Mom! DOOM ate all my Cheetos!

Europe's sovereign debt crisis is getting more acute by the day. The recent blowout in Italy's costs to borrow aren't really indicative of problems specific to Italy; it's more a general bet by investors against the Euro.

In true European aristocrat-bureaucrat fashion, one solution to bad sovereign debt ratings is being considered: prohibit the issuance of debt-ratings for sovereign debt. Problem solved!

Here's a decent backgrounder on the troubles besetting the Eurozone right now.

Arthur Brooks asks: Isn't it morally wrong to take money from other people? Men of good will may disagree on the point at which taxation becomes punitive, but we have clearly reached a point in this country where the tax burden is being borne by relatively few people, and that's just not right. (And there is of course the age-old problem that Democrats regard all money as belonging to the Government by default; they only question in their minds is how much of your own money they will let you keep.)

Doug Bandow at Forbes has more on this in "Patriotic Taxation or Unpatriotic Redistribution". With the Obama brand of Democrats, it's all class-war, all the time. Redistribution isn't an economic principle to liberal Democrats. It's a social-justice issue, and they will insist on it regardless of the damage it does to the economy.

The WSJ wonders: Where Have America's Jobs Gone? The upshot is: the old jobs aren't coming back. Automation, outsourcing, globalization, and demographics means that the American job market -- and hence American workers -- is going to have to change dramatically in the coming years to stay competitive.

On the interminable debt-ceiling debate, let me re-iterate: without significant entitlement-program reform, it's a waste of time. Trying to solve our debt problem without addressing the biggest drivers of our debt is just stupid.

In Minnesota, people who aren't welfare-state soaks are getting along just fine during the state government shutdown.

Signposts on the way to oblivion: Central Falls, RI contemplates bankruptcy. Pension and retiree-healthcare debt is killing them, just as it's killing hundreds -- maybe thousands -- of other cities and counties in the nation.

When bankruptcy looms for municipalities and counties, you get sob-stories like this one. But the truth is stark -- you cannot spend money you don't have, and you can't tax your citizens without limit to pay for ridiculous promises made by politicians who are in many cases long dead. It's wrong to lie to people and encourage them to plan for a future that cannot be funded; it is even more reprehensible to force young people to make those lies good at the expense of their own lives and futures.

His judgement cometh, and that right soon.

posted by Monty at 08:59 AM

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