| Immigrants of the world -- UNITE! You have nothing to lose but ... |
| An inevitability. Coming soon, in some version, to a state near you... |
| Link posted by Steve Antler : 6:13 AM |
Thursday, April 27, 2006
| For those who pine for Europe and its institutions... |
| From the Center for American Progress' new report on US intergenerational mobility: By international standards, the United States has an unusually low level of intergenerational mobility: our parents’ income is highly predictive of our incomes as adults. Intergenerational mobility in the United States is lower than in France, Germany, Sweden, Canada, Finland, Norway and Denmark. Among high-income countries for which comparable estimates are available, only the United Kingdom had a lower rate of mobility than the United States. |
| Link posted by Steve Antler : 10:57 AM |
Wednesday, April 26, 2006
| Having your cake and eating it too so to speak... |
| Venezuelan experts explain how we can eat more beans and experience fewer farts. |
| Link posted by Steve Antler : 11:41 AM |
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
| I second the motion... |
| Captain Ed speaks on out US energy policy: ...let's have an investigation, but let's not confine it to ExxonMobil's profit margin. Let's expand the probe into the bankruptcy of our energy policy for the past thirty years and the handcuffs we put on ourselves that force us to rely on unstable sources of crude oil and gasoline to meet our energy needs. Let's start getting realistic about those needs and start proposing rational methods of meeting them. Take the shackles off the US energy industry and allow us to shrug off the mullahs that control the world market. |
| Link posted by Steve Antler : 10:24 AM |
Thursday, April 20, 2006
| Exactly who is running CNN International? |
| Why is CNN International coordinating its minute to minute coverage with Chinese censors? From Drudge: On China TV -- as Hu Jintao was speaking, as yells of protesters became audible, the screen went black. Feed then came back and once again went black when woman was once again audible. During CNN International's post-speech commentary, as soon as they began to mention the south lawn heckler, the screen went black again... the feed returned when the topic was no longer being discussed... |
| Link posted by Steve Antler : 9:48 AM |
| Privatization of border controls... |
| Ha. Vigilante fences! UPDATE: More here, with some stunning data suggesting recend demonstrations ought to have been strongly in support of Bush administration policies! |
| Link posted by Steve Antler : 9:02 AM |
| Analogy... |
| Check out the new controversy over Tony Judt's 2003 call for a new one-state non-Zionist Palestine. As you review Judt's reasoning, keep one word in the back of your mind: Aztlan. |
| Link posted by Steve Antler : 6:53 AM |
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
| Mercantilism: ... |
| ...a polite expression for extramarket political domination of resource-producing colonial clients by more-powerful, command-economy industrial patrons. See also: colonialism. |
| Link posted by Steve Antler : 7:52 AM |
| Just in case you want to know about the real stuff... |
| A distinctive feature of the immigration debate is how little the prominent commentators actually know about day to day life realities faced by employers and employees outside the glamorous new and old media. Here are a series of emails from illegals' employers and their customers. UPDATE: And just by the way, here's a country where undocumented immigrants are considered felons. |
| Link posted by Steve Antler : 7:09 AM |
Thursday, April 13, 2006
| A New Antimythological Left? |
| Here's an exciting proposal to reconstruct the Left: [A newly reconstituted left must] fight two battles simultaneously. [It must] defend democracies against all who make light of the differences between them and tyrannical regimes [but at the same time oppose] deep inequalities and unmerited privilege[, all the] global inequalities [that] are a scandal to the moral conscience of humankind... [The newly reconstituted left must stand] in opposition not only to those on the left who have actively spoken in support of the gangs of jihadist and Ba'athist thugs of the Iraqi "resistance", but also to others who manage to find a way of situating themselves between such forces and those trying to bring a new democratic life to the country, or who pay lip-service to this aim, while devoting most of their energy to criticism of their political opponents at home and observing a tactful silence about the ugly methods of the Iraqi "insurgency"...It is vitally important for the future of progressive politics that people of democratic outlook should now speak clearly against those for whom the entire progressive agenda has been subordinated to a blanket and simplistic "anti-imperialism". The values and goals which properly make up that agenda -- the values of democracy, human rights, solidarity with peoples fighting against poverty, tyranny and