Only because I am too busy.
Grant McCracken on whether restrained consumer spending will be temporary or permanent.
Virginia Postrel on the same topic, based on discussions at the Kauffman Foundation Forum. It was great to see her looking so terrific and energetic, and her health update was a lot less scary than it might have been.
Will Wilkinson on positional ambition.
Herrick (a pseudonym) on the latest round in the controversy over the role of genetics in economic performance.
Peter Orszag, now blogging as head of OMB, on the new budget's swipe at the charitable deduction for high-income tax payers.
OK, I have to comment on this one. If you want to predict the Obama Administration's behavior, ask yourself what policies can strengthen government and weaken the private sector. That methodology will tell you that private charities are going to come under assault. Charitable organizations offer services that compete with government. That cannot be permitted in a "progressive" state, in which all forms of civil society must be suppressed. Our country has a remarkably very strong tradition of civil society, and I expect that we can put up a good fight on the charitable deduction issue. But the fact that the Obama folks are even willing to try this is a sign of just how potent they are feeling and how impotent they think the opposition is right now.
"If you want to predict the Obama Administration's behavior, ask yourself what policies can strengthen government and weaken the private sector."
How does the reduction of farm subsidies accomplish this?
(Of course, I don't know who hard Obama will actually fight for it, but he is more willing than any Democrat or Republican outside of Ron Paul to actually talk about such things).
Arnold says:
"I expect that we can put up a good fight on the charitable deduction issue. But the fact that the Obama folks are even willing to try this is a sign of just how potent they are feeling and how impotent they think the opposition is right now."
I am with you on this. I believe, short of scrapping the tax code and going flat, that the removal of charitable deductions will lead to a public outcry.
We the people can spend our money better than the government could ever imagine. The Obama people want to use our money for redistribution for the creation of an indebted class.
"How does the reduction of farm subsidies accomplish this?" The ag sector can be controlled very tightly via carbon credits, so subsidies that used to go there can be deployed elsewhere.