Republican Communist or Keynesian dictatorship on rural fire fees

  One state lawmaker is trying to overturn a new law that requires California homeowners in rural areas to pay an annual fee for fire prevention services. Sen. Ted Gaines (R-Roseville) filed referendum papers late Wednesday. KMJM

Brown and the law now requires rural homeowners to pay an extra fee for fire protection. But who runs the fire patrol? Well its complicated, sometimes the socialist state, sometimes the socialist county and sometime the private sector.

Should Brown raise fees? Dunno, its a mixed issue.

Debt and Carbon taxes are unrelated

I understand why the Republicans haven't proposed a carbon tax--they, after all, aren't worried about the deficit Brad

If the issue is just collecting taxes, then I think we debunked the notion that people see taxpaying as fun and exciting. He quotes Ryan Avent:

When we emit carbon into the atmosphere, we impose a tiny negative cost on society as a whole in the form of more rapid global warm and a greater intensity of the accompanying social ills.

Who educates these idiots? Why would transferring the global warming costs from one sector to another help?

This is a pretty straightforward policy solution, and it's one that's been embraced by economists and various other wonks for years....

More bullshit. Smart economists calculate both sides of the trade. Ryan has no model for how government is going to spend its collected  do-re-me.  Let me give Ryan a hunch, government is less energy efficient than the private sector.  Want a pointer? Look at the rise in oil prices and imports whenever Congress tries a stimulus stunt.

More Pelosiville

“We all have an obligation to prevent our country from going into default,” Pelosi said. LA Times

No we don't.

Pelosi said that, like just about everyone on the Hill, she has no idea what form a final package might take -- just 12 days away from a potentially catastrophic default.

Well, the most efficient result is default, it will be catastrophic for her, but not me. It means that when Felix Salmon sends in his armed agents to collect debt service, there will be less to collect.

Calling bullshit on Timothy B Lee

With the lonely exception of Scott Sumner, virtually every libertarian or conservative who has expressed a strong opinion about monetary policy has come down on the side of the inflation hawks. Forbes

He is trying to prove this lie. Smart economists, from the communist ranks to the libertarian ranks have always been worried about a Japan style deflation.

Why does stuff take so long to happen?

Solvency crises don't depend on multiple equilibria, but on changing fundamentals. And fundamentals can change slowly and predictably over time. But solvency depends on expectations of those fundamentals -- whether people expect Greece will be able to pay bonds coming due in 2021. And those expectations should not change slowly and predictably over time.Canadian Initiative

Investors have a finite set of alternative investments. They may think Greece is doomed, but they cannot escape. California is doomed, Congress is nearly broke, and my own county, Fresno is on the brink. If the requirement is a sovereign bond investment, then all sovereign investments will approach the same risk/price ratio.

African dictator causing major peril for middle class families

A new white paper, titled “Warning: Hollow Force Ahead,” which has just been released by the American Enterprise Institute, the Heritage Foundation, and the Foreign Policy Initiative, warns of the negative consequences of a thinner defense. Weekly Standard

Badly dressed African dictators may be a common threat to the American household, but a minor one. This article is really about Billy Kristol protecting his favorite government goodie. Republican Communism on Parade by the Weekly Standard

1936! 1936! 1936!

European invasion of Africa, check.
Major disputes in state finance between German and France, check.
Information technology changing capital flows, check.
Restructuring of transportation, check.

But no drug addicted rampaging German dictator, yet.

Felix demeans the family finance metaphor

The personal-finance metaphor

The problem is, when the debt service gets to high for the taxpayer, Felix also believes bondholders have the right to call the local sheriff. If government is not like a family, then please return the thousands of dollars a typical family budgets for government debt service.

Minnesota lawmakers return from fishing trip

End of Minnesota shutdown brings relief, frustration

The Land of a Thousand lakes. My theory is simple, running government and the running of the Great Northern Bass do not mix.

Kling wants to highlight a point

From the book Manias, Panics and Crashes.  Bubbles hop around a connected economy, they spiral.

Channel Theory explanation:

The excess liquidity needs a production system for the traders, a multi-stage investment pass through that collects dimes and invest dollars, the Corridor Hypothesis.  The trade system is stuck trying to find the wholesale investment that matches the trading production system output. We can call it  a spectral constraint, they need to find a particular -iLog(i),  investment sequence to match some external restriction, generally the yield curve restricting their investors.