Read Doug Irwin on this controversial topic. Doug is arguably America’s leading trade economist these days. He writes: “Has U.S. manufacturing been vaporized in the process? No–manufacturing production has risen about 40 percent over the past decade. Despite lower wages abroad, foreign firms have chosen to produce cars made by high-wage workers here, including Honda […]
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“Just Say No to Drugs” would be forbidden at Illinois State University, too:
Pete Guither writes, apropos my post about the UCLA speech code that prohibits any references, direct or indirect, to alcohol, illegal drugs, and crime in posters distributed in campus housing: Thought you might like to know that I’ve been dealing with a similar situation at Illinois State University. Illinois State’s policy is only slightly less […]
Further Reflections on Bush and Clinton-Hating:
Beyond cultural dissonance, what drives liberals so crazy about Bush is that they think, no, know, that deep down he is a very conservative man, with a very conservative agenda, but he refuses to run an overtly ultraconservative adminsitration they can argue and run against. They would love it if he would not only “cut […]
The art of Russian cuisine:
Hosted a party for my Russian class yesterday; I made chicken liver pate and borshch from my mother’s cookbook, my professor made syrniki (sweet cheese patties), and Hanah, as she describes here, made smetannik, a two-layer sponge cake with a sour cream/whipped cream/walnut frosting (definitely one of the best Russian cakes).
New Hampshire, one more time
Mickey Kaus notes: Psst: President Bush got 87% of the vote in the Republican primary. Isn’t that not so good? Answer: The New Hampshire primary’s just like that. Dozens of candidates pay the filing fee and get their names listed on the ballot, and many of them spend serious time conducting their more-or-less unserious campaigns […]
Why Paul Craig Roberts is important:
Paul Craig Roberts wrote Alienation and the Soviet Economy, first published in 1971. An entire generation of market-oriented economists were influenced by this book. Many of us envied Roberts for the work. It combined history, history of ideas, analysis, and political science into a brilliant whole. He was the first American economist to flesh out […]
George Bush, Liberal Darling:
For those of you arriving at this post via Brad DeLong or Mark Schmitt, FOLLOWUPS to this post can be found, in reverse chronological order, here, here, and here. Huge increases in spending on education and other domestic programs that are not even within the federal government’s constitutional purview; a new prescription drug entitlement for […]
Fake Nike Ad:
A reader alerted me to a purported Nike ad, using imagery from a terrorist bombing in Israel to sell sneakers. The reader suggested that the ad was likely fake; it was soon forwarded to me by a friend, who assumed it was real. Snopes verdict: fake!
Lieberman Campaign, RIP:
No wonder Lieberman has been doing so poorly thus far. I caught him on Larry King last night, and he was emphasizing how moderate he is, how he is indeed a conservative Democrat, how he loves working with moderate Republicans like John McCain, etc., etc. Joe: this is the stuff for general election campaigns, not […]
A bit more on Paul Craig Roberts:
A reader writes: “I’m not totally sure why you’re spending so much time on this guy. Is he significant in some way?” Well, here’s his bio, from townhall.com, where he’s a regular columnist; his column also runs in the Washington Times: Paul Craig Roberts is the John M. Olin fellow at the Institute for Political […]
Brad DeLong makes a mistake:
In preparing for office hours, Brad dialectically downs 40 ounces of Coke. Thrasymakhos: Ah. Proof that demand for some commodities is effectively unbounded! Glaukon: What are you talking about? Thrasymakhos: Diet coke. You’re buying two bottles of diet coke. And not just two normal bottles. Two 20 oz. bottles. That’s 40 oz. of diet coke […]
Does Lawrence v. Texas recognize a fundamental constitutional right to sexual autonomy? There was a hot debate about this following the Lawrence decision; I argued here that it does. Today’s Eleventh Circuit decision upholding Florida’s statutory ban on adoptions by practicing homosexuals shows the importance of this question. The Eleventh Circuit correctly points out that […]
Claim to fame: The person credited for writing the Ctrl-Alt-Delete code is retiring. (It’s not clear from the story whether he also hit on the idea of using Ctrl-Alt-Delete as the restart sequence.) Thanks to How Appealing for the pointer.
The remarkable Paul Craig Roberts:
Columnists Paul Craig Roberts begins a recent column with a criticism of the income tax — something that certainly could be criticized — but then says (emphasis added): Compare an American taxpayer’s situation today with that of a 19th century American slave. Not all slaves worked on cotton plantations. Some with marketable skills were leased […]
Missouri update:
The flood of e-mail on the Missouree-Missourah question has run about 3-1 in favor of people saying “I’m from there/ grew up there/ have family there, and I’ve never heard anyone say Missourah who wasn’t on TV– they only say that in rural areas in the southwest of the state.” Some of the others claim […]