19 | June | 2012

Saturday, May 25, 2013

Classic Milton Friedman on the minimum wage

Mark J. Perry | June 19, 2012, 6:12 pm

“The minimum wage law is most properly described as a law saying that employers must discriminate against workers who have low skills.” The minimum wage illustrated:

Carpe Diem

Cartel-buster Institute for Justice goes up against the Nevada State Board of Cosmetology with legal challenge

Mark J. Perry | June 19, 2012, 5:46 pm

Institute for Justice — “In Nevada, teaching others how to apply makeup without a government-issued license can subject you to up to $2,000 in fines. Lissette Waugh and Wendy Robin are makeup artists with over 40 of years of combined … read more >

Carpe Diem

More than 2x as many gang-related drug murders in Chicago this year as casualties in Afghanistan

Mark J. Perry | June 19, 2012, 5:41 pm

(CBS News) — “There are 228 dead: That’s the number of murders this year in Chicago. It’s nearly twice as many as the number of Americans lost on the battlefields of Afghanistan over these last six months. And the number … read more >

Carpe Diem

Houston real estate market might be the hottest in the country, as home prices rise to all-time highs

Mark J. Perry | June 19, 2012, 5:35 pm

Houston Association of Realtors — “Houston home shoppers went on a buying spree in May, sending sales volume and pricing through the roof and accounting for the 12th consecutive month of positive sales. Average and median prices broke records while … read more >

Carpe Diem

Markets in everything: Direct publishing

Mark J. Perry | June 19, 2012, 5:14 pm

From the post “How Amazon Saved My Life” by author Jessica Park on the Indie Reader blog: “I spent months thinking that I needed a big publisher in order to be a writer, to legitimately carry that “author” title. To … read more >

Carpe Diem

The North Dakota miracle: Fracking in the Bakken

Mark J. Perry | June 19, 2012, 4:51 pm

The recent boom of the Bakken oil fields—made possible by a perfect storm of sensible state regulations, the fracking process, and the fact that most drilling is taking place on private lands—has produced a whirlwind of economic growth in a … read more >

Economics, Pethokoukis, Taxes and Spending

John Taylor: Yes, we can cut and grow

James Pethokoukis | June 19, 2012, 4:19 pm

I want to post this this ASAP, I may have more to say later. Economist John Taylor: Three and half years ago, in February 2009, John Cogan, Volker Wieland, Tobias Cwik and I estimated what the impact of the 2009 stimulus … read more >

Yousuf Raza Gilani Pakistan Prime Minister

Foreign and Defense Policy, AfPak

Pakistan’s Supreme Court disqualifies Prime Minister Gilani

Reza Jan | June 19, 2012, 4:09 pm

Pakistan’s Supreme Court disqualified Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani from office today based on a previous conviction for contemptof court. The ruling, which backdated the disqualification to April 26, the date of the original contempt conviction, throws Pakistan into legal … read more >

Pethokoukis

Of silver-striped unicorns and tax increases and magic numbers

James Pethokoukis | June 19, 2012, 3:59 pm

The now-famous moment when GOP presidential candidates all declined a theoretical budget deal of $10 of spending cuts for every $1 of tax increases is supposed to symbolize a Republican Party paralyzed by the dead hand of orthodoxy. And by … read more >

Carpe Diem

Quote of the day: G.K. Chesterton

Mark J. Perry | June 19, 2012, 3:26 pm

“The free man owns himself. He can damage himself with either eating or drinking; he can ruin himself with gambling. If he does he is certainly a damn fool, and he might possibly be a damned soul; but if he … read more >