My New Toy

OK, I don't normally blog about my personal life, I consider people who post about every stupid little thing they do hopelessly self absorbed. But she is so pretty...

Now if I could only learn to play halfway decent.

What is With Huck?

This is pretty funny, but he is becoming a parody of himself.

Hillary Will Smear Anyone to Get Elected

Even her own daughter.

ABC News' Jennifer Parker and Eloise Harper Report: Sen. Hillary Clinton took a swipe at her daughter's profession today at an economic roundtable discussion at a restaurant in Parma, Ohio, suggesting wealthy investment bankers and hedge fund managers on Wall Street aren't doing real 'work.'

The former first lady's daughter, Chelsea Clinton, works for New York-based hedge fund Avenue Capital Group. She previously worked in New York for McKinsey & Company, her first job after graduating with her master's degree from Oxford University.

"We also have to reward work more," Clinton told a small group of Ohio residents today. "and by that, I mean, I have people in New York working on Wall Street as investment managers, as hedge fund executives. Under the tax code, they can pay a lower percentage of their income in taxes on $50 million dollars, than a teacher, or a nurse, or a truck driver in Parma pays on $50,000. That's very discouraging to people."

UW Professor on Land Use and Costs

Unfortunately I never had him for economics my my days at the U, but this is an interesting study.

Backed by studies showing that middle-class Seattle residents can no longer afford the city's middle-class homes, consensus is growing that prices are too darned high. But why are they so high?

An intriguing new analysis by a University of Washington economics professor argues that home prices have, perhaps inadvertently, been driven up $200,000 by good intentions.

Between 1989 and 2006, the median inflation-adjusted price of a Seattle house rose from $221,000 to $447,800. Fully $200,000 of that increase was the result of land-use regulations, says Theo Eicher — twice the financial impact that regulation has had on other major U.S. cities.

"In a nationwide study, it can be shown that Seattle is one of the most regulated cities and a city whose housing prices are profoundly

What Science Does Huck Believe In?

Mike Huckabee, the part-time Baptist preacher, and now permanent presidential candidate once famously stated that he didn't believe in evolution. Well, with John McCain out to an insurmountable lead, and Huck still refusing to give in, apparently he doesn't believe in math either.

The sad thing is he appears to be proud of his ignorance, as he said a couple of weeks ago, even before things got worse:

"I didn't major in math," the former Arkansas governor told a cheering crowd at the Conservative Political Action Conference. "I majored in miracles, and I still believe in them."

Is this the guy we want looking out over a $3 trillion budget? Well, that is a rhetorical question, since he has no chance in hell (having majored in miracles, he should know what that is) of winning.

Hillary Moves to Lake Wobegone

Where all the children are above average... or in this case, nobody is in the lower economic bracket.

My measure of economic success will never be a single, dry statistic. Rather, success means an economy that allows those at the bottom to work their way into the middle class, without pushing anyone out.