HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE: Student Debt Hinders Housing. “As outstanding student debt approaches $1 trillion, it’s one more reason record-low interest rates aren’t doing more to boost housing. The tighter lending standards that have emerged in the wake of the recession weigh particularly on younger, first-time home buyers, according to a Federal Reserve study sent to Congress on Jan. 4. These households tend to be younger and often have relatively new credit profiles, lower-than-average credit scores and fewer economic resources to make a large down payment, the report said.”

Yep. It’s harder to qualify for a mortgage when you basically already have one.

NANOTECHNOLOGY UPDATE: DNA nanorobot triggers targeted therapeutic responses.

ANOTHER RUBE SELF-IDENTIFIES: “Bruce Springsteen threw his support behind Barack Obama in the 2008 election, but when it comes to 2012, ‘The Boss’ won’t be hitting the campaign trail for the Boss of the United States. . . . Springsteen said he still supports Obama but expressed disappointment in his handling of the job market and home foreclosures and disapproved of the attention Obama paid to corporations rather than the middle class.” So he won’t come out against Obama, but he won’t risk damaging his brand by campaigning for him this time around.

IRA STOLL: “A few points about the payroll tax extension, which the House and Senate both passed today after the Senate turned the House’s two-page payroll tax extension into a 270-page Christmas tree monstrosity.”

HEY, RUBE! Rolling Stone: Obama’s War on Pot: In a shocking about-face, the administration has launched a government-wide crackdown on medical marijuana.

Back when he was running for president in 2008, Barack Obama insisted that medical marijuana was an issue best left to state and local governments. “I’m not going to be using Justice Department resources to try to circumvent state laws on this issue,” he vowed, promising an end to the Bush administration’s high-profile raids on providers of medical pot, which is legal in 16 states and the District of Columbia.

But over the past year, the Obama administration has quietly unleashed a multi­agency crackdown on medical cannabis that goes far beyond anything undertaken by George W. Bush.

You f*cked up — you trusted him.

TEST-DRIVING THE 2013 Bentley Continental GT.

POINTS AND FIGURES: LIBOR Rate Manipulation.

ON THE THREE-YEAR ANNIVERSARY OF OBAMA’S STIMULUS, WHAT HAS IT ACHIEVED? “The jobless rate is unchanged from February 2009 to January 2012, the latest month for which we have data. Both stood at 8.3%, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Obama’s economists had initially predicted that with the stimulus, unemployment would stay below 8%.” But wait, there’s more:

The number of workers who have been unable to find a job in 27 months or more has shot up 83%, with their ranks now at 5.5 million.

Civilian labor force: It has shrunk by 126,000. In past recoveries, the labor force climbed an average of more than 3 million over comparable time periods.

Labor force participation: The share of adults in the labor force — either looking or working — has dropped 3% — also highly unusual in a recovery. At 63.7%, labor force participation is at a low not seen since the middle of the very deep 1981-82 recession, when fewer women were in the work force. A lower participation rate makes the unemployment rate look better.

Household income: Median annual household income is about 7% below where it was in February 2009, according to the Sentier Research Household Income Index.

Read the whole thing.

THAT I.C.E. SHOOTING IN LOS ANGELES: A reader emails:

I’m an ICE agent in Los Angeles, so DO NOT PUBLISH MY NAME.

I couldn’t help but notice the contrast in the body count between this workplace shooting and the Fort Hood massacre. Workplace shooting sprees don’t last nearly as long when everyone in the office has a gun on their hip. I wonder how many of the Fort Hood victims would be alive if they weren’t prohibited from arming themselves?

Yeah.

UPDATE: A followup:

Like most government agencies and large private corporations, DHS requires its agents to take regular online training sessions on a variety of issues (workplace discrimination, sexual harassment, protecting sensitive or classified information, etc.). Last week we completed an online training module on workplace shootings. In the event of a workplace shooting, we were instructed — and I’m not exaggerating — to immediately evacuate the premises and call 9-1-1. If fleeing isn’t possible, we are counseled to find a secure hiding place and silence our cell phones (so that incoming phone calls don’t alert the shooter to our location). Only as a last resort are we advised to confront the shooter.

There’s something deeply troubling, even sickening, about a law enforcement agency counseling its armed agents to cower in fear when confronted with a deadly threat. I can only hope that the ICE agent (a mid-level manager, BTW) who stopped the shooter isn’t disciplined for failing to barricade himself in his office.

Indeed.

HOW NORMAN BORLAUG fed and saved the world.

INSTAVISION: Now on YouTube: The Chimichanga Outrage: Why Obama Campaign Comments Are So Insulting to Hispanic Voters.

VARIOUS COLLEGES ARE TEACHING “OCCUPY” COURSES: In today’s Wall Street Journal, I offer a syllabus.

My conclusion: “It is likely, of course, that the Occupy courses offered will partake of none of the above, and will instead be tedious, dated mashups of Fanon, Marcuse and Frances Fox Piven. But if students are offered no better than that, it will be the fault of their instructors, not of the subject matter.”

HEH: Obama marks Congress tax deal by citing self 5 times in 2 paragraphs.

OBAMA’S SUBSIDY FOR THE 1%: If you buy this $100,000 car, he’ll give you $10,000.

TURNING PARENTS INTO CRIMINALS: Your Child Belongs To The State. “Here’s a big omnibus article by David Pimentel of the Florida Costal School of Law on all the ways you are potentially legally screwed if you let your kid do stuff that was considered normal at some point in the less intensively parented past.”

Plus this observation from Bryan Caplan: “In absolute terms, I’m not worried about being persecuted by child welfare services. But power-mad bureaucrats probably outnumber kidnappers and serial killers at least a thousand to one.”

And they’re less likely to be held accountable. I highly recommend Bryan Caplan’s book, by the way.

BEING EVIL? WSJ: Google tricked Apple’s Safari in order to track users.

CULTURE OF CORRUPTION: You Thought Solyndra Was Bad? There’s More On the Way.

AT AMAZON, up to 70% off on luggage.

Also: Today only, Over 50% Off Adobe Photoshop Elements and Premiere Elements 10.

NEW ORDERS FROM MEDIA CENTRAL: Boost Newt Now!

A COUPLE OF CHARTS TO SET THE TONE FOR THE WEEKEND. From James Pethokoukis:

And from the House Republican Study Committee:

Just a reminder that there’s a lot more at stake than who pays for birth control.

SUBSIDY SHUTDOWN: Panic In The Wind Power Lobby?

INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY: Inconvenient Truth: Obama Likes High Gasoline Prices, But Won’t Admit It.

UH OH: Hot respirators at Y-12: equipment certified as clean found to be contaminated.

THE ECONOMIST: Over-Regulated America: The home of laissez-faire is being suffocated by excessive and badly written regulation. Ya think?