Tag: economics
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Budget Math
I wish I knew where they got their deficit spending number, but KVNU’s For The People really caught my attention with the side-by-side listing of the deficit spending in the budget President Bush just signed. They claim that $240 Billion of the $555 Billion is deficit spending. That’s over 43% of the total budget being…
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A Tax Debate Would Be Wise
Apparently the New York Times would like to have a public debate about taxes. The editorial board expresses their despair that none of the presidential candidates talk about taxes. I think that they are completely right that such a debate is necessary. Beyond that it seems that there is hardly anything that we agree about…
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A Lame Duck Can Bite Harder
As illustrated by the current budget standoff, an unpopular lame duck president has powers that often elude presidents earlier in their tenure. Prior to 2006 Bush never vetoed anything. Now he has no re-election to worry about so he has nothing to lose by vetoing every bill Congress sends that is not in line with…
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Winning the Oil Endgame
Is there anyone who would not want to see our nation profitably end its dependence on foreign oil? I doubt that there is anyone like that (not counting the Saudis of course). If you are anything like me that idea – profitably ending our dependence – sounds like a fairytale but that is exactly what…
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Anti-Materialism
From two very different sources today I was pointed toward two very similar views regarding our overly materialistic society. Misty Fowler linked to Winning the Rat Race by Quitting it: We are a country obsessed with consumption, which would be fine if we seemed to be fulfilled getting bigger TVs but having less time to…
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SEP Subsidies
A story this morning instantly made me think about the discussion that followed when I wrote about Funding Mass Transit back in July. This story is about a driver who chose to use biofuel in his vehicle: Bob Teixeira decided it was time to take a stand against U.S. dependence on foreign oil. So last…
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The Government Hammer
My father-in-law is known for saying, “When you have a hammer everything looks like a nail.” Thomas Sowell talks about political crises created by Political “Solutions.” Government laws and policies, especially the Community Reinvestment Act, pressured lenders to invest in people and places where they would not invest otherwise. Government also created the temporarily very…
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Health Insurance Isn’t Insurance
Steve Olsen started a discussion about healthcare at THE UTAH AMICUS (I’m looking forward to part II) by asking: Is “free market health insurance” a nonsense phrase? He then identifies two issues that we must face head-on if we are to have any hope of actually pursuing a solution to this problem. We hear a…
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Suggestions on Health Care
I have noticed a pattern lately in the articles that I have been linking to (and displaying in my sidebar) – many of them (4 out of 10 currently) deal with the issue of health care. I would like to post on all four eventually but for now I would like to discuss my thoughts…