March | 2013 | AEIdeas

Wednesday, May 22, 2013

If profits are the mother’s milk of stocks, we’ve got a stock market rally that could be sustainable for a long time

Mark J. Perry | March 31, 2013, 11:38 pm

Updated: David Stockman writes in today’s NY Times: The Dow Jones and Standard & Poor’s 500 indexes reached record highs on Thursday, having completely erased the losses since the stock market’s last peak, in 2007. But instead of cheering, we … read more >

Carpe Diem

Quotation of the day

Mark J. Perry | March 31, 2013, 9:22 pm

Carlos Alberto Montaner writing in today’s Miami Herald about dissident Cuban blogger Yoani Sanchez: “In more than half a century of tyranny, nobody has been more effective in the task of dismantling the regime’s myths and exposing Cubans’ miserable living … read more >

Carpe Diem

Markets in everything: Moscow ‘ambulance taxis’

Mark J. Perry | March 31, 2013, 8:04 pm

1. “Ambulance-taxis” will help you navigate through notoriously congested Moscow traffic. For roughly 6,000 rubles per hour – about $193 US, which doesn’t sound like much for a wealthy Russian – the “customer” will get to cut through gridlock in … read more >

Carpe Diem

Energy news: Middle East has changed forever, New Mexico may be the next US oil boom, and two more big Gulf finds

Mark J. Perry | March 31, 2013, 7:51 pm

1. According to William Jacobson at the Legal Insurrection blog, “Yesterday the Middle East changed forever, and you didn’t know it.” Reason? Here’s how The Times of Israel explains it: Natural gas from the offshore Tamar field was pumped to … read more >

Carpe Diem

Shale oil and gas have actually done a better job of addressing the concerns that led to biofuel mandates in the first place

Mark J. Perry | March 31, 2013, 1:18 pm

In a recent document from the Congressional Research Service, “Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS): Overview and Issues,” the authors provide three reasons for the 2005 and 2007 biofuel mandates: 1) concerns over increasing dependence on foreign sources of crude oil, 2) … read more >

Carpe Diem

Chart of the day: Most/least affordable US housing markets

Mark J. Perry | March 31, 2013, 10:30 am

Metro Area Median Household Income Median Home Price median Home Price / Median Income Ratio Wash., DC $61,835 $1,037,500 16.78 Brooklyn, NY $43,567 $722,500 16.58 San Francisco $63,024 $870,250 13.81 San Diego $47,067 $640,000 13.60 Los Angeles $55,476 $750,000 13.52 … read more >

Carpe Diem

Exponential increases in Texas oil output are translating into record increases in shovel-ready jobs: 4,000 a day in February

Mark J. Perry | March 30, 2013, 11:42 pm

The Texas Workforce Commission reported yesterday that the state added an eye-popping 80,600 jobs during the month of February, at a rate of more than 4,000 new jobs every business day of the month. That’s the highest monthly employment gain for … read more >

Carpe Diem

Economic freedom in the states, but mostly in the red states

Mark J. Perry | March 30, 2013, 11:20 am

This week the Mercatus Center released the third edition of its Freedom in the 50 States: An Index of Personal and Economic Freedom report with rankings of America’s states based on how their policies promote freedom in three categories: fiscal policy, regulatory policy, … read more >

Carpe Diem

Saturday morning links

Mark J. Perry | March 30, 2013, 10:49 am

1. Markets in everything: A 70-unit apartment complex made from recycled shipping containers in the Eagle Ford Shale oil patch. 2. Words of wisdom from a fortune cookie. 3. Alfred Anaya was a genius at installing secret compartments in cars. … read more >

Carpe Diem

It’s payback time for the UK’s insane energy policy

Mark J. Perry | March 29, 2013, 7:40 pm

As the UK experiences its coldest March in 50 years and braces for a white Easter weekend at the same time there are critical shortages of natural gas, Christopher Booker expresses his frustration with the UK’s energy policy in The (UK) Telegraph: … 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. […]