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".

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.

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".