Marketplace of Ideas

Marketplace of Ideas

Thursday, August 7, 2008

French President Nicolas Sarkozy ‘has decided that the French need to become more productive’. . . Hollywood actor Jon Voight has caused a stir with his recent Washington Times op-ed. . . The British economy may be sluggish, but McDonald’s is booming. . . This is proving to be ‘the summer of hedge fund discontent’. . . What are ‘the ten most expensive streets in the world’?

Wednesday, August 6, 2008

The Australian airline Qantas, which has traditionally been known for its good safety record, is now being investigated by Aussie aviation authorities following ‘a spate of recent incidents’. . . Las Vegas casino magnate Steve Wynn has been ‘credited with changing the landscape of the Strip and bringing a semblance of class to Sin City’. . . A new survey of corporate executives and their advisors finds that Texas is considered to have the most favorable state business climate. . . Barack Obama has won the support of some prominent Wall Streeters. What explains that? The Canadian dollar is ‘now back at levels last seen almost a year ago’. . .

Tuesday, August 5, 2008

‘Politicians seem to have an irresistible urge to intervene whenever voters start suffering from higher prices, but usually those interventions do more harm than good,’ argues Harvard economist Edward Glaeser . . . Paleontologists excavating a brickyard in Poland ‘have discovered the remains of a dinosaur they say is a previously unknown ancestor of the Tyrannosaurus Rex’. . . The Financial Times Deutschland argues that choosing Beijing to host the 2008 Summer Olympics ‘was a drastic mistake’. . . ‘It has been a tough year for the high priests of global warming in the U.S.,’ writes Arthur Herman . . . Should the British be worried about sovereign wealth funds?

Monday, August 4, 2008

According to The Daily Telegraph, ‘Not since the arrest of Yukos proprietor Mikhail Khodorkovsky in 2003—perhaps not even since the ruble crash of 1998—have foreign investors been so dejected about Russia’. . . John Tierney has compiled ‘a list of 10 things not to worry about on your vacation’. . . A recent decision by the U.S. Navy ‘is roiling the waters in a Maine Senate race’. . . How has U.S. crude oil field production changed since the 1940s? Cubans are yearning for more economic freedom. . .

Friday, August 1, 2008

‘A record number of hotels are opening this year,’ The New York Times reports,‘and the timing could not be worse’. . . A coal shortage in China may trigger the country’s ‘worst spate of blackouts and brownouts in four years’. . . According to Arthur Brooks, ‘Virtually every group in the population is less angry in 2008 than in 1996’. . . The United Kingdom may be on the verge of a negative equity crisis. . . Is it true that gasoline prices ‘rise faster than they fall’?

Thursday, July 31, 2008

Despite the economic downturn, ‘U.S. sales of expensive jewelry, Swiss watches, and French scarves are holding firm’. . . The Wall Street Journal editorial page argues that FCC Chairman Kevin Martin has been a big disappointment . . . CIBC economist Jeff Rubin predicts that the U.S. inflation rate will hit 6 percent by the end of 2008. . . Turkey’s Constitutional Court has rejected a lawsuit seeking to ban the ruling party from politics. . . What is ‘the hardest-drinking creature in the world’?

Wednesday, July 30, 2008

Manhattan Institute scholar Heather Mac Donald reminds us that ‘boys are found more often than girls at the outer reaches of the bell curve of abstract reasoning ability’. . . Starbucks founder and CEO Howard Schultz ‘is working to transform the troubled company back into a thriving business’. . . The town of Boraas, Sweden, is at the center of a dispute over soccer and hamburgers. . . University of Michigan economist Lutz Kilian explains why gasoline costs so much. . . Is Philadelphia a good place to do business?

Tuesday, July 29, 2008

In developing countries across the globe, government fuel subsidies are ‘removing much of the incentive to conserve fuel’. . . Former Google engineers have ‘unveiled a new Web search service that aims to outdo the Internet search leader in size’. . . Due to air pollution, the official opening of the Olympic village in Beijing was ‘shrouded in pea-soup fog’. . . According to BBC News, ‘Nigeria is losing billions of dollars every year to oil smuggling’. . . Who are the top corporate lobbyists in Washington, D.C.?

Monday, July 28, 2008

‘We are not a nation of whiners,’ writes economist David Ranson, ‘but we do have a lot of alarmists. It is becoming politically incorrect to suggest that the economy is basically sound’. . . John McCain is facing ‘a disadvantage on pocketbook issues reminiscent of the failed reelection campaigns of Presidents George H.W. Bush and Jimmy Carter’. . . Some scientists believe ‘they have found a workable way of reducing carbon dioxide levels in the atmosphere by adding lime to seawater’. . . A new London nightclub called Surya is claiming to be ‘the world’s first ecological club’. . . Should the SEC be given more power to regulate investment banks?

Friday, July 25, 2008

As Harvard economist Andrei Shleifer has pointed out, the last quarter century was ‘the Age of Milton Friedman’. . . SEC Chairman Christopher Cox defends the commission’s decision to restrict ‘naked’ short selling of stocks. . . The International Olympic Committee has decided to ban Iraqi athletes from participating in the Beijing Games. . . Times of London business editor David Wighton asks, ‘Could this be the tipping point for oil?’ The German government has ambitious plans to expand the use of wind power. . .