DOOM: So it's like that

The horrifying chart-fu that doomed the Super Committee. This is the unpleasant math that the Democrats don’t want to face: in order to sustain the welfare state at anything like the current levels indefinitely, tax rates would have to skyrocket for everyone, not just the rich...and the programs would bankrupt us anyway, just a bit later. (Just consider this thumb-sucker from Eugene Robinson of the WaPo that excoriates Republicans for their "stubbornness" -- Robinson refuses to even countenance cuts to the entitlement state, because apparently that's just crazy-talk, and hence Democrats are the very souls of reason for refusing to discuss it.)

The Euro and the Austrian business cycle.

XKCD on Money.

Dividend stocks are becoming popular again. People tend to forget that, back in the days before the 401(k) changed the investing landscape, dividend stocks were the whole point of investing in equities from an individual point of view. The 401(k) rule that turned millions of people into investors drove a demand for ever-higher share price rather than the slow and steady returns of dividend stocks, and consequently drove many businesses into a very short-term, quarter-to-quarter mindset.

In the Eurozone, the perfect storm looms.

Corzine is staying true to form, at least: the "missing client cash" in the MF Global meltdown has just about doubled to $1.2 billion. I'll be interested to hear Corzine and his defenders explain how this was all an honest mistake rather than outright fraud. (Corzine's defenders in the Democrat political-media complex seem to be saying that a little fraud is okay as long as you hold good progressive principles.)

UPDATE 1: The Internet undoubtedly can help many small businesses to grow in ways they couldn't otherwise, but it can also turn a bad business decision into a catastrophe. The word is amplification, and it applies to both good and bad ideas.

UPDATE 2: Jeb Hensarling publishes the coroner's report on the Super Committee.

posted by Monty at 08:37 AM

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