This preliminary study started with a blog post I did several months ago entitled “New Jersey, the Sorry State”, a deep dive into Bureau of Labor Statistics data showing that my state is hardly generating employment outside the government sector.
The blame for this sorry state of affairs I heaped on NJ’s political culture, which is [...]

Ann Elk: Where? Oh, what is my theory? This is it. My theory that belongs to me is as follows. This is how it goes. The next thing I’m going to say is my theory. Ready?
TV Interviewer: Yes.
Ann Elk: … This theory goes as follows and begins now. All brontosauruses are thin at one end; [...]

If you want to understand Democrat fantasies in the absence of financial constraint or common sense, read Reed Hundt’s book, “In China’s Shadow.” Reed Hundt is a permanent member of the American politcal class, a Yalie, a partner in a high-powered law firm, head of Bill Clinton’s FCC, and a member of Barack Obama’s transition [...]

In thinking of protectionism, the Great Depression, the Great Recession, and what might come next, here are two interesting angles.
Governments with their backs against the wall
Ideally, stabilisation using monetary and fiscal policy, alongside actions by the private sector, should restrain the decline in consumption, and yield conditions which are not too harsh for households. At [...]

From Politico 44: You’re invited — On the jobs summit list …
“CONFIRMED ATTENDEES INCLUDE: Eric Schmidt, Google; Randall Stevenson, AT&T; Surya Mohapatra, Qwest ; Frederick Smith, Fed Ex; Brian Roberts, Comcast; Bob Iger, Disney; James McNerney, Boeing; Andrew Livens, Dow; Peter Solmssen, Siemens; Stephanie Burns, Dow Corning; Phaedra Ellis Lamkins, Green for All; Reed [...]

I dropped in on the St. Louis Tea Party event Saturday at Kiener Plaza in St. Louis. Typical sub-par cell phone photo with special glare augmentation A crowd photo by Julie Stone:

My guesstimate — and I’m not great at these things, so I could be way off — is 1,000-1,500 people attending the event. Far [...]

In Wednesday’s edition of WSJ, Johnny Munkhammar and Nima Sanandaji wrote a well-argued dissussion (link) on how Eastern Europe’s advantage in terms of competitive tax rates, low tax burden and sizeable reform efforts in emerging from the crisis offer a great lesson for economic recovery of the Western counterparts.

If you are unfamiliar with hawala banking then I recommend reading Hawala Banking And Currency Controls Part I to become familiar with the concept before reading further.  If you are familiar with how hawala banking works then you will probably know that hawala transactions are not inherently wrong and should not arouse any suspicion in [...]

Folks, I have bad news for you. The Barack Obama Health Care Reform (shepherded through by Nancy Pelosi) will be, as written, an utter and unmitigated disaster. It attempts to do two things which are, in combination, impossible. First, it makes health insurance much more widely available through the mind-boggling deal it made with the [...]

Here’s a short brief (link) by The Economist on effective tax rates around the world. At a stunning 55 percent effective tax rate on annual gross earning of $100,000, Slovenia is the most heavily taxed country on earth followed by India, Italy, Sweden and Argentina.

Source: The Economist (link)