Barack Obama flopped it in NH when he was heckled during a speech: 

‘A lot of the folks who have been down in New York and all across the country, in the Occupy movement, there is a profound sense of frustration,’ he said. ‘There is a profound sense of frustration about the...

From the AP: 

With the collapse of the deficit-cutting supercommittee, Congress’ emergency backup budget-cutting plan now is supposed to take over — automatic, across-the-board spending reductions of roughly $1 trillion from military and well as domestic government programs.

But the big federal deficit reductions that are to be triggered by Monday’s supercommittee collapse...

Not that anyone who should try to find out about the distinction would care, but Ayn Rand ≠ libertarianism.

I recently had an email forwarded to me by a friend on an “Occupy” listserve from an academic with the subject line “A little something for the libertarians” with a copy/paste of an article

I’ve been trying to articulate the way to engage with OWS-sympathizers for the past few weeks. It’s hard to write-off some aspects of the OWS gripes: some sectors have seen an inordinate amount of favoritism from the government while a lot of the middle class has fallen on hard times. My...

It’s easy to pick on the EU’s operation in Brussels. When they aren’t spending six figures on cocktail parties, they choose to spend their time whining or condemning things normal people don’t even think to discuss. For example:

Brussels bureaucrats were ridiculed yesterday after banning drink manufacturers from claiming that water can...

I’m not one for commemorating anniversaries and dates. And, even if I was, I can’t attach a date to most of my important revelations and discoveries.

That being said, I do have an exception.

Milton Friedman died exactly five years ago today. I remember this well because I had never heard of him...

I came across a story about a Christian baker in Iowa who is being boycotted for refusing to work with a gay couple.

I love boycotts with a passion, regardless of which side I’m on. Commerce is meant to be a voluntary association where goods are exchanged. Oftentimes prices, competitors,  or...

that free markets are integral to growth, prosperity and betterment in a modern society:

In fifty years Hong Kong was transformed from one of the poorest places on earth to one of the richest.

Despite having no natural resources, indeed not even enough drinking water to support its population; despite terrible over-crowding; despite the absence...

I, alongside my friends from the libertarian and Republican clubs, went to the OccupyCornell weekly meeting yesterday afternoon. It was a tremendous departure from the “real” OccupyWallStreet and, thus, far more tolerable. However, it was still pretty pathetic. Here’s why:

What are these guys protesting? “The Ivy to Wall Street Pipeline.”

“It is...

Dr. David Friedman posted a link to his most recent work on his blog. The selection is titled “Legal Systems Very Different from Ours” and it is a really fascinating read.

In Athens:

The A...

From the WSJ:

Wall Street may have lost its appetite for Mario Batali.

Mr. Batali, the celebrity chef famed for his orange Crocs, red pony tail and bold ragus, has long been one of the premier restaurateurs to the New York financial elite….  Speaking on a panel at a Time magazine “Person of the...

As I mentioned yesterday, Ying Ma came back to Cornell last night to present her take on “Chinese state capitalism.” I took notes on the presentation:

Basic overview: In the 1990s, China had an acrimonious relationship w. US. Politicians and commentators were constantly complaining about China’s stance on human rights & allegations...

Ying Ma, a former president of the Cornell Review, has come back to campus for a visit. She’s definitely one of the better-known names with Review pedigree. (J.P. Freire & Ann Coulter are two other prominent Review alums.) She released a book last year,

Over at the DailyBeast, Stefan Theil has a really great write-up about rich nations interacting with poor nations, using a comparison of Texas/Louisiana/Florida & Greece/Italy/Spain.  

of Ithaca. My first worthy bumper-sticker sighting where I had my cell phone handy!

My biggest pet peeve are people who think voluntary actions are involuntary (& vice versa).

For example:

This doofus probably thinks that labor in the Third World is involuntary and that people in impoverished countries have the option to say, work a cushy job making artisan purses with colorful beads if only sweatshops weren’t an option. This is, of course, a developed world projection:

Contrary to what you have heard, sweatshops in third-world countries are a good deal for the people who work in them. Why? Because work, other than slave labor, is an exchange. A worker chooses a particular job because she thinks herself better off in that job than at her next-best alternative. Most of us would regard a low-paying job in Nicaragua or Honduras as a lousy job. But we’re not being asked to take those jobs. Those jobs are the best options those workers have, or else they would quit and work elsewhere. You don’t make someone better off by taking away the best of a bunch of bad choices.

But this particular car got better.

“Another man against violence against women”; “Danger: Educated Worker”; “Get Corporations off Welfare” (drat, I agree with that one); “Green Party”; “End American Fascism”…

Oh Ithaca, this was a treat.

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