HOW’S THAT HOPEY-CHANGEY STUFF WORKIN’ OUT FOR YA? (CONT’D): Goldman: Sorry, There Is No Sign Of An American Manufacturing Renaissance. “The picture shows that US exporters have only tended to gain share following significant dollar depreciations. There has been no discernible change in this relationship in recent years. If anything, US export performance has tended to fall short of what one would have expected based on currency movements.”
Archive for 2013
March 24, 2013
GOLD RUSH IN SPACE? A look at asteroids’ potential for wealth, destruction. Asteroid mining is also a way to build planetary protection capabilities: If you can mine them, you can move them.
NEW DEAL FOR CYPRUS, Bank Run To Follow? Well, they’re no longer screwing the insured depositors, which I regard as progress.
SEE, THIS IS WHY AN ASSAULT WEAPONS BAN IS A BAD IDEA: You’ve Hit Rock Bottom When A Semen-Filled Squirt Gun Is Your Weapon Of Choice.
HUXLEY WAS RIGHT, Orwell was wrong.
WAS IT A COMET, NOT AN ASTEROID, that killed the dinosaurs?
GROW A HEALTHY GARDEN with half the work.
STAPLERS: The Attachment That Still Makes Noise. “Staplers are still such a fact of everyday life that we’ve lost sight of what a triumph of manufacturing they are. They can bend metal — no batteries or electricity required. They are similar to guns in that they contain magazines meant to be filled with metal objects that you load and release.”
HUGH HEFNER’S FINAL CRUSADE: Standing Up Against Ageism.
IN THE MAIL: Man-Kzin Wars XIII.
CHARLIE MARTIN: 13 Weeks: Sometimes The Bear Eats You. “Last week I was happy about breaking through the 270 pound barrier. This week was, well, weird.”
THEY TOLD ME IF I VOTED FOR MITT ROMNEY, THE BRITISH PRESS WOULD BE MOCKING OUR PRESIDENT’S INTERNATIONAL GAFFES. AND THEY WERE RIGHT! Barack Obama’s Arafat blunder is an embarrassment for the leader of the free world. “While the Obama White House prides itself on having an extremely slick campaign operation, its ineptness and insensitivity in government, not least on the world stage, can be staggering. President Obama, for example, could not even pronounce the name of Burmese freedom fighter Aung San Suu Kyi on his recent visit to Rangoon, referring to her several times as Aung YAN Suu Kyi. He also famously called the Falkland Islands ‘the Maldives’, and succeeded in offending the whole of Poland when he referred to a ‘Polish death camp’ in World War Two. As I’ve noted in previous pieces, President Obama’s first term was littered with embarrassing gaffes abroad, and it looks like his second term will be more of the same.”
LIKE JACK LALANNE, HE LIVED A LONG TIME: Joe Weider, Founder of a Bodybuilding Empire, Dies at 93.
CYPRUS IS IMPLODING, so why aren’t markets freaking out? I’m going with this explanation: “Central banks’ massive asset purchases have set up a situation where the markets’ normal signalling mechanisms no longer operate because investors have huge volumes of uncovenanted liquidity, created by the central banks, to commit to long-term assets.” Or, in other words: “We have to have the crisis to find out what’s in it.” Nothing pretty, I predict.
AT AMAZON, Up to 75% Off Clearance Watches and More.
Also, today only: GE Nighthawk Platinum Halogen Headlight Bulbs, $18.98 (81% off).
WALTER RUSSELL MEAD: Medical Breakthroughs And Smart Policy.
The world is in the early stages of a golden age of biotech innovation, one that has the potential to revolutionize everything from health care and manufacturing to energy production. And the biotech revolution will build on and add to the infotech revolution that has been shaking the world for the last 50 years. The 21st century will be more different from the 20th than the 20th was from the 19th. And the 22nd century will be something else again, if we don’t kill ourselves en route.
VM never gets tired of pointing this out for one very simple reason: wonks who don’t keep the innovative dynamism of our age at the forefront of their minds as they think up new policies are likely to do more harm than good. Trying to build elaborate models for the future of healthcare based on today’s delivery systems and economic models is as futile as trying to build a national transportation model in 1830 based on the success of the Erie Canal.
The tsunami of technological change headed our way means that we need to do less to build durable, rigid systems. We need to increase our social flexibility and our ability to change as new opportunities open up. That generally means more reliance on market forces and price signals, flexible regulatory regimes and open ended planning models. We need to avoid locking existing institutions and interests into rigid systems we must work harder to prevent vested interests from doubling down on the status quo.
Unfortunately, as I was warning years ago, ObamaCare does precisely the opposite, and that will cost lives.
WHEN BOYS FALL BEHIND, IT’S BECAUSE THEY’RE INFERIOR. ON THE OTHER HAND: More boys than girls getting into elite NYC public schools … this must not stand.
JUSTICE: Just Freed, Cleared Man Has a Heart Attack. “On his second day of freedom after serving 23 years in prison for a murder he did not commit, David Ranta suffered a serious heart attack Friday night, his lawyer said.”
NEWS YOU CAN USE: Reminder: That incandescent light bulb ban was not a good idea.
Not only have CFL’s not lived up to their promise, but their lousy record has made people less enthusiastic about LED bulbs, which just might.
TAPPER’S A QUALITY JOURNALIST, BUT PEOPLE LOOKING FOR QUALITY JOURNALISM DON’T TUNE IN TO CNN: TV Ratings: ‘The Lead With Jake Tapper’ Dips During First Week.
FROM IDIOTS, MOSTLY: TSA facing sharp pressure to prohibit knives on planes. Relaxing the rules to allow small knives is the first sensible thing the TSA has done.
Naturally, a lot of people in Congress are against it.
COMPASSIONATE GOVERNMENT: Watchdog: Vets Affairs chairman Miller calls for top VA official’s ouster. “Failure to fix the long waits veterans face when seeking disability benefits earned through military service warrants the removal of the top Department of Veterans Affairs executive directly responsible, according to the chairman of the House committee overseeing the agency. The call from Rep. Jeff Miller, R-Fla., for the ouster of Allison Hickey, VA’s under secretary for benefits, comes as officials there face possible sanctions for deliberately misleading a federal court about an illegal rule that makes it harder for veterans to prove they are entitled to benefits.”
If a corporation did this sort of thing, Democratic politicians would be calling for scalps.
CHANGE: Obama Has Lost Edge Over GOP On Economy. “Mr. Obama’s advantage over Congressional Republicans has all but vanished. Public approval of his handling of the economy has slipped, according to polls, and surveys now show that a roughly equal number of Americans favor Mr. Obama as favor Congressional Republicans on economic matters.”