Economics & Finance

I don’t often disagree with the glorious Glenn Reynolds over at Instapundit but this time I think he and others have gotten the case of Apple’s subpoenas of several web-based media sites dead wrong. The ultimate ramification of these cases isn’t whether citizen journalists (meaning anyone with a website or blog) will have the same privileges granted “professional” journalists but rather whether any of us will every have any information privacy at all.

If every individual has a right to publish stolen information with no expectation that they will ever have to reveal how they got that stolen information, then no one’s information, no matter how private or trivial to the public interest, will be safe

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Part 1 of this essay can be found here. I’m sorry to have taken so long to finish, but the truth is that the latter half of Capitalism, Socialism and Democracy is much less impressive than the insight into “creative destruction” in the first part.

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Larry Kudlow makes a strong case that the US dollar has turned:

At the turn of the new year the vast majority of pundits expected the dollar to continue to slide. Yours truly disagreed, arguing that lower tax-rates, monetary restraint, and solid economic growth was a prescription for a dollar rebound. Since December 30, both the broad and the narrow dollar indexes have appreciated more than 3 percent. The dollar-euro cross rate has improved 3.5 percent in favor of the greenback.

And commodities have hit the skids. Gold is off 5 percent, spot metals are off 4.5 percent, futures are off 2.5 percent, and the broad spot commodity index is off 4 percent. The net drop in oil since late October has been nearly 20 percent. The fall in the Baltic dry index (raw material goods shipping) has been 29 percent. On the oil front, the tanker rate on the Arabian Gulf to Singapore route has dropped 77 percent since early November.

Shortly after the November election, in a media opportunity in the Oval Office with Italian President Silvio Berlosconi, President Bush linked his fiscal policies of lower taxes, Social Security reform, and intensified budget restraint to the Fed’s efforts to drain excess cash and raise their target rate. Bush explicitly mentioned the need for a stronger dollar. This was the first time the President had taken this up, and the first time he linked his fiscal strategy with the Fed’s monetary restraint. Most folks ignored this signal. They shouldn’t have.

Kudlow’s post is worth reading in its entirety.

Gary Becker and Richard Posner of the University of Chicago have now started a weblog, believe it or not. The format is a little daunting, in that the first thing you see today is a pair of essay-length replies to previous essay-length postings. Also, they were both on today’s Wall Street Journal editorial page, unfortunately available to paid subscribers only. Reading the dead tree edition, I was struck by Posner’s argument that it is irrational to neglect remote but catastrophic possibilities such as tsunamis in previously quiet regions and asteroid strikes anywhere. The amounts spent might well be wasted money, but the consequences of failing to avoid the disaster are insufferable.

What struck me is that he should have given credit to Blaise Pascal, who first advanced this argument as Pascal’s Wager.

Thanks Fred for pointing out this interesting tidbit:

Maud Newton and Mark Sarvas are boycotting Amazon because, according BuyBlue.org, 61% of Amazon’s political donations went to Republicans — whereas Borders gave 100% and B&N gave 98% to Democrats. Seems a bit harsh to me, but I can respect their stance.

I’ve always liked Amazon. Great layout, fast delivery, and good prices.

Borders and B&N always seemed overpriced (both books and food/drink) with limited selection. Nice to browse, but when you need something specific, Amazon (or the local library) is the place to go. Not to mention the wear and tear public browsing causes at Borders and B&N. If I want to buy a new book or magazine, I rather it be new…

So I won’t be throwing my money at Borders and B&N anymore.

Buyblue.org is a useful site. I’ll be sure to use it to check who the big Republican donors are and buy from them.