1. Worldometer.
2. Reasons for abolishing the corporate income tax.
3. Ridley Scott's 1980s deficit commercial.
4. Which books do prisoners request?
6. The culture that is Manhattan.
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Well, at least the last one wasn't "Practical Jokes With Bees."
It's nice to see "bikes" growing faster than "cars." I would have expected the opposite for some reason.
I don't think no. 6 is very Manhattan-specific. It might merit an "only in America," though.
The lawsuit against the toddler has a strong basis in American law. One of the prominent first-year law cases is Garratt v. Dailey (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Garratt_v._Dailey), where little Brian Dailey is sued for pulling the chair out from under an elderly visitor. The reason minors are not sued more often is that they are mostly judgment-proof, i.e., they have no assets. Perhaps Tyler's reason for setting this as "culture that is Manhattan" piece is that if a four year old riding a bike down the sidewalk on East 52nd hits you, there is an increased probability that the tyke has considerable assets.
RE: Corporate income tax
Does anyone else recall reading a study ~10 years ago that concluded that the elimination of the corporate income tax would be more than paid for by the elimination of all corporate subsidies?
Also, as to capital gains tax, why not tax as income capital gains only when they are realized, but not if they are re-invested in a short period of time? I think that would have broader political support.
Worldometer: notice that days to the end of oil isn't listed as either infinite or indefinite. Someone needs to tell them about Mr. Roberts's nut room.
Here's a question: if the corporate income tax were replaced with higher capital gains rate, what would happen to the stock market- big surge, nothing, or go down? If there were a big surge, could this option be a positive tax revenue stimulus (from the one-time surge in capital gains taxes)?
If you ask me, whether elders move left or right as they age has a lot to do with generation, gender, and class.
Gender because young women, being at the peak of their beauty and desirability, are more likely to be happy with the status quo than are those who have aged and seen more of how the world works.
Class because you can separate those who have made it the hard way from those "born on third base" from those who never made it at all.
Generation because actually, a lot of people keep and harder their orientation, but social scientists will often look at old folks circa 1950 and old folks circa 1970, 1990, and 2010 and make generalizations about people changing with age, and no, they haven't; they're looking at different cohorts.
having volunteered at a books-to-prisons group i can say that the books requested were different from the ones the librarian mentions. and it sounds to me like the librarian worked in a jail, not a prison.
for us, by far the most common request was an English language dictionary. it might interest economists to know that one reason for this is that English language dictionaries are used as currency in certain prisons.
the second most common request would be a english-spanish dictionary followed by law books.
after that common requests included black history (malcom x's autobiography being #1), african history, urban fiction, writing books, aztec history, european history, poetry and pulp fiction.
not once do i recall getting a request for anne frank or sylvia plath. we did get requests for 48 laws of power sometimes.
and finally, you have some old books that are not in terrible condition and dont know what to do with them, see if there is a local books to prisons group in your area and donate them.
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