December 2010
33 posts
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Alfred Kahn
The world of economics lost a giant this week.
Rest in peace, Alfred Kahn.Amplify’d from www.wallstreetjournal.comFew if any regulators view their primary mission as shrinking their own bureaucratic realm, but we can be grateful that Alfred Kahn did. In the late 1970s he dismantled the political controls with which Washington had run the airline industry since the New Deal. In giving up power,...
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Who says money can't buy love? Not $GM
Who needs cars or even customers when you’ve got well-fed bankers & the Obama administration on your side?
Conflict of interest? Nah…Amplify’d from www.wallstreetjournal.com
General Motors Co. won high marks from major Wall Street banks Tuesday as they touted overseas growth and a made-over balance sheet as reasons to buy the car maker’s stock. In a series...
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The Right Way to Balance the Budget
Cut. Cut. And cut some more.Amplify’d from www.wallstreetjournal.comThe federal debt is at its highest level since the aftermath of World War II—and it’s projected to rise further. Simply stabilizing debt levels would require an immediate and permanent 23% increase in all federal tax revenues or equivalent cuts in government expenditures, according to Congressional Budget Office forecasts....
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Time for Tough Choices
Our responsibility as voters - and our responsibility to future generations - is to make the difficult choices that previous generations deferred. And we must demand that our representatives do the same.
Yes, the old deserve dignity, but the young absolutely deserve hope. Without the young, we have no future.Amplify’d from www.newsweek.comI received my Medicare card the other day, recognizing...
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Why you should make your competitors your... →
I’ve always made it a point to talk to my competitors - as a matter of fact, some of the smartest people I’ve met (and also some of my eventual best friends) are people who, at least at one point in time, were competitors.
Competition is healthy but don’t let it go overboard. Great read - agree 100%.
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Online Travel About to Get Re-Reinvented
Does anyone other than their competition really think Google entering the travel business is going to do anything other than make consumers’ lives easier?
Yes this will cause issues for Kayak’s IPO but that’s progress - did we hear this much whining when Expedia, Priceline, etc.. were putting traditional travel agents out of business 10 years ago?
Microsoft is simply against...
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I Don't Need No Stinkin' Badges
I am really beginning to doubt the long-term value of independent location-based tools like Foursquare and Gowalla. While I’m an admitted early adopter who will generally play with shiny new toys, they are also last year’s toys, and are getting very tired.
I’ve never understood why I care about others - particularly those I don’t know - knowing my whereabouts. My real...
“Unfortunately, the prophets of climate doom violate this idea. No matter what...”
– The Abiding Faith Of Warm-ongers - Investors.com (via jnolan)
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Crude Passes $91, As $100 Billion In US GDP Is... →
As you spend $3.50+ per gallon driving to grandma’s, make sure to thank Ben Bernanke and the Fed who are hard at work on that deflation ‘problem’
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Infor puts it (almost) out in the open
The fact that this program exists doesn’t bother me, but the fact that it’s anonymous does.
There are plenty of ‘influencers’ (I hate that term, but Infor and most of the industry uses it so I’ll maintain consistency) who are buyer-focused, objective, and who wouldn’t be caught dead in a program like this.
But there are also plenty of others who are...
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OR we could get rid of the bureaucrats and work on...
Industrial policy from the Patrick administration that Massachusetts clearly can NOT afford. http://www.statehousenews.com/cgi/as_web.exe?rev2010+D+15078760
Suffice to say I disagree - vehemently.Amplify’d from www.metrowestdailynews.com
Thirty life sciences companies in Massachusetts have pledged to create nearly 1,000 jobs next year in exchange for $23.9 million in tax incentives awarded...
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FCC Votes Itself Judge Dredd of the Internet...
No oversight, no approval, no authority - regulatory overreach at its absolute worst.Amplify’d from view.email.reason.orgIn a speech
delivered on January 19, 2010, Julius Genachowski, the Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, declared that transparency “is particularly important for consumer protection and empowerment.” He praised “access to information” as...
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The FCC Should Not Regulate the Internet →
“It’s a point worth emphasizing: Regulated ISPs will be more compliant with government speech controls.”
It certainly is worth emphasizing - and amplifying.
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It's not Fox News' fault that Obamacare is bad law →
this would be funny if it weren’t so sad - and expensive
“A good engineering principle is not made better if dogmatized and given to...”
– The FCC Should Not Regulate the Internet - Cato@Liberty
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The FCC 'protects' us from innovation
Ignoring Congress, the courts, and the Justice Department- what exactly is the FCC supposedly ‘protecting’ consumers from other than competition & innovation?
