This is a fantastic visualization of how the deficit spending projected by Obama compares to past presidencies. Really incredible. This video converts the deficit spending since 1900 into miles per hour. Bush was going 63 mph, the fastest yet. Obama’s own projections put him at 173 mph for the next eight years. The video is […]
On The Declaration of Independence
With the fourth of July coming up, it’s a good time to review the Declaration of Independence. The Two Best Paragraphs in the Declaration The first two paragraphs in the document give you an entire philosophy of government in themselves: When in the Course of human events it becomes necessary for one people to dissolve […]
Thomas Sowell on Learning from Other Countries
In his latest column, Thomas Sowell points out that learning from other countries does not simply mean imitating them, as many who call for America to be “more European” imply, but often means learning from their mistakes: People who say that we should learn from other countries seem to have in mind that we should […]
Obama's Unmeasurable Metric
The Wall Street Journal has a good editorial on Obama’s claim that his stimulus has “saved or created” 150,000 jobs so far, and that he will ramp up spending to create another 600,000 more this summer. The problem is that it is impossible to measure the number of jobs “saved.” Economist Gregory Mankiw calls this […]
When You Raise Taxes on the Rich, Everyone Pays
From the Townhall blog: Here’s what the President hopes nobody realizes: Raising taxes has consequences for everyone — and most of them are bad. Yet another example: If the Obama tax plan goes through, Microsoft intends to move some of its jobs out of this country. Yesterday, I wrote about the ugly unintended consequences for regular Americans of […]
Patrick Lencioni on the Two Core Problems with Socialism
Patrick Lencioni is an excellent business thinker. He is known for simple yet powerful management wisdom through books like The Five Dysfunctions of a Team and The Three Signs of a Miserable Job. Recently, he has started The Simple Wisdom Project, which is intended to be “a source of perspective and common sense about topics […]
151 Taxes in a Loaf of Bread
In honor of tax day, here’s Ronald Reagan’s great quote on how there are 151 taxes in a mere loaf of bread. It’s from 1975, and I can’t say for sure if the same is true today. But if anything, my guess would be that that number has gone up, rather than down. The quote […]
The Difference Between Negative Rights and Positive Rights
Here’s a very good explanation by J.P. Moreland, professor of philosophy at Biola University, from his recent interview with Hugh Hewitt: A negative right is a right for me to be protected from harm if I try to get something for myself. A positive right would be my right to have something provided for me. […]
Thomas Sowell on the Stimulus
Thomas Sowell has a very thought-provoking column on the stimulus called “What Are They Buying?” I talked yesterday about how government spending is not the way to stimulate the economy. On top of this, Sowell makes note that “out of $355 billion newly appropriated, the Congressional Budget Office estimates that only $26 billion will be […]
Children Are Not a Burden on the Economy
I find Nancy Pelosi’s recent comments shocking. I probably shouldn’t. Denny Burk summarizes her comments well: Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi is defending the fact that hundreds of millions of dollars of the forthcoming stimulus package are to be spent on “family planning.” Her argument is very simple. The economy is bad. Having babies […]