TCS Daily : January 2008 Archives
It's the Local Politicians, Stupid
The catastrophe that has befallen Kenya since the riggedelection of Dec. 27 -- killings and displacements, curtailed freedoms, apromising economy on the verge of being wrecked -- confirms for theumpteenth time that local politicians, not the remnants of imperialism
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How Not to Address Climate Change
Common sense should tell us that good policies produce more in benefits than they cost us. Unfortunately, common sense has left the building when it comes to climate policy. Asserting (somewhat absurdly) that America's economic and geopolitical competitors, such..
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When Health Care Becomes Personal
"Despite a rapidly growing elderly population, the number of certified geriatricians fell by a third between 1998 and 2004. Applications to training programs in adult primary-care medicine are plummeting, while fields like plastic surgery and radiology receive appl
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Two Economic Birds, One Government Stone
There is a large and potentially risky disconnection between the causes of the current financial crisis and the various macroeconomic stimulus packages proposed by the Fed, the president and others. We propose a precisely targeted stimulus that would seek...
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A Very Stimulating Crisis
"Saving labor, producing more goods with fewer man-hours, is widely perceived not as progress but as a danger. I call this the make-work bias, a tendency to underestimate the economic benefits of conserving labor. Where noneconomists see the destruction of...
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Isn't This What You Want?
Tata, India's largest vehicle manufacturer, has decided to bring mobility to the masses, introducing an Indian-style "people's car," a petite rear-engine car called the Nano that gets 50 miles to the gallon, and will sell for the amazingly low...
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The Imaginary 'Pink Tide'
The media's "socialist" label misunderstands Latin's America's new leaders; far more relevant than ideology are globalization, governmental incompetence, and populism. Part I of this two-part series considers the irrelevance of right and left characterizations in
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Blowin' in the Wind
If you thought the 2008 presidential race was shattering all records for windy rhetoric, it's nothing compared to the political eco-rhetoric being spun to US taxpayers -- to get them to cough up billions of dollars to fuel a...
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Jonah Goldberg's Revisionist F-Bomb
"If the American idea was to subdue Native Americans and place them at the disposal of European settlers, to import several million Africans to the New World and subject them to a lifetime of slavery, to impose on Asian immigrants...
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A Question of Religion
Some years ago I was asked a question that has haunted me. It came during a telephone conversation I had with a young man whose Internet book club has selected one of my books to read. The young man...
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Children of 1919
Editor's note: David Andelman is the author of A Shattered Peace: Versailles 1919 and the Price We Pay Today. He recently discussed his book with Nick Schulz. Q. It is your sense that 1919 and the Paris Conference are...
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How many politicians does it take to change a lightbulb?
Perhaps it is unfair to blame commercial organisations for rent-seeking. But the government's contemptuous attitude to the public is another matter: it seems that consumers' reluctance to take up CFLs despite their stated financial advantages is enough to demonstra
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The Conspiracy to Deny the Poor Mobility—and Opportunity
Mobility is prosperity—a fact that humans have recognized since the dawn of civilization, when population centers arose next to navigable waterways. Yet this simple fact seems to evade many pundits, environmental activists—and even screenwriters. Screenwriters? Yes
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How the World Views Obama
Foreign leaders and journalists often joke that the whole world should get to vote in U.S. elections since the outcome affects the entire planet. His recent setback in New Hampshire notwithstanding, an intense scrutiny of Barack Obama is taking place...
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Why Second Life Won't Get a Third
Since well before the 2000 dotcom bubble left a glycerin residue on the economy, we've been waiting for that convergence of the Internet, 3D games, and peer-to-peer networking. For many, Second Life represents that convergence—and our collective future online....
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Stimulating Ideas
I'm scared. Fears of a future recession are giving politicians an excuse to splurge. Hillary Clinton, for one, wants to spend $70 billion on a so-called anti-recession stimulus package that includes $30 billion in mortgage relief and $10 billion...
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Unwise and Unproductive Pandering from the GOP
With voters in Michigan set to weigh in on the next Republican presidential nominee, it's not surprising to learn that the pandering for votes has picked up. Sadly, short-term political gain has trumped sound thinking when it comes to...
