"Drinking With Bob" shares his opinion of Mayor Bloomberg's ban on portions of sugary beverages larger than 16 ounces.

He is not a fan.

President Obama and his allies at the New York Times are wrong when they argue for raising taxes on the "rich" as part of a deal to avert the automatic spending cuts known as the sequester, I write in my column this week. Please check it out at Reason (here), the New York Sun (here), or Newsmax (here).

Libertarian law professor Richard Epstein's column this week is about the inadvisability of piling more regulations (paid sick and maternity leave, no discrimination against previously unemployed job applicants) onto the already weak labor market. But the passage in his column that caught my eye was about the dollar:

The debate over the proper level of government spending and taxation is itself a powerful cause of our current economic malaise. The current uncertainty over the use of these key policy levers leads to further uncertainty about the possibility of a rise in interest rates that will send the economy into a tailspin. Unstable currency injects a gratuitous element of uncertainty into every private transaction denominated in dollars.

The Boston Globe has an opinion column by Farah Stockman that more or less defends a Democratic congressman who is running for Senate, Ed Markey, for his ridiculous comment likening the Supreme Court's First Amendment decision Citizens United to an earlier Supreme Court's infamous decision enslaving Dred Scott. She writes:

does Markey have a point as well? The clumsiness of the comparison overshadowed his broader argument: The Supreme Court sometimes issues rulings that subvert democracy, and when that happens, we can't let them stand.

"Online Courses Could Widen Achievement Gaps Among Students," is the headline over an article in the Chronicle of Higher Education reporting on a Columbia University study that frets:

students in demographic groups whose members typically struggle in traditional classrooms are finding their troubles exacerbated in online courses.

The study found that all students who take more online courses, no matter the demographic, are less likely to attain a degree. However, some groups—including black students, male students, younger students, and students with lower grade-point averages—are particularly susceptible to this pattern

Leave it to Columbia and the Chronicle to find a downside to technology that increases access to higher education while decreasing costs.

This is the sign that greets you when you enter the InterContinental The Clement hotel in Monterey, California. It warns that "This Facility Contains Chemicals Known to the State of California to Cause Cancer and Birth Defects and Other Reproductive Harm." Material in the guest rooms says it is a smoke-free hotel, and I didn't encounter any tobacco smoke, so it seems like another example of the state of California imposing alarmism about the possible health effects of tiny amounts of ordinary chemicals. I don't take the risk of cancer lightly, but really, if the state thinks that walking into this hotel causes cancer, birth defects, and reproductive harm, it should shut it down and send in workers in haz-mat suits to remediate the danger. Instead it posts these warning signs, which are so ridiculous that they are impossible to take seriously. What is a prospective hotel guest supposed to do upon encountering such a sign? Cancel his nonrefundable hotel reservation and drive to sleep in some other state with a more rational approach to regulation?

This email was sent to the "Young Global Leaders" of the World Economic Forum, which puts on the fancy conference at Davos:

Dear YGLs,

On April 1, we will host an all-day YGL-led event on "The Future of Capitalism" in New York City at the Forum Offices. The event will bring together YGLs with business leaders and prominent thinkers to explore how the market-based capitalist system can be improved to provide a sustainable future for the next generation. This chemistry of business elders and YGLs will set the event apart and should lead to insights that are both daring and feasible. We will put an emphasis on pragmatic, post-ideological solutions that could be implemented over the coming years. Themes will include:

Stabilizing the financial system, the "plumbing" of capitalism

Companies' role in society and the implications of a "shareholder spring"

The global role of long-term capital and its facilitation – from single to triple bottom line, and back

Funding national grand challenges – education, health and pensions

Earlier this week I happened to be visiting the Hiller Aviation Museum in San Carlos, California. Businesses that started out in garages have been an occasional topic of FutureOfCapitalism (see here for some links), so I smiled when I saw an exhibit panel at the museum about the origins of Hiller Helicopter, which was a significant player in the helicopter business.

"When World War II began, U.S. government procurement officers were surprised to discover that the company was almost exclusively comprised of high school kids operating out of a family residence garage. Nevertheless, defense contracts were awarded to the company."

"Grumpy Economist" John Cochrane of the University of Chicago has a fine post up about the minimum wage.

In an odd turn, the community organizer-turned-president now wants parents and students to evaluate colleges based on how much money the graduates earn. My column this week looks at the White House's new scorecards for colleges, which President Obama announced in his state of the union address. It also gets into the minimum wage a bit. Please check it out at the New York Sun (here) or Newsmax (here).

Libertarian law professor Richard Epstein's column this week appears on the Hoover Institution Web site under the headline "In Praise of Income Inequality." He writes:

The blunt truth remains that any government-mandated leveling in society will be a leveling down. There is no sustainable way to make the poor richer by making the rich poorer. But increased regulation and taxation will make both groups poorer. Negative growth hardly becomes equitable if a larger fraction of the decline is concentrated at the top earners.

Pretty nifty profile of the governor of the Bank of Israel, Stanley Fischer, in the Washington Post, pegged to the prospect that he will be the next chairman of the Federal Reserve, a possibility raised in our Office Pool for 2013 and again by David Warsh in a February 3 column. The author of the Post article, Dylan Matthews, is a byline to keep an eye out for — maybe half my age and a third of Warsh's age, but smart.

Daniel Pipes has some characteristically provocative and pithy ideas on reshaping the relations between donors and universities in a way that "will weaken the Left's death-grip on university life."

One of the many nice things about the Internet is the ability it offers for a company to talk back to the press, or to talk to the public directly when it is maligned in the press. For an example, it's hard to beat Tesla chairman, product architect, and CEO Elon Musk 's Web page responding to a negative New York Times review of his company's electric car.

With my annotations in brackets.

U.S. Capitol

Washington, D.C.

9:15 P.M. EST

THE PRESIDENT: Mr. Speaker, Mr. Vice President, members of Congress, fellow citizens:

Fifty-one years ago, John F. Kennedy [Kennedy wanted to cut taxes, while President Obama wants to raise them.] declared to this chamber that "the Constitution makes us not rivals for power but partners for progress." (Applause.) "It is my task," he said, "to report the State of the Union -- to improve it is the task of us all."

Tonight, thanks to the grit and determination of the American people, there is much progress to report. After a decade of grinding war, our brave men and women in uniform are coming home. (Applause.) After years of grueling recession, our businesses have created over six million new jobs. We buy more American cars [Does that include the FIAT-owned Chryslers?] than we have in five years, and less foreign oil than we have in 20. (Applause.) Our housing market is healing, our stock market is rebounding, and consumers, patients, and homeowners enjoy stronger protections than ever before. (Applause.)