08 | November | 2012

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

To understand the revolution in modern energy, we should first understand something about horsepower

Mark J. Perry | November 8, 2012, 11:13 pm

In the AEI “Energy 101″ video above featuring Ken Green, we learn that the first energy breakthrough for humans after the discovery of fire was the harnessing of horsepower. But horsepower is limited because 200 horses can’t gallop 60 mph … read more >

Carpe Diem

Financial stress in US financial markets remains low by three statistical measures, and has been trending downward

Mark J. Perry | November 8, 2012, 6:07 pm

The charts above show three different statistical measures of financial stress that were released this week by the Federal Reserve district banks of Chicago (weekly), St. Louis (weekly) and Kansas City (monthly). None of these three financial stress indexes are … read more >

Pethokoukis

CBO says tax hike for wealthy will hurt growth

James Pethokoukis | November 8, 2012, 4:16 pm

Well, that’s not how Reuters described it: CBO says tax hike for wealthy won’t kill growth And here is the story: Allowing income tax rates to rise for wealthy Americans would not hurt U.S. economic growth much in 2013 if … read more >

Pethokoukis

How do stocks do after capital gains hikes? Meh

James Pethokoukis | November 8, 2012, 3:59 pm

Interesting tax comment (and charts) from MKM’s Mike Darda: Although we believe tax rates affect incentives, it is very difficult to divine either market performance or cyclical fluctuations by assessing tax rate changes alone. In other words, the stance of … read more >

Pethokoukis

Where next on tax reform?

James Pethokoukis | November 8, 2012, 3:48 pm

Where was the Romney tax cut calculator? I mean, if you have a plan to cut individual marginal tax rates by 20%, your website should have an interactive calculator so a visitor can calculate their individual savings. But if Romney … read more >

Image Credit: Gage Skidmore (Flickr) (CC BY-SA 2.0)

Politics and Public Opinion, Elections

Why Romney lost: Obama won the battle of ‘Big Data’

Marc Thiessen | November 8, 2012, 10:48 am

Obama’s ground game was far superior to Romney’s, thanks to an unprecedented experiment in political data mining that allowed the Obama campaign to conduct unprecedented micro-targetting in its fundraising, advertising, and GOTV efforts. read more >

A bronze sculpture of the New York Stock Exchange Bull is seen at the Museum of American Finance in New York October 2, 2008. REUTERS/Shannon Stapleton

Economics, Free Enterprise

Dodd-Frank is the midwife of crony capitalism

Peter J. Wallison | November 8, 2012, 9:34 am

If you are worried about crony capitalism, this is where it starts. Because of Dodd-Frank, Wall Street and the financial services industry generally will now be firmly in the control of the government. read more >

Money Printing Isn’t Always Inflationary
Republicans are wrongly giving fear of money printing a higher priority than the growth debate. Robust growth is as close as we can get to a panacea for our monetary and fiscal problems. […]
Hindsight Isn’t 20/20
Many lessons should be drawn from the U.S. experience in Iraq. Unfortunately, we’re not learning what we should. […]
The Uses of Scandal
One of the greatest uses of scandal is to vividly demonstrate what new laws are needed and to create the political conditions to get them enacted. […]
Lean In… to Government?
Sheryl Sandberg's runaway best-selling book Lean In has managed to offend both the Left and the Right. Sandberg touts female hard-headedness, yet also calls for an elaborate government- and employer-supplied support system for women. […]