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The Collective Punishment Model
Remember how in grade school, the teacher would punish the whole class for the actions of just a few disruptive students? This is an early lesson in collective punishment, which is usually practiced during wartime or under martial law. Collective...
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Felon-Friendly Congress
Often, what emerges from Congress is a parody not only of good government, but of common sense. The chairman of the House subcommittee on the federal work force thinks the feds should actively recruit felons into government employment. "The federal...
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Put the Fear of Gold in Ya'
Some assets rise because people feel there will be no end to their good fortune. That kind of "irrational exuberance" partly explains the dot-com bubble of the 1990s and the real estate bubble of the new millennium -- to use...
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Why We Are Still Arguing About Darwin
Today, almost one hundred and fifty years after the publication of The Origin of Species, we are still arguing about Darwin. How is this possible? If Darwin's theory of natural selection is a scientific theory, as its defenders claim,...
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Politics and Cults
"The problem with the [Ron] Paul movement is that it has become a cult. Far too many of the cultists not only are willingly blind to their leader's faults but have also begun to internalize his beliefs as they...
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$100 Oil? Fuhghedaboudit!
Last week the price of a barrel of oil hit $100. This raised fears of an economic slowdown akin to the one in the 1970s when oil prices quadrupled almost overnight. That shock was largely responsible for the worst decade...
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On the Need for Matrimonial Cruelty
Cristina Fernandez recently took office as Argentina's president. Until a few weeks ago, she was the country's first lady. The big difference, of course, does not reside so much in the fact that her former status was ceremonial and dependent...
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The Huckatax: How Fair Is It?
I am urban. I am white-collar. I am tolerant on social issues. I am Jewish. In Mike Huckabee's "us-vs.-them" identity politics, I am a poster child for "them." Nonetheless, when it comes to evaluating Huckabee's signature domestic proposal, the FairTax,...
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Extending Archimedes: Megastructures in Space
Having understood the principle of the lever, the great thinker Archimedes of Syracuse (c. 287 - c. 212 BCE) declared, "Give me a place to stand, and I will move the Earth." Archimedes, probably the world's first scientific engineer,...
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The Supremacy of Preemption
Patients will benefit if the Supreme Court sides with pharmaceutical companies in two cases this session, establishing the general principle that drug makers can't be sued for unforeseen side effects that emerge after drugs have received Food and Drug...
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Assassination and Revolution - A Pakistan Scenario?
Experts on Islam and Pakistan, some of them individuals known for their past competence, some merely graced with fancy titles, are now pressed, in Washington and around the world, to imagine the future of Pakistan after the atrocious slaying of Benazir...
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Google the Destroyer
From its beginning, Google has been charged with grandiloquence for its corporate mission statement: "to organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful." More recently, the infosphere has gotten concerned that the grandiloquence is
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Will Global Warming Generate America's Fourth Great Awakening?
We have just ended the season when every environmental group to whom we've contributed, the NWF, WS, Sierra Club, and others, sends appeals for more funds. If you have ever contributed to these groups, you've no doubt been approached to...
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The Climate Gap and the 2008 Presidential Campaign
As we approach the elections of 2008, a clear gap has emerged between the major Republican and Democratic candidates on the issue of environment. Call it the "climate gap." A look at the websites of the candidates as well...
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Justice for Cambodia's Killing Fields
In Cambodia, thirty-two years ago, Pol Pot opened the gates of hell and evil reigned bringing destruction, devastation, death and despair. The monstrous behavior of the Khmer Rouge claimed untold victims. Estimates of the death toll during Pol Pot's...
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Demystifying Iowa
Q: What's a Caucus? A: The old saw in Iowa is "caucus" is an Indian word for gathering together to make a great noise. That may be apocryphal, but the noise Iowa's caucuses generate is certainly no myth. Generally,...
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Student of the Depression
One has to pity Ben Bernanke as the Federal Reserve faces its worst policy dilemma in many years. Should the Federal Reserve hang tough on interest rates to fend off the past demons of higher inflation at the risk...
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Plunder in the New Year
Many smart and well-intentioned people fault government for its injustices and inefficiencies. Because there are few incentives to economize, and many to mislead, waste and moral corruption are endemic to and inherent in political management. No nation has found a.
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