bampbs's comments

Niall Ferguson writes excellent financial history, but he gets really dumb when it comes anywhere near to contemporary policy. The transition is stunning. One is reading a rich and thoughtful book, and suddenly, eye-deep in twaddle.

Strange, the way that unisex insurance clings to the palaeofeminist dogma that men and women are exactly the same, and thereby guaranteeing gender unfairness and inequality.

It's hard. The big, bad old union movement was unquestionably one half of a conspiracy with management to fleece the rest of us - especially in Detroit. They were hostile to women and minorities, when they were the new and non-union workers who could have increased union membership. Certainly, they seemed much more interested in political power than in improving the lot of people not yet organized. There ought to be a way for employees to organize, perhaps company-by-company, that avoids or mitigates such problems. But maybe not.

Marginal income tax rates have been as high as 94%. The only way to control greed is to make it pointless. It is completely absurd that a successful professional pays the same top marginal rate as a hedge fund manager who makes a billion dollars.

That economics is meaningfully separable from the rest of society is the economists' core delusion.

doublehelix, here's what Emerson had to say about those who are *not* Independents:

"A sect or party is an elegant incognito devised to save a man from the vexation of thinking."

For the life of me, I cannot see why anyone would want to identify with either party. I dislike the Republicans more now, but the Democrats had their turn below in the past, and I expect to live long enough to see them have another.

Well it is our fault. If we hadn't proved that a nation can survive and prosper with freedom, liberty and dignity, the notion would have remained as ridiculous as it was taken to be when we first tried it.

Anything will do to distract attention from Berlusconi and his tart.

It is likely that only simple, honest species can trust their leaders.

Good for Cameron. That the US does not use its leverage to halt Israeli settlements is a disaster, for Israel most of all. The Israeli Right has no interest in a comprehensive peace. Peace would be their political death.