Power-hungry Genachowski must go - and the agency should be shut down altogether.Amplify’d from www.wallstreetjournal.comTomorrow morning the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) will mark the winter solstice by taking...
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A Holiday Message from Ricky Gervais: Why I'm An... →
Interesting and thought-provoking essay by Ricky Gervais.
What I do believe is that the most important questions to ask ourselves are often the least comfortable ones.
Worth a read.
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It's time to say NO to the farm lobby
We’ll find out soon enough if the next Congress is serious about deficit reduction. Ending wasteful farm subsidies is a great place to start.Amplify’d from www.barrons.comIn return for an extension of the Bush tax rates, the GOP leadership acceded to giving President Obama a Costco-sized party platter of goodies, disguised as economic stimulus. The $858 billion platter included a...
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A Victory for the Tea Party, But a Long Road... →
Gotta start somewhere.
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Unlocking the Mayor Badge of Meaninglessness
Very interesting and on-target perspective from Umair Haque on social networking and ‘gamification’. Completely agree that it’s not an end, but a means.
Great stuff.
HT to Jeff Nolan (@jeffnolan) for the link.Amplify’d from blogs.hbr.orgthe real roots of this crisis are that 20th century institutions, whether banks, governments, or corporations, are becoming more and more...
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The U.S. Is Free-Falling Into Bankruptcy →
“It is always better to be early on a trade that has even very small chances of success, then too late on a sure trade.”
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Lies, Damned Lies, Statistics and iPhones
Interesting analysis in the Wall Street Journal (ht to @pkedrosky for the link) of how the component and commercial value(s) from high tech products are attributed in trade statistics - and the misleading conclusions those statistics can draw.
Very reminiscent of a similar analysis Andy Kessler put together a few years ago - http://www.andykessler.com/andy_kessler/2004/12/wsj_we_think_th.html -...
“Once the president entered into that agreement with the Senate Republicans even...”
– For House Democrats, fight over tax cuts is now about saving face - TheHill.com
Actually, the representative from Vermont is mistaken… this money isn’t being given away, it’s simply not being taken in the first place. It’s not their money…
(via jnolan)
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As goes Detroit...
A fascinating and horrifying series of stories of Detroit, which is in complete economic freefall.
This very sad story will be re-told by many other cities, states, and ultimately our Federal government if we fail to get government spending and public-sector unions under control.
The part about the city turning down a philanthropist’s gift of $200M to keep the Teachers’ Union happy...
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Government Unions vs. Taxpayers
Must-read editorial in today’s WSJ from Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty.Amplify’d from www.wallstreetjournal.comThe rise of the labor movement in the early 20th century was a triumph for America’s working class. In an era of deep economic anxiety, unions stood up for hard-working but vulnerable families, protecting them from physical and economic exploitation. Much has changed. The...
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What's Wrong with Keynes
Lengthy and worthwhile read on the mythical Keynesian ‘multiplier’, why ‘stimulus’ didn’t - and doesn’t - work, and the key relationship between consumer confidence and the economy.
HT @abnormalreturns for the linkAmplify’d from cafehayek.comFor many people, economists and non-economists, nothing could be more intuitive than the idea that giving people money...
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200 Countries, 200 Years, 4 Minutes →
Despite all that’s wrong with the world, this is a very interesting and uplifting video that shows a lot that is right - and getting better. Mankind is indeed making progress.
HT @howardlindzon on this one - well worth 4 minutes of your time
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Ethanol: Let Protectionism Expire →
An absolute no-brainer
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How Much Did Taxpayers Pay for Andy Griffith to... →
so very, very wrong
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On Wikileaks, the Inkspots and a political... →
It may be a ‘ramble’ but it’s also a terrific post.
Take a few minutes and read what my fellow Enterprise Irregular Thomas Otter has to say about Wikileaks. Fabulous stuff.
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Time to Shut Down the FCC - @AndyKessler says so,...
Andy Kessler makes a great case for why competition, not regulation, is the key to unleashing the next generation of internet services.
He’s absolutely right - I made similar comments on Leigh Drogen’s blog yesterday - http://leighdrogen.com/this-argument-is-dumb/#disqus_thread
Forget ‘net neutrality’ - consumer choice is the killer app.Amplify’d from...
The End of Diplomacy As We Know It →
Emphasis mine.
“It will take a long time, perhaps many years, for the full impact of the WikiLeaks disclosure of thousands of US diplomatic cables to become known. Make no mistake: this is an event of historic importance — for all governments, and not only the US.”
“There is in fact only one enduring solution to the WikiLeaks problem and this is perhaps the goal of...
“Publicity is justly commended as a remedy for social and industrial diseases....”
– Louis Brandeis