Copyright 2010 The Future of Capitalism Wed, 10 Mar 2010 10:13:50 -0500 http://blogs.law.harvard.edu/tech/rss The Future of Capitalism :: Writings http://www.futureofcapitalism.com webmaster@futureofcapitalism.com (The Future of Capitalism) webmaster@futureofcapitalism.com en-us http://www.futureofcapitalism.com/2010/03/pelosi-on-health-care Wed, 10 Mar 2010 10:13:49 EST Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi on a health care overhaul, in a speech yesterday: "we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it, away from the fog of the controversy." Might it be nice to find out what is in it before passing it? In http://www.futureofcapitalism.com/2010/03/racism-and-taxes Wed, 10 Mar 2010 09:23:37 EST Why do Americans dislike taxes? Because they are racist, says Ethan Porter, writing in Democracy: A Journal of Ideas: "Some of it is racial; your tax money, says the subconscious of many American voters, isn't just wasted on overpriced toilet seats and http://www.futureofcapitalism.com/2010/03/boeings-bank Wed, 10 Mar 2010 08:28:00 EST President Obama will speak tomorrow at the annual conference of the Export-Import Bank. The Washington Examiner's Timothy Carney examines just exactly what the Export-Import Bank is, and find what he calls "an unparalleled case of corporate welfare -- a http://www.futureofcapitalism.com/2010/03/soda-tax-falls-flat Wed, 10 Mar 2010 06:25:00 EST The New York Daily News has published an op-ed piece I wrote about Governor Paterson and Mayor Bloomberg's idea of imposing a penny-an-ounce tax on sugary sodas: "This idea for squeezing more change out of our pockets deserves to be poured down the drain http://www.futureofcapitalism.com/2010/03/government-and-private-auto-regulation Tue, 9 Mar 2010 20:47:44 EST Emily Schaefer, a research fellow and director of the Center on Entrepreneurial Innovation at The Independent Institute and assistant professor of economics at San Jose State University, has an op-ed piece in the San Jose Mercury News comparing private http://www.futureofcapitalism.com/2010/03/warren-buffett-on-carried-interest Tue, 9 Mar 2010 17:33:55 EST The New Yorker has a Talk of the Town item by James Surowiecki that the magazine's Web site, at least, headlines "Private Equity's Egregious Tax Loophole." The article quotes the chairman of Berkshire Hathaway, Warren Buffett, in favor of changing the http://www.futureofcapitalism.com/2010/03/chinas-auto-industry Tue, 9 Mar 2010 15:20:32 EST Back on February 26, we noted that the Chinese government was apparently blocking Sichuan Tengzhong Heavy Industrial Machinery from its bid to buy Hummer from GM. Automotive News China has a more extensive explanation of the Chinese government role in http://www.futureofcapitalism.com/2010/03/why-not-phil-gramm Tue, 9 Mar 2010 09:12:28 EST "Why not appointees like Phil Gramm?" is the sub-headline on the Wall Street Journal's editorial today about President Obama's deficit commission. The editorial suggests that the Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell, should "name the likes of former http://www.futureofcapitalism.com/2010/03/very-good-bill-mcgurn-column Tue, 9 Mar 2010 08:54:20 EST Former Bush speechwriter William McGurn has an excellent little column with a close analysis of how President Obama chooses the words he uses to talk about health care. http://www.futureofcapitalism.com/2010/03/read-it-here-first-38 Tue, 9 Mar 2010 08:48:41 EST FutureOfCapitalism.com article on Steve Levy, the Democratic county executive of Suffolk County, as a potential Republican candidate for governor of New York: February 17, 2010. Wall Street Journal article on same: March 9, 2010. http://www.futureofcapitalism.com/2010/03/now-brazil Mon, 8 Mar 2010 23:32:19 EST The Obama administration has managed to get us into a trade war with Brazil, the Financial Times reports. Brazil is raising tariffs on American goods in retaliation against American farm subsidies for cotton. For a president who ran on restoring http://www.futureofcapitalism.com/2010/03/reich-proposes-a-new-tax Mon, 8 Mar 2010 23:02:57 EST "A tiny one half of one percent tax on all financial transactions would generate about $200 billion a year, according to the Economic Policy Institute," Robert Reich writes. These taxes all start out "tiny" until the government needs or wants more http://www.futureofcapitalism.com/2010/03/seth-klarman-quotes-hayek Mon, 8 Mar 2010 22:53:23 EST In view of the attention this site has devoted to F.A. Hayek (see, for example here and here), readers may be interested in the latest from fund manager Seth Klarman. On Mr. Klarman's list of ten "false lessons" that investors seem to have learned from http://www.futureofcapitalism.com/2010/03/sheila-bairs-latest-1 Mon, 8 Mar 2010 22:38:00 EST The chairman of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, Sheila Bair, spoke today to a conference of the National Association of Business Economics. Among her remarks: Our financial sector has grown disproportionately in relation to the rest of our http://www.futureofcapitalism.com/2010/03/another-117-million-for-first-wind Mon, 8 Mar 2010 21:56:21 EST First Wind Holdings LLC will get a $117 million loan guarantee from federal "stimulus" funds to finance the construction and start-up of a wind energy project in Kahuku, Hawaii, the federal Department of Energy announced Friday. Once complete, the