analysis

I'm glad my grandmothers know better

Robert Mugabe, tyrant

Zimbabweans went to the polls today in a crucial parliamentary vote that could severely threaten Mugabe's grip on power. Only problem is, the election was a foregone conclusion. The reports coming in only confirm what most already thought: Mugabe and his ruling party ZANU-PF have taken all precautions to ensure their victory.

One indication of the level of corruption in Zimbabwe comes from yesterday's Washington Post:

Hundreds of bags of cornmeal were stacked in front of a bar near here this month, rising as high as its roof. The only problem for the hungry people of this drought-stricken area was that the food, like the bar, was controlled by officials from the ruling party. With a crucial election nearing, they weren't about to give it to just anyone.

The officials first held a rally by their impressive mound of food, witnesses here said. The next day, as hundreds of people from surrounding villages gathered to collect the 110-pound bags they had ordered and paid for months before, ruling party officials announced that only their supporters were eligible. When the names of opposition voters were called, they were simply handed back their money, according to several people who were turned away. The leftover bags went on sale hours later for twice the price.

Using food as a political weapon is nothing new. Mugabe, unfortunately, has perfected it.

 

Taxes=Modernization

Today's WSJ makes a curious claim:

China is trying to boost its tax proceeds, a crucial step to modernizing its economy, by having consumers help build a paper trail in this cash-based society.

I find this statement a bit perplexing: doesn't an economy "modernize" when left free? I find this statement especially confusing considering the country in question: China doesn't have the best of records when it comes to corruption and the waste of tax dollars. Is this evidence of a liberal bias in the press? Hardly. The real bias is not liberal or conservative, but governmental.

Barro on Social Security

Why Private Accounts Are Bad Public Policy

I doubt this will make the evening news

"Nature, not mankind, is to blame for a period of increased hurricane activity that could last for another 20 or 30 years, tropical weather expert William Gray said Thursday." USA Today

Did Use of Free Trade Cause Neanderthal Extinction?

So asks Jason Shogren, Richard Horan, and Erwin Bulte in a paper recently published in the Journal of Economic Organization and Behavior. You can read a summary here. 

Tell it to Khodorkovsky

"President Vladimir Putin sought to reassure Russia's jittery business barons at a Kremlin meeting Thursday, promising to guarantee property rights and not to review the murky 1990s privatizations." BusinessWeek

Talk about a crisis

According to Republican Thomas R. Saving and Democrat John L. Palmer, both trustees for social security and medicare, the problems with social security are dwarfed by those of medicare. According to the Washington Post, "they wrote that Medicare's prospects have 'deteriorated dramatically' with rising medical costs and the addition in 2003 of a prescription drug benefit." Claims drive increasing costs and promising free drugs only increases claims. 

Once again, Samuelson nails it

From Robert Samuelson's Washington Post column:    

We are a nation of closet welfare junkies, which helps explain why we can't have an honest debate about Social Security. Social Security and Medicare are our biggest welfare programs, but because Americans regard "welfare" as shameful, we've found other labels for them. We call them "social insurance" or "entitlements." Anything but welfare. Democrats and Republicans alike embrace the deception. No one wants to upset older voters. Well, if you can't call something by its real name, you can't discuss it honestly.

Welfare is a governmental transfer from one group to another for the benefit of those receiving. The transfer involves cash or services (health care, education). We have welfare for the poor, the old, the disabled, farmers and corporations. Social Security is mainly welfare. Workers' payroll taxes pay the benefits of today's retirees. The taxes aren't "saved" for the workers' own retirement. There have been huge disparities between taxes paid and benefits received.

Market Prices: Too Radical for the Russian Government

From today's Moscow Times:

Gazprom's radical proposal to liberalize gas prices for industrial consumers next year was dismissed as unrealistic on Wednesday by government officials and key market players.