oppression -- are what most enduringly define the shape of any left worth belonging to. Will this go anywhere? Hopefully the answer is "yes," but on the Myth of American Imperialism hangs all remaining narratives of global inequality as an outcome of power -- i.e. political, non-voluntaristic -- forces. If inequality arises from not from the international exercise of political power but from blind market forces technically capable of generating "optimal" solutions that we find ethically unacceptable (e.g. Joan Robinson's labor market clearing at below-starvation wage rates) an appropriate response is not to condemn the more-privileged, but rather to appeal to their moral principles. On the Myth of American Imperialism, in other words, rests any entitlement of world's poor to a better living standard. |
| Link posted by Steve Antler : 8:16 AM |
| Movies that smell... |
| Actually this is the 4th cinematic experiment of this nature. The first was Mike Todd's Scent of Mystery; then there was some documentary about China, and finally John Waters' Polyester (which on first run was shown with numbered "scratch and sniff" cards). I saw none of these, but I remember friends' reports that all aromas in the Mike Todd film smelled alike. |
| Link posted by Steve Antler : 7:57 AM |
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
| On the Duke Lacrosse Story |
| Tawana Brawley? Here's a link to a better analogy: To begin with, this case should never have come to trial. The State has not produced one iota of medical evidence that the crime Tom Robinson is charged with ever took place. It has relied instead upon the testimony of two witnesses whose evidence has not only been called into serious question on cross examination, but has been flatly contradicted by the defendant. |
| Link posted by Steve Antler : 11:37 AM |
| Modest proposal for a reciprocal trade agreement... |
| I agree with Jonah Goldberg -- the Mexican economy ought to be fixed up first, before we redo our laws to accommodate a permanent flow of unskilled, impoverished, and increasingly dissatisfied job market entrants. I'd go a step farther, however. We now import about 1.5 million bbl/day of Mexican petroleum. My rough calculations show each $1 rise in the world price of crude yields Mexico an annual windfall of roughly $500 million. So it's simple. We rewrite our laws to accommodate perpetual immigration from Mexico, and Mexico reciprocates with a 25 year agreement to sell crude to the U.S. at $10/bbl less than any then-current world price. Taken as a federal import fee this gives US taxpayers some "breathing room" in exchange for the economic dislocations of increased immigration. Yes we are a nation of immigrants, but the accident of a shared border doesn't make immigration an entitlement. Reciprocity seems appropriate -- to me at least. UPDATE: The evidence keeps pouring in that some kind of reciprocity is essential. UPDATE II: More here. |
| Link posted by Steve Antler : 10:10 AM |
Tuesday, April 11, 2006
| Transfixed... |
| Like staring at a serious traffic accident about to happen before your eyes... Politicians and the press move eagerly to the permissive end of the spectrum, applauding the demonstrators, their signs, their slogans, everything... And the public -- quietly, steadily, with each new wave of news information showing this or that demonstration -- moves to the less- and even-lesser permissive side of the issue: The Zogby survey shows that recent protests...have not persuaded a majority of U.S. likely voters across the country. More said they are having a negative reaction to the protests than are having a positive reaction...Asked whether the protests have made likely voters more or less sympathetic towards undocumented workers, 32% said they are now more sympathetic to their plight, while 61% said they are less likely to be sympathetic as a result of the protests...A wide majority...(65%) said they would be willing to pay significantly higher prices for some goods and services should that be the result of tighter control of the southern U.S. border and a resulting lower number of undocumented workers...The poll shows that 30% of respondents would be willing to pay up to 10% more [for some goods] if undocumented workers were deported, while another 36% said they would willingly swallow a price increase of between 10% and 25% for certain goods. |
| Link posted by Steve Antler : 3:15 PM |
| Good news from Iran? |
| I'm waiting for the MEMRI translation, but the little we have from Iran so far hints (to me at least) they're preparing the world for massive concessions. We may have won, in other words. 1. The claim that Iran as of today has "joined the club" of nuclear nations sounds like something designed for ultimate, after-concession self-comfort. ("Well, they may have forced us to stop the program, but still we got into that club, didn't we!") 2. The plea to the West "not to cause an everlasting hatred in the hearts of Iranians" by forcing abandonment of the program sounds similarly like something written for the diplomatic future. ("We warned you, didn't we?") 3. And then there's the curious assertion that Iran "relies on the sublime beliefs that lie within the Iranian and Islamic culture [rather than getting] strength from nuclear arsenals" -- doesn't this sound like it is setting the stage for concessions? |
