When Rick Wagoner, CEO of General Motors, went to Washington recently to ask for federal aid, he flew there in a corporate jet. Some of the members of Congress confronted him about this. However, GM has made it clear that they understand that the current economic climate means cutbacks for everyone, even their own executives. So, even as they petition Congress for hundreds of millions of freshly printed dollars, they are returning two of the company's leased jets. » read more »

As always, the government has taken a bad situation and made it worse. It seems the gas shortages in GA are due to the EPA's regulations that force us to use "cleaner" gasoline which isn't as available. Of course, their relaxation of this illegal regulation came too late, so the shortages are supposed to last several more days. To make matters worse, GA's governor enabled the "no price gouging" regulation--in stupid defiance of the Law of Supply and Demand--insuring the shortages will be extended artificially and unnecessarily. » read more »

This blog post does an excellent job of demonstrating how inflation, not oil companies, is responsible for rising gasoline prices.

Remember, the government doesn't get its income from taxes. It gets its income from printing money. The tax money we send in is most likely just dumped on a fire in order to cap the rampant inflation generated by the Fed.

As Vox points out, it appears the leaders of the Massachusetts government could use one:

Apparently the Law of Supply and Demand still comes as a bit of a shock to some. What, you mean you can't subsidize the cost of health care without increasing the demand for it?

Now in Massachusetts, in an unintended consequence of universal coverage, the imbalance is being exacerbated by the state’s new law requiring residents to have health insurance. » read more »

Many credit/charge* cards accrue bonus points that can be exchanged for gifts, gift cards, cash, etc. Many of these cards also offer the chance to change these points in for a charitable contribution to any charity of your choice. Often, the exchange value for such contributions is better than the exchange value for cash or goods. » read more »

Illegal Aliens Cause Massive Cuts For US Seniors

December 4, 2007

http://rense.com/general79/seniors.htm

I hope the following 14 reasons are forwarded over and over again until they
are read so many times that the reader gets sick of reading them. I have
included the URL's for verification of the following facts:

1. $11 Billion to $22 billion is spent on welfare to illegal aliens each
year. http://tinyurl.com/zob77

2. $2.2 Billion dollars a year is spent on food assistance programs such as
food stamps, WIC, and free school lunches for illegal aliens. http://www.cis.org/articles/2004/fiscalexec.h... » read more »

Historically, and according to Natural Law or Austrian economics (take your pick), stuff's worth is assigned by the free market. A loaf of bread has a certain value "assigned" to it by the free market (the balance between supply and demand, at its simplest). Money is merely a means of quantifying that worth in a form that is convenient. It was convenient to choose precious metals as the means of storing and trading value. A loaf of bread might be worth a particular gold coin, for example. (The coin would likely be very small or have very little gold in it, in this example, since bread isn't worth much in the grand scheme of things.) It later became convenient to create pseudo-money, or a currency that had no inherent worth in itself but symbolized real value. Paper money fits this bill well. In the good ol' days, paper money could be traded at any time for an amount of gold, say (any agreeable commodity will do, really), that was imprinted on the money. For example, a hundred dollar note might be traded for an ounce of gold bullion (for all intents and purposes, pure gold). This relationship was fixed by definition. One ounce of gold was always "worth" a hundred dollars, because a hundred dollars was defined to be the same value as an ounce of gold. Such was the nature of the gold standard. » read more »

Since Mankiw has been referenced a couple of times here (first here, then here), I thought I should investigate the guy's personal, economic beliefs. These should speak to his character, worldview, and frankly, credibility. (I'll overlook his position at Harvard, which already reveals more than he'd like.) » read more »

* Elasticity of supply and demand; the losses associated with taxation
* Prevalence of externalities
* Power of monopolies
* Rationality of people
* Government inefficiency vs. marketplace power
* Distribution of income

Sourced from http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/2007/12/how-do...

I encourage everyone to see the original post for details.

• 300+ million people in the U.S.
• 150+ or 180+ million in the labor force.
• ~50 million receive Social Security.
• 30+ million SS recipients are retired, plus another 2.5+ million spouses of retirees.
• 20+ million directly employed by government (federal, state, local).
• 10+ million federal contractors and grantees (state and local are unknown).
• 5+ million on welfare.

This means over 28% of the population and over 37% of the labor force is on a government payroll. » read more »