- Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood was on MSNBC’s Morning Joe talking about highway safety, and the hosts asked him about using technology to disable cell phones in cars. LaHood said,
“Well, look, there’s a lot of technology out there now where they can disable phones, and we’re looking at that…. I think it will be done. I mean, I think the technology is there, and I think you’re going to see the technology become adaptable in automobiles…”
- The city of San Francisco has banned toys in Happy Meals, or rather, has prohibited the distribution of toys with meals targeted at kids unless they meet certain nutritional requirements. The San Francisco Chronicle said,
“But Mar, whose most recent high-profile legislative accomplishments put new limits on smoking and tobacco sales, isn’t planning to shelve the idea of using City Hall’s regulatory power to promote public health.”
- Senator Jay Rockefeller (D-WV), during a Senate hearing, wished:
“There’s a little bug inside of me which wants to get the FCC to say to Fox and to MSNBC, ‘Out. Off. End. Goodbye.’ … It would be a big favor to political discourse; to our ability to do our work here in Congress; and to the American people, to be able to talk with each other and have some faith in their government and, more importantly, in their future.”
Why are there so many people in government who think they know better than we do about what is best for us?
The Federal Reserve announced its intention to proceed with a second round of “quantitative easing,” or printing money to buy government debt.
As an economics student, my understanding is pretty limited, but here’s what happens when you print money: you get inflation. That is, you end up with more money chasing the same limited amount of goods. Prices rise. This happened spectacularly during the California gold rush. Gold is found, thus the money supply rises. There aren’t any more, let’s say, eggs being produced after the money supply went up than there were before, so people bid up the price of eggs to many times the price that commonly held prior to the gold rush.
However, I heard an argument against the risk of inflation on the Wall Street Journal This Morning on Wednesday. Remember I said above that inflation occurs when you have more money chasing the same limited amount of goods? Peter Morici, a business professor at the University of Maryland pointed out that the inflation threat from printing money only holds in a “full employment” economy. With unemployment high, and the nation’s businesses running at less than full capacity, there is room for employers to ramp up production. This increases the amount of goods available, reducing the threat of inflation.
This sounds reasonable, but is it true?
How many really old, really liberal Congressmen do you wish you could get rid of?
- Nancy Pelosi, (D-CA), age 70 — 24 years in the House.
- Barney Frank (D-MA), 70 — 30 years.
- Henry Waxman (D-CA), 71 — 36 years.
- Edolphus Towns (D-NY), 76 –28 years.
- Pete Stark (D-CA), 79 — 38 years.
- Charlie Rangel (D-NY), 80 — 40 years.
- John Conyers (D-MI), 81 — 46 years.
- John Dingell, Jr. (D-MI), 84 — 56 years.
Dingell is a special case, because he’s held his seat for 55 years, and that seat was previously held by his father, John Dingell, Sr. for 22 years.
On the other hand, we did get rid of these:
- David Obey (D-WI), age 72 — 42 years in the House. Retired.
- Ike Skelton (D-MO), age 66 –34 years. Lost re-election bid.
- John Spratt (D-SC), age 68 — 28 years. Lost re-election bid.