| Link posted by Steve Antler : 1:30 PM |
| Policy Law of Compounding Contradiction |
| I'm proposing this name for a corollary of the Law of Unintended Consequences, namely, that policy activism inevitably leads to self-cancellation. For example, many current open-border advocates are also antipoverty activists, even though it is becoming increasingly clear these are mutually self-cancelling. US poverty is largely imported as undocumented immigrants take low-paying jobs that, in the absence of immigration, would either pay more or be replaced by different, higher-paying ones. (If "Americans" really "don't want" those jobs one of these two would have to happen.) Anyway, I stumbled across a rather ironic example of my new "law" in the news that Ms. Clinton will tomorrow be advocating (among other things) extension of so-called "health information technology networks" as a means of extending health care coverage to small business employees. There exists pending legislation on such networks, but we read that so-called "privacy advocates" have stalled the proposed legislation. And what, pray tell, might be the "root causes" of all those complicated modern privacy health care regulations, the very ones stalling legislation of the very networks being advocated by Senator Clinton? Can it be they originated with .... HILLARY CLINTON ???? !!!!! ?????? |
| Link posted by Steve Antler : 11:21 AM |
| Watch for those "good jobs" flying back... |
Some weeks ago my good friends over at Economists's View were hyperventillating over a NYT report of post-1999 soaring US corporate profits. Here's the NYT graphic they reproduced: I checked out the Yale Model's data on total profit (corporate and noncorporate) as a percent of GDP to see if results were consistent with the NYT figures (from JEC apparently) and sure enough profits have indeed soared as a percent of GDP since 1999:  But this post-1999 trend tells a somewhat different story when all the data are considered:  Yes, the profit surge is impressive, but it appears to counter a long-term profit depression. For some time we've been a cheerleader for what used to be called "Lucas supply." The principle now goes by many names, but they all amount to the same thing: profit recoveries lead employment/wage recoveries. And, sure enough, it now appears not only has employment improved, but those so-called "good" jobs are returning as well: Even the manufacturing sector, which has long offered blue-collar workers a measure of middle-class prosperity, appears to be stabilizing after a period of heavy job losses. Despite downsizing in the automotive industry, 175,000 more people are employeEd in production occupations today than a year ago. "As this recovery gets under way, professional services have begun adding jobs fairly broadly," says Jared Bernstein, an economist at the liberal Economic Policy Institute (EPI) in Washington. EPI tracks the weighting of higher- versus lower-paying jobs that are being added to the economy. For much of the current expansion, which began at the end of 2001, that indicator has been negative. In the past year, however, it has turned positive, meaning that the new jobs in the economy are the kind that tend to pull average wages up, not down. UPDATE: Can any loyal EconoPundit reader send us a link to the EPI series being talked about? I've looked and looked at the EPI site but can't seem to locate it. |
| Link posted by Steve Antler : 10:00 AM |
| Helpful Hints for Kids in Kollege (first in a series) |
| Why are the coolest kids on campus now cooking rather than doing drugs? Here's the explanation: Sutherland -- who is now completely clean -- said: "I did like the ceremony, the ritual of preparing cocaine as much as doing it. "I did it for a year, loved it and then stopped. I feel the same way about cooking now. It's an amazing time to focus on something else." So kids, remember these two points: (1) Never underestimate the importants of ritual, and (2) don't forget to make cleaning up those pots, pans, and dishes part of the ritual! |
| Link posted by Steve Antler : 8:58 AM |
Monday, April 10, 2006
| Los olvidados... |
| They fear downward wage pressures, higher taxes, and widespread disregard of the law. UPDATE: Mas aqui. |
| Link posted by Steve Antler : 9:13 AM |
Thursday, April 06, 2006
| Endangered species versus endangered species... |
| What to do? Both are delicious! |
| Link posted by Steve Antler : 12:40 PM |
| Probably just coincidence. Still... |
| Is the FBI investigating Pianka because they worry some of his disciples are actually experimenting with various policy implementations? |
| Link posted by Steve Antler : 8:43 AM |
| Even closer than we thought... |
