Forms of Inquiry: 5/12/15 Today's Inquiries

It's a sad day for me when the air conditioning isn't capable of cooling the home, even when set to 80!

The Links:

Elizabeth Warren writes an OpEd against the TPP. Dear Liz. Run for president. I will work for your campaign for free.

Most Americans don’t think of the minimum wage or antismoking regulations as trade barriers. But a foreign corporation has used ISDS to sue Egypt because Egypt raised its minimum wage. Phillip Morris has gone after Australia and Uruguay to stop them from implementing rules to cut smoking rates. Under the TPP, companies could use ISDS to challenge these kinds of government policy decisions — including food safety rules.

Canada and the UK have mandatory public savings accounts for their citizens. They've been doing pretty well. Let's compare that to the way public pensions and retirement funds function in the US. Not well. Why? Because the public pensions end up invested in high fee funds where the managers make money while the pensioners get almost nothing. For example: Rhode Island, CALPERS, Kentucky TRS, City of Chicago. It's hard for me to endorse such a plan here because there are likely to be similar shenanigans with a mandatory public savings plan.

What did Jeb Bush learn from the Iraq war?

But Bush's answer to the question he thought he was being asked — would you have invaded Iraq if you only knew what was known then — is more telling, and confirms the worst fears some had about his candidacy. What he said, in effect, was that the Iraq War was a good idea that was undermined by bad intelligence. He said, in other words, that he thinks the basic concept of the Iraq War was right even if the specific case turned out to be wrong.

Scott Walker, leading presidential candidate in Iowa, promised 250,000 new jobs in Wisconsin. How's that working out for him?

Since tax revenues have failed to surge as the Republicans had hoped, it is likely further spending cuts will be implemented. As I have observed in the past, spending cuts are likely to be contractionary in the short run, making it even less likely that employment will continue to grow rapidly.

Here's how Ben Carson's "biblical" flat tax would effect the poor.

One thing is indisputable: An unadulterated flat tax—which Carson may or may not favor—would raise taxes on the poor and reduce them on the rich.

Rules create inequality and rules can remedy it.

As we argue, inequality is not inevitable: it is a choice that we’ve made with the rules that structure our economy. Over the past 35 years, the rules, or the regulatory, legal and institutional frameworks, that make up the economy and condition the market have changed. These rules are a major driver of the income distribution we see, including runaway top incomes and weak or precarious income growth for most others.

Some thoughts on Privilege, a book about America's elite youth.

Instead of entitlement, I have found that St. Paul’s increasingly cultivates privilege. Whereas elites of the past were entitled—building their worlds around the “right” breeding, connections, and culture—new elites develop privilege: a sense of self and a mode of interaction that advantage them.

David Brooks endorses nepotism. You know, but only among the rich.

How Fox News changed American Media and Political Dynamics.

The creation of Fox News in 1996 was an event of deep, yet unappreciated, political and historical importance. For the first time, there was a news source available virtually everywhere in the United States, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, with a conservative tilt. Finally, conservatives did not have to seek out bits of news favorable to their point of view in liberal publications or in small magazines and newsletters. Like someone dying of thirst in the desert, conservatives drank heavily from the Fox waters. Soon, it became the dominant – and in many cases, virtually the only – major news source for millions of Americans. This has had profound political implications that are only starting to be appreciated. Indeed, it can almost be called self-brainwashing – many conservatives now refuse to even listen to any news or opinion not vetted through Fox, and to believe whatever appears on it as the gospel truth.

Practical Ethics: If you're a conservative, I'm not your friend.

Conservative friends?

I’m not so sure. I am attracted by the view that we should all keep the debate open, discuss our political views, take other people’s views into account, and revise and improve our own as we all benefit from this dialogue. I’m attracted by the view that there is such a thing as progress in politics. But—depressingly—I’m far more sceptical than I was yesterday about how much of a difference we can make with political debate. There are several reasons for this.

Which social programs work? Which should we support?

A study on how to increase savings rates among the global poor.

First, we find that being paid on the account instead of in cash increases the account balance by around 110% (or almost 420 rupees) within three months of weekly payments.

Second, the effects are long lasting; five months after the last weekly payment, the balance of the treated is still twice the one of the control.

Third, the villagers that were paid in cash do not save more in other assets, such as cash at home. As a result, the treatment had a net positive impact on the respondent’s total savings.

Fourth, the villagers who were paid in cash increase expenditures on regular consumption, such as rice, vegetables, fuels, and soap with about 402 rupees, an increase that is remarkably similar to the increase in the savings of the villagers paid on the account.

Are we about to force ourselves into geoengineering our planet?

For me, the risks of any actual efforts at geoengineering seem too high at present. But of course, this is another way of saying that I think the risks of climate change are not immediate or severe enough to be worth the risks of geoengineering. But as I noted at the start, if you believe that the risks of climate change are large and near-term--and moreover, if you have observed how difficult it seems to be for the world to take action to reduce carbon emissions substantially--then you should be looking at geoengineering very closely, even you hate the idea of needing to do so.