Potpourri
* This Salon article on the apparent impotence of tax-rate cuts got me mad until the very end, when the author (Jared Bernstein) acknowledged all the possible confounding variables. In any event, it’s interesting how strong a case he can make that low marginal rates don’t lead to growth. (I co-authored a survey article for PRI where we found tons of academic papers showing that economic freedom is correlated with a strong economy, for what it’s worth.)
* This Lew Rockwell podcast with Chris Manion is really good. Topic: neocons.
* I realize Caplan doesn’t think much of the calculation argument (vs. incentive argument) against socialism, but not even a mention for poor Lu against the robotic Yglesias?!
* The anarchists are increasing their infiltration of social hierarchies. It’s all according to plan…
* I’m not sure how to process this case of the TSA saying it would ban all flights out of Texas if the “anti-groping bill” had passed. I think I can come up with extreme examples on both sides of the spectrum. (Assume for the moment that we don’t object to having federal and state governments.) I mean, suppose a TSA agent shoots somebody for looking at him funny. Can a Texas prosecutor charge him with murder? I leave the defense of the TSA as an exercise for the commenters.
* Oh yeah! A tribute to the Macho Man. Dig it?!
* Dick Clark the Younger is out with a pamphlet on resisting the State.
“Can a Texas prosecutor charge him with murder?”
No, because the TSA agent was following procedures. And frankly, I think this has been taken all out of proportion. It’s not as if all, or even the vast majority, of TSA agents are murduring airline passengers.
Well played.
We don’t subject *everybody* to invasive, humiliating treatment. Just the ones we don’t like…
[Somebody] pulled the youtube anarchist video.
Probably the TSA…
The calculation argument is strong but the incentive argument dominates in real world cases of socialist systems.
How would be possible for anyone to know?
The link to your survey article doesn’t work, FYI
Bob is using Mac. That could be why.
http://www.pacificresearch.org/docLib/20090106_Economic_Sizzle.pdf
Sweet, thanks.
Forgive my ignorance, but given that GDP includes government expenditures, isn’t the problem correlating tax reductions and GDP less interesting than it would be otherwise? Even generously assuming a multiplier of “1”?
“I mean, suppose a TSA agent shoots somebody for looking at him funny. Can a Texas prosecutor charge him with murder?”
No, because it would impede the security of the citizens.
suppose a TSA agent shoots somebody for looking at him funny. Can a Texas prosecutor charge him with murder?
More evidence against temporal autarky, the Supreme Court answered Bob’s question 140 years ago in the case of United States v. Kirby. A Kentucky Sheriff was indicted by the Feds for obstructing the passage of the mails because he had arrested a mail carrier charged with murder. The Supreme Court sided with the Sheriff.
Yeah, but in the case of Lon Horiuchi (the Ruby Ridge murderer) the US District Court ruled that he was immune to prosecution by State authorities.