1. Deals with the speculation in oil prices. A survey was done by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission that finds very little of the cost of crude is caused by speculation. Commodity Index funds were thought to make up 70% of the oil market, but its closer to only 13%.
2. Takes a look at Bob Woodward's (of Washington Post fame) book The War Within. It discusses the political gauntlet President Bush had to face before ordering the "surge". It was just his political foes, members in his own Cabinet, leaders at the Pentagon, and many of his advisors were pushing for withdrawal from Iraq. Considering Obama called the surge a "success beyond our wildest dreams" in his interview with O'Reilly, it makes this even more remarkable.
3. Written by Arthur Laffer (of Laffer Curve fame) and Stephen Moore. The article touches on several points. First, the median income for families over the past 25 years is trending upward. In fact, the lowest 20% of income earners have seen a 25% increase in living standards from '83 to '05, disproving that the poor are getting poorer. Second, more people have zero tax liability today than in '83 (33% vs 19%), so the "rich" are pulling a higher share of the tax load than in the past. And lastly, when taxes go up the "rich" actually pay less.
Taking from the rich through much higher tax rates in order to help the poor and middle class makes no sense intellectually and has seldom worked in practice. Reducing rates, on the other hand, does increase the share of taxes paid by the highest income-earning group. For example, in 1981, when the highest tax rate on the rich was 70% and the top capital gains tax rate was close to 45%, the richest 1% of Americans paid 17% of total income taxes. In 2005, with a top income tax rate of 35% and capital gains at 15%, the richest 1% of Americans paid 39%
4. More on taxes. The two states with the highest tax rates have among the lowest prosperity in the nation (California and New York). The two states with the lowest rates (Texas and Florida), you guessed, the highest prosperity.
5. Lays out the difference in to the two ideologies of the men running for PM in Canada between Stephen Harper (the current PM) and his opponent Stéphane Dion.
6. The title says it all. A few things that jumped out at me. They claim the average family pays $12,000/yr in insurance premiums. If that's true that's insane. My wife and I pay around $600/yr. Also, I can't put much stock in any of their points when they make the following statement, "The immediate consequences of the McCain plan are even worse. The McCain plan is a big tax increase on employers and workers. With the economy in recession, that's the last thing America's businesses need." Sigh. We are not in a recession. A recession is defined by two consecutive quarters of negative GDP growth. Last quarter we had 2.9% growth, well inside the 2.5-3.4% range which is considered healthy.
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