Asymptosis: Always Approaching

Month: August 2008

  • More Great Minds: Lincoln on “Conservatives”

    From the Cooper Union speech. Emphasis mine. “But you say you are conservative – eminently conservative – while we are revolutionary, destructive, or something of the sort. What is conservatism? Is it not adherence to the old and tried, against the new and untried? We stick to, contend for, the identical old policy on the…

  • Palin for President: Be Afraid

    I guess John McCain will do anything to (try to) win an election. He’ll even saddle his country with a president who knows nothing about foreign or military affairs. While we’re fighting two wars. I’ll just point to my previous post. Related posts: Insurgents surging in from inside and outside Why nominating Clinton would be…

  • McCain: Rebel Without a Brand?

    My 17-year-old daughter just pointed out to me something that's completely obvious, but that I hadn't realized, and that I haven't seen discussed much, at least in these terms. Think about the words Hope. Change. Yes We Can. Who owns 'em? I mean owns them? When you think Obama, what words come to mind? When…

  • Do Voters Prefer Death or Taxes?

    Today's NYT/CBS poll gives the answer: Taxes. 67% of voters think it's "more important to provide health care coverage for all Americans" than to "hold down taxes." Related posts: Tea Partiers: Old, White, Rich, Educated Men Business Roundtable Proposes Obamacare to Restore American Competitiveness ‘Pubs Love Catastrophic Coverage. Too Bad the Free Market Doesn’t Provide…

  • The Mankiw Distortion Field: This Time, Corporate Taxes

    I think we can assume that Greg Mankiw knows the difference between tax rates and effective tax rates–after all the deductions, exemptions, etc. And he surely knows that effective tax rates are what actually matter when it comes to impact, income, and incentives. But still, he posts this graph as if it was actually representative…

  • Why Friday Night?

    I've searched all over but haven't found any discussion of why they announced Biden on friday night/saturday morning. The exception: some wildly worded Aha! comments on right-wing blogs saying that the Obama team was forced into the announcement by a leak. (The leak, presumably, being secret service arriving at Biden's place?) It's common wisdom that…

  • Great Minds Think Alike: Obama on “Conservatives”

    I say somewhat presumptuously, even audaciously. Andrew Sullivan points out: Obama in Time: I was always suspicious of dogma, and the excesses of the left and the right. One of my greatest criticisms of the Republican Party over the last 20 years is that it's not particularly conservative. I can read conservatives from an earlier…

  • McCain’s Tax Plan: You Call That “Conservative”?

    I pointed out recently the horrific rise in the federal debt caused by the much-ballyhooed Reagan Revolution (with only a brief respite under Clinton)–a debt built on the apparent belief among so-called conservatives that we can borrow and spend our way to prosperity. It went from 34% of GDP in 1980 to nearly 70% today.…

  • US Corporate Taxes: How Do They Compare?

    Paul Krugman points us to a CBO comparative study (PDF) of corporate taxes in developed countries. Short story: ours are pretty much in the same ballpark as other prosperous countries, by various measures. Ours tend to incentivize investments funded by debt, as opposed to equity. Nothing to see here, folks. Move along. One table I…

  • Gore: Subsidizing Dirty Energy?

    It's true, this idea came along as Will Wilkinson was rather frantically back- or re-pedaling from a previous everything's-going-so-WELL post of his, said pedaling being necessary because Felix Salmon pointed out that the original post made no sense at all: Will’s argument, it seems to me, seems to rely on the peculiar idea that we’ll…

  • Oh Crap I Can’t Resist: Obama’s VP Will Be…

    Clark. Because, the following seems very odd to me. According to Steve Clemons at The Washington Note, the Obama campaign is either ignoring Clark or actively putting him at arm's length–he's supposedly not even attending the convention. Odd because: Clark's clearly a Very Big Democratic Asset, and what Obama describes as one "inartful" comment doesn't…

  • Maybe Obama’s Not So Bad…

    My wonderful friend and former business partner Steve allows as how maybe Obama isn't going to drive our economy into extinction after all. His route to that revelation, via a Mankiw post, puts aside that sage's other comment in the post: [Obama quote:] Over the past decade, we've seen…hefty corporate profits, but a shrinking share…

  • Immigrants: Pay for My Retirement! Please?

    Everyone agrees: the problem with Social Security is that we’re going to have (already have?) too many old people and not enough young people. Since killing off old people like me is not an option, what we need is more hardworking young people. Americans aren’t putting their shoulders to the wheel by creating more little…

  • Bush Promotes Private Sector: Cancels Shuttle for Football Fans

    Seattle's Metro used to have a shuttle to get people to Seahawks games. Not any more. (Seattle P-I.) the Bush administration began requiring public transit agencies such as Metro to step aside when private operators say they want to provide service. Starline Luxury Coaches of Seattle has done so this year. The Seahawks rejected Starline's…

  • Taxes: Obama vs. McCain

    Here’s the best laid-out presentation I've seen, from the Washington Post. Sort of speaks for itself. Hat tip to Monte Asbury. Related posts: Embarrassed Republicans Admit They’ve Been Thinking Of Eisenhower Whole Time They’ve Been Praising Reagan The Macroeconomics of Chinese Kleptocracy Who Owns Congress? A Campaign Cash Seating Chart Clear-Eyed Sowellian “Realists” Hyperventilating. Again.…

  • The Best Path to Prosperity?

    Between 1970 and 2000, GDP per person rose by 64% in the United States and by 60% in France. In America, this came about because productivity per worker rose by 38% and hours worked per worker rose by 26%. In France, it came about because productivity rose by 83% while hours worked fell by 23%.…

  • Who’s Fiscally Responsible?

    This is old news, but here are the latest figures. Federal Debt: 1940–2019: (Updated 1/31/2010) Yet another of those telling inflection points in 1980. (With a brief respite in the late nineties.) The red line–Gross Debt–is the scary (and actual) one; it includes loans from government trust funds (mainly Social Security) that will have to…