Submitted by CARPE DIEM
Let’s hear it for irony. In almost simultaneous events last week, Congress attacked baseball players for taking performance-enhancing drugs while at the same time supporting artificial and temporary stimulus for the U.S. economy no matter what the long-term costs.
Many people don’t like professional baseball players using steroids because they mask the underlying […]

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Submitted by CARPE DIEM

1. Internet access in Cuba is highly restricted, but the video above, made by several university students there, was recently leaked to the BBC and posted on YouTube, showing them grilling the speaker of parliament and voicing their complaints about wages, unfavorable currency rules and unfair elections. Things like this have been […]

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Submitted by CARPE DIEM
 
Wal-Mart Stores, the world’s largest retailer, reported today its renewed focus on low prices paid off with a 4% rise in profit for its fourth quarter as holiday shoppers bought discounted groceries and home electronics as well as health and wellness products.
International growth also helped boost profit and sales. Stores in 13 […]

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Submitted by CARPE DIEM

New Reason.tv episode with Drew Carey:
Vikki Reyes has had it with Locke High, the school her daughters attend in the Watts neighborhood of Los Angeles. She walked in on class one day and recalls “the place was just like a zoo!” Students had taken control, while the teacher sat quietly with a […]

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Submitted by CARPE DIEM

NEW YORK (Fortune) — Economic conservatives should take heart. John McCain’s chief economic advisor - and perhaps his closest political friend - is the ultimate pure play in free market faith, former Texas Senator Phil Gramm (Ph.D Economics, University of Georgia, 1967).
If McCain follows Gramm’s counsel, and most of his current […]

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Submitted by CARPE DIEM

HT: George Roesner
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Submitted by Businomics Blog
The Wall Street Journal interviewed Jerry Sheer, CEO of Sparta Social Networks, in this article (subscription required) Unfortunately, neither the reporter nor the interviewee really made the case for social networks as a profit-increasing tool.  But the case is there to be made.  Try my article, “Business Uses for Web 2.0: How […]

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Submitted by The Capital Spectator
The future remains as murky as ever, but the questions are becoming increasingly obvious.
Let’s start with three. There are many more, of course, but these three seem particularly topical and so knowing the answers to the following questions—topics, really– would be immensely helpful for enhancing investment returns and all but eliminating […]

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Submitted by CARPE DIEM
Lesson Two: Market forces, not government regulation, provide the most effective impetus for higher gas mileage. America’s Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) law — the latest version of which requires car companies to average 35 mpg across their model lineups by 2020 — provides posturing for politicians and comfort for their more-gullible […]

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Submitted by unsettling economics
A very troubling report:
http://cas.umkc.edu/aaup/facadv23.html
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Submitted by Econbrowser
Some thoughts on what to make of the trade and export/import price releases.
First, a recap of what’s happened to the nominal value of the dollar, both against a broad basket of currencies, and against the major currencies.

Figure 1: Nominal value of the dollar against a broad basket (blue), and against a basket of […]

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Submitted by Businomics Blog
The New York Times reports that the stimulus package $168 billion stimulus package will generate an estimated 500,000 new jobs.  Greg Mankiw does the math:
“In other words, each job created adds $336,000 to the national debt.”
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