More Bad Krugman Economics

From Atlantic Blog, a great posting on Paul Krugmans twisted and biased economic commentaries.
Basically a traitor to his profession.
Krugmans original silly article appears here.

Yuan Revaluation for Dummies

Kudlow Money Politic$ explains today's move by the Chinese to revalue the yuan.
Is it as simple as Chinese goods become more expensive and U.S. goods become cheaper?
Not quite.

On the China side, a major revaluation would slow their entire economy including their purchases of American technology, machinery, commodities, and capital goods thereby damaging our economy as well. Then, too, what goes up can come down. Creating China currency instability could just as easily lead to a large fall in the yuan’s value as Chinese savers switch to gold, dollars, or Japanese yen and foreign investment inflows consequently dry up.

Read the whole article here.

U.S. Manufacturing Still Strong

From The Wall Street Journal:

"Contrary to the view out there that American manufacturing is dead or dying, [production] is growing at a pretty good clip," says Joseph Carson, director of global economic research with Alliance Capital Management LP in New York.

... Two larger trends are at play in the increases. The first is continued productivity gains in the manufacturing sector, which means factories are producing more products with fewer workers. The other is a growing global economy, which allows U.S. producers to expand production even as upstart factories in places like China and Mexico build up market share.

Read the whole article here.

Save Our State (California)

Mark Chapin Johnson explains why we need to support Schwarzenegger:

.... he may end up as political road kill if the well-funded special interests (teachers unions, public-employee unions, prison guards and others) gain much more traction with their constant barrage of anti-Arnold hit pieces on TV. Typical California voters on both sides of the aisle are tragically ignorant of the true financial circumstances of our state -- and they are the ones who, in their frustration, will vote for or against a myriad of confusing initiatives that will go on our ballot soon.

These various and competing measures will only further confuse and inflame the electorate over the months to come. The obfuscation of the real added economic burden of these measures will be almost total, and many voters will go to the polls voting for the "panacea" of their choice: Surcharge the rich to fund new pre-K education programs, at the cost of billions of new tax dollars infused into the already arguably least effective and completely broken K-12 education system in the U.S.; or add a higher tax rate to ensure the continuation of defined-benefit retirement plans for teachers, police, fire and all government employees that are far more lucrative than anything most American workers in the "real" world will be receiving in their golden years.

Read the whole article here.

Do Tax Rate Cuts Really Work ?? (Part 2)

A detailed explanation of the probable cause of the current economic expansion:

Tne lesson in all of this is that not all tax cuts are created equal. Tax rebates and other temporary measures aimed at stimulating consumer demand don't work. Consumers aren't irrelevant, but prosperity is created on the supply side of the economy with the incentives to produce goods or services that people want to consume. So tax cuts in marginal rates that boost incentives to work and invest provide a much bigger bang for the buck.

Ronald Reagan once quipped that he knew his policies were working when his critics stopped calling them "Reaganomics." And so it goes this time as well. The same critics who said the tax cuts wouldn't work are now saying those cuts had nothing to do with our current expansion. They want to give all the credit to monetary policy, or dismiss this as another case of a Keynesian, demand-side boom. Certainly monetary policy has played a role, especially in sustaining housing and consumer spending. But monetary easing did little to revive corporate investment, which remained stagnant throughout 2002.

Read the whole article here.
More research on tax rate cuts can be found here and here.

Oliver Stone Directing 9/11 Movie

Some great commentary from Kausfiles:

The director himself thinks that a film about 9/11 should have "been done right away. I don't think you should run from things. You should confront them. It's better for the country. Look at the English [reaction to the recent London subway bombings]. They took it and absorbed it and continued on. They didn't run around and call for huge pieces of legislation costing billions of dollars to defend our homeland and create a huge war in a foreign country." [Emph. added]

He's against spending "billions of dollars to defend our homeland"? That's not even the liberal position. It's ... cracked.

Read more here:

Economic Growth, Not Charity For Africa

Capitalism is what will cure Africa's woes, not charity or debt forgiveness. The overthrow or elimination of corrupt, violent dictatorships is needed desparately or Live 8 "awareness" or fantastic gifts of cash will only provide temporary band-aid solutions.
Max Boot explains in a wonderful piece:

Economists who have studied aid projects have found numerous reasons for the failures. In many instances, money was siphoned off by corrupt officials. Even when funds did reach the intended beneficiaries, the money often distorted local markets for goods and labor, creating inflation that drove local businesses out of business.

Only one major research paper in recent years has found any positive correlation between foreign aid and economic growth, and that only in countries "with good fiscal, monetary and trade policies," which excludes much of Africa. ...

.. The United States, in particular, is castigated for its stingy development budget -- only 0.16% of GNI. This obscures the fact that, in absolute terms, the U.S. government spends far more on foreign aid ($19 billion last year) than any other nation. And that's only a small part of our total contribution. Thanks in part to our lower tax rates, Americans give far more to charity than do Europeans. If you include private-sector donations, the Hudson Institute finds, U.S. foreign aid totals $81 billion, or 0.68% of GNI -- close to the U.N. Millennium Development Goals. And that's not counting the billions the U.S. spends to subsidize global security or the billions more it sends abroad as investment capital.

Lets Start Here With Social Security Reform Discussion

Commentary by Allan Hubbard in todays WSJ:

The news is filled with claims from reform opponents that the plan amounts to massive "benefit cuts." These claims are not only factually wrong, they are irresponsible scare tactics. The truth is the president's plan will increase benefits in real terms significantly above what Social Security recipients receive today.

Read the whole article here.