Year: 2009

Panem et Circenses:

The Los Angeles Times reports that Uncle Sam is on the verge of paying the City of Los Angeles $30 million to subsidize a ten-year run of Cirque du Soleil.

So it’s finally come to pass – America has embarked on the same road down which ancient Rome marched to its ruin: Uncle Sam not only subsidizes bread (by subsidizing wheat production) but now also circuses.

As my friend David Gasten asks in an e-mail, “if the Cirque du Soleil is so popular, then why does it need to be subsidized? They didn’t need to subsidize Michael Jackson’s funeral.” True dat!

From Café Hayek.

What Should Be The State’s Role In Marriage? « ThinkMarkets:

I suggest that it should be the same as in contract law. In other words, the State should not define the terms of the relationship. It should allow the parties to do that for themselves and then simply enforce it. The current one-size-fits-all civil marriage should be abolished except as a default option for those who do not want to build their own contract.

Mario Rizzo hits the nail on the head.

The Financial White Paper: A Fabulous Tale, by Arnold Kling:

Once upon a time, there was a summer camp. To entertain the kids, the counselors handed out matches1, lighter fluid2, and newspapers3. The camp burned down.

Afterwards, a white paper was written, proposing more supervision by counselors. It called for a systemic counselor to watch out for camp-wide fire hazards, and it called for procedures to put out fires that are “too big to let burn.”

The white paper was written under the direction of two counselors, Larry and Tim, with input from another counselor, Ben.

The end.

1housing policy that encourages speculative purchases and subsidizes mortgage indebtedness
2tax policy that encourages banks and other firms to maximize debt relative to equity
3bank capital regulations that reward securitization and the creation of off-balance sheet entities