores are replacing boutiques! Where, oh where, will UWSers go on their lunch hours? Don't the chains know there is a fundatmental right to browse in cute shops?

John Podhoretz takes this goofy complaint down hard. 

"The Costs of Higher Education"

This is such a close match to my experience it's as if the author attended my college. The bit about students making their own decisions is perfect.

I fondly remember my days as an undergraduate at the University of Wisconsin-Madison some three decades ago. During my time at Madison, I never saw an advisor. The course catalog would be delivered in bulk to Memorial Union (and other locations) and the university assumed that their adult students could make their own decisions about courses, the coherence of their schedules, and the number of courses they wanted to take in any given semester (if it took you longer to graduate than the standard four years, it was your problem). The one year I lived in university housing (a cooperative), I slept in a bunk bed in a cement block room with one window.  The food was rather bland—lots of starch, little in the way of protein—and you had your choice of milk or water (things were a little better in the dorms, but not much). Since no one owned televisions, if you wanted to watch TV you went to a commons area or hit a bar. If you wanted to exercise, you went to a gym that was equipped with an assortment of old steel benches, iron weights, punching bags, and stationary bikes.

UCLA has a course that matches my youth

"America in the Sixties: Politics, Society, and Culture, 1954-1974."

A mistake avoided

Rosie O'Donnell tried out for the role of Elaine Benes on Seinfeld.

Can you imagine?

UPDATE: link fixed now. Thanks to all those who notified me.

"Spoiler alert! What makes a great ending?"

Interesting: "The endings of novels are, in their own way, as crucial as the endings of years, but they are much less discussed."

"The 16 Greatest Cities In Human History"

Ayutthaya, the "world's largest city in 1700 AD," was new to me.

Cowabunga

"The incredible spot off the British coast that could produce the biggest surfable waves on Earth at 120ft-high".

"This Site & Free Speech are being investigated"

The North Carolina state government--having, of course, solved all the pressing problems facing NC--is investigating a blogger for posting useful diet information without a license. 

Great, just great.

Link via Instapundit.

Dilbert on professional portfolio management

Caveat emptor.

Conservatives deeply suspicious of Mitt: take it easy

William Tucker nicely summarizes the potential strengths of a nominee Mitt.

Three at the buzzer!

"Ohhhhh . . . ohhhhhh . . . unbelievable!" (Dickie V. at his most eloquent.)

The best was the shot of a very proud dad and sister. More here.

"Lover to Lover"

Florence + the Machine.

Wail, Ms. Florence, wail.

Two on Detroit

One:

At times, watching the film is like watching the ultimate American nightmare. It can be hard to believe it’s a documentary. . . .

“We love our magic bullets,” says Ewing, who is originally from the city, “but it’s not going to be a magic bullet that saves Detroit.”

Two:

The massive abandonment has invidious, far-reaching effects for the Detroiters who remain. Over the last year, there have been an average of 35 major fires a day in the city.

"The Lost Roles of Animal House"

Another interesting story of what coulda been. More specifically, it could have been lousy. Jack Webb as Dean Wormer? Meat Loaf as Blutarsky??

Forecasting is difficult. Especially about the future.

"Robert Heinlein’s predictions for the Year 2000 (from 1952)".

1. Interplanetary travel is waiting at your front door — C.O.D. It's yours when you pay for it. . . . 

12. Intelligent life will be found on Mars.

Why I claim it's not so much better pay that's needed for better teachers . . .

. . . it's better working conditions. An L.A.-area high school teacher writes:

My school has two full-time police officers, a full-time probation officer and several full-time security personnel to handle about 3,800 students. Yet we still have a hard time keeping kids from smoking pot on a regular basis in our restrooms.

Today's teacher must be highly skilled in her subject matter just to make it into the classroom, more so than at any other time in the history of education. She also must play the role of parent, custodian, psychologist, drug and alcohol interventionist and parole officer, to name a few.

On a recent Wednesday, my second-period class was interrupted by a student who overdosed on alcohol and Ecstasy and nearly died. Earlier in the year, one of our students was shot in the face and hospitalized. Last year, a student was shot in the neck and paralyzed for life; one of my students was standing next to him when it happened. The year before that, one of my students was inside her house when her sister, sitting in a car outside, was shot and blinded in one eye in a gang drive-by. The baby she was holding was struck by a bullet and killed.

Worst of all? The teacher doesn't work in downtown L.A. or South Central. She teaches in Reseda. Dude, that's the Valley!

"Is Universal Access to Good, Healthy Food Really a Problem?"

All that complaining about "food deserts" may well be--surprise!--bogus.

It's fashionable to blame a lack of access to good food for America's lousy eating habits. It may be easier to plunk down a new Walmart in the inner city. (And the schemes may also help cash-starved politicians generate corporate campaign contributions.) But the Cooking Matters survey is more evidence that helping families to eat better is a lot more complicated.