| MSM: biggest US fundraiser for environmental activism. |
| Link posted by Steve Antler : 8:03 AM |
| Religion and politics in America... |
| This is all much more complicated than many of my friends seem to think. |
| Link posted by Steve Antler : 7:31 AM |
Tuesday, April 04, 2006
| Everything's in a name... |
| In calm defiance of all those effete critiques of "sloganeering," "sound bytes," or whatever is this simple fact: a good label says it all. Here's a great argument for scrapping a lot of clumsy expressions and replacing them with exactly what it is: Islamic Imperialism . |
| Link posted by Steve Antler : 7:22 AM |
Monday, April 03, 2006
| Compare and contrast... |
| Here are Krugman, DeLong, and Kauss on what to do about economic inequality in the United States. |
| Link posted by Steve Antler : 7:20 AM |
| And the appropriate response is...? |
| Why, you must ask yourself, would Hugo Chavez start seeking a guaranteed world price of oil of $50/bbl? Isn't he interested in maximizing the world price, and isn't the world price over $60 because the world is running out of oil? Or is it perhaps that he knows if new exploration and development bring plentiful new reserves to market, the world price can easily slip back to pre-2000 levels. That is, perhaps he knows we're not running out of oil after all? |
| Link posted by Steve Antler : 7:07 AM |
Sunday, April 02, 2006
| Explicit expression: what's "mental" in "environmental"... |
| Hopefully this is representative of a (literally) crazy culimnation of environmentalism carried out in its normal a- or anti- economic state. No rational tradeoffs. No cost-benefit. Nothing but religious antihumanism masquerading as science. UPDATE: Comments here. |
| Link posted by Steve Antler : 4:53 PM |
Saturday, April 01, 2006
| Wow. (I say it again: Wow.) |
| In a move that has stunned Toshiba and excited HD lovers everywhere, Sony has just released their coveted Blu-Ray player. Best of all, they have undercut Toshiba's price by releasing their player at whopping $299! This is simply astounding! We all knew that Sony had the support of most of the movie studios, but no one excepted those studies to release so many titles. As I am writing this, studios keep sending lists and lists of their release titles over the news feeds. We will get you a complete list as soon as we can. This day simply could not get any better then I ran across what many of you called out for: Penthouse's Blu-Ray edition collection! It appears that they took all the "classic" stuff, combined with new material, and utilized all of Blu-Ray's capacity. What could make today any better? Blu-Ray is here, it's cheap, and there are tons of titles (and porn). What a way to start the day! Hat tip to AVS Forum. Happy April Fool's Day! |
| Link posted by Steve Antler : 3:31 PM |
| Cyclical? Structural? What? |
| Max Sawicky sends this new Fed paper on the postrecession decline in the labor force participation rate (i.e. the ratio of the current labor force to working age non-student, non-incarcerated, and non-military males or females). The authors find this decline of some concern: As shown in figure 1, such a decline in labor force participation is nearly unprecedented in the post-war economic experience. Although the upward trend in participation between the mid-1960s and the mid-1990s has occasionally been interrupted by relatively brief periods of little change, few episodes of persistent outright declines are evident in the data. Indeed, even after removing the upward trend from the earlier period (using, for example, an HP filter or a linear spline), the decline in the participation rate in recent years seems large and unusually protracted by historical standards. Here's their Figure 1, with my added "red arrow" to show the decline they're talking about:  Okay, now don't get me wrong, I see this as a worthy paper in many respects, but its reluctance to integrate the issue of immigration -- especially perhaps of the "undocumented" variety -- weakens the entire enterprise. Just as illegal immigration correlates nicely with the unemployment rate over the past fifteen years, so it correlates with the paper's subject -- the participation rate:  The variations shown in this scatter diagram (between 67.3% and 66.4%) are the same as those that form the subject of the paper, yet the paper mentions the word "immigration" only twice in passing. I am not sure the authors are really measuring the distinction between "structural" and "cyclical" determinants of the participation rate; the basic structure of the economy -- its demographic composition -- has been changing radically with illegal immigration. Unless I am missing something, these aspects are ignored by the model. |
| Link posted by Steve Antler : 9:13 AM |
| Joffrey influence? |
| For Dasha H. and anyone else who didn't pick up the Chicago Sun Times this morning, here's what Hedy Weiss says about last night's ABT Le Corsaire . |
| Link posted by Steve Antler : 7:33 AM |
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