The Intransigent Conservative

Monday, January 21, 2013

Monday's Menagerie


@natebeeler

View the story "Monday's Menagerie (1/21/13)" on Storify Monday's Menagerie (1/21/13) Storified by Brian Empric· Mon, Jan 21 2013 18:52:46 It looks like high taxes are going to force Phil Mickelson to possibly move away from Rancho Santa Fe, California or even retire from playing professional golf. "I'm not sure what exactly, you know, I'm going to do yet," he said. "I'll probably talk about it more in depth next week. I'm not going to jump the gun, but there are going to be some. There are going to be some drastic changes for me because I happen to be in that zone that has been targeted both federally and by the state and, you know, it doesn't work for me right now. So I'm going to have to make some changes."Brian Empric Mickelson hints at big off-the-course changesESPN.com news services After finishing the final round of his 2013 PGA Tour season opener Sunday, Phil Mickelson suggested there were big... According to the author, a majority of economists support some form of Pigovian tax, named after Arthur Pigou, the early-20th-century British economist. "Pigou developed the idea of externalities: the things we do that affect others and that the market is unable to price. A negative externality is like the national equivalent of what happens when you go to dinner with three friends and, knowing that you’ll pay only a fourth of the bill, decide to order an expensive entree. Pigou argued that there are so many damaging things that we do — play music too loudly, drive aggressively — and that we’d probably do less if we had to pay for them." "Republican economists, like (N. Gregory) Mankiw (chairman of President George W. Bush’s Council of Economic Advisers), normally oppose tax increases, but many support Pigovian taxes because, in some sense, we are already paying them. We pay the tax in the form of the overcrowded roads, higher insurance premiums, smog and global warming. Adding an extra fee at the pump simply makes the cost explicit. Pigou’s approach, Mankiw argues, also converts a burden into a benefit. Imposing taxes on income and capital gains, he notes, punishes the work and investment that improve society; taxing negative externalities allows the government to make money while discouraging activity that hurts the overall economy." Brian Empric Should We Tax People for Being Annoying?Driving home during the holidays, I found myself trapped in the permanent traffic jam on I-95 near Bridgeport, Conn. In the back seat, my... "The Founders created a legislative process that was deliberately different from the parliamentary systems of Europe. In the 'regular order' of things, the House works its will. The Senate works its will. Those two bodies meet in conference. The president may then sign or veto the resulting legislation. In Mr. Reid's Washington, the House works its will, the Senate does crossword puzzles." "Mr. Reid's primary motive is to shield his vulnerable members from tough votes and to hide the huge divisions in his party... He has not produced a budget because to do so would expose the party's real spending ambitions, which would create political problems back home for his members." Brian Empric Strasssel: Harry Reid's Great Disappearing Act - WSJ.comThe simplest statements sometimes are the most insightful. For an example, consider this one on Wednesday from Oklahoma Sen. Tom Coburn, ...