By Steve Erbach on Friday, February 20, 2009 1:35 PM

A school board in Florida -- actually, the county where they had so much trouble with the "butterfly" Presidential ballots in 2000 -- has voted to limit students' homework to 10 minutes per grade. So a 4th grader would have 40 minutes of homework. Imagine that!

By Steve Erbach on Thursday, February 12, 2009 6:00 PM

How has the economic downturn hurt you?

(published 16-Feb-2009, Appleton Post-Crescent)

Our oldest son works at a popular restaurant.  He works fewer hours and gets fewer tips. One Sunday three customers left no tips; one had a $70 tab.  My wife actually works more hours than before, so she's doing fine. I don't have "layoff survivor syndrome" yet, mainly because there haven't been any layoffs where I work.  But hourly workers there now work seven hour shifts, not eight.  Gas prices are good, as low as they were four years ago. I really don't think that we're heading into a depression. The early 80's had higher unemployment, interest, and inflation rates than today, and there wasn't any talk of an economic "stimulus".  Comparing the Reagan administration to the Obama administration will be very instructive.  Spending our way to prosperity is a phantom, a trap.  Don't listen to Read More »

By Steve Erbach on Thursday, February 12, 2009 5:23 AM

From The PatriotPost:

THE FOUNDATION

"Fear is the foundation of most governments; but it is so sordid and brutal a passion, and renders men in whose breasts it predominates so stupid and miserable, that Americans will not be likely to approve of any political institution which is founded on it." --John Adams

INSIGHT

"When plunder becomes a way of life for a group of men living together in society, they create for themselves in the course of time a legal system that authorizes it and a moral code that glorifies it." --French economist, statesman and author Frederic Bastiat (1801-1850)

Read More »

By Steve Erbach on Wednesday, February 11, 2009 5:20 PM

Very symbolic, you know. Don't you feel better that PETA wants to avoid the creation of a "master race" of dogs?

Read More »

By Steve Erbach on Wednesday, February 11, 2009 5:19 AM

From DownsizeDC.org, this appeal to the lesson from recent history provided by the Japanese in their attempts to turn their economy around through the use of government "stimulus" efforts:

D o w n s i z e r - D i s p a t c h

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Quote of the Day: "Are we turning Japanese? I really think so." -- The Vapors

Subject: What we are failing to learn from Japan's example

"The Vapors" were a band whose only big hit, "Turning Japanese," could be the theme song for the so-called stimulus package. Congress too is a one-hit wonder whose one solutio Read More »

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The Town Crank

By Steve Erbach on Monday, February 09, 2009 12:26 PM

You can't make this stuff up:

Climate change takes a mental toll

By Emily Anthes, Globe Correspondent  |  February 9, 2009 Read More »

By Steve Erbach on Monday, February 09, 2009 5:03 AM

I don't know what you think of Fred Thompson, but I thought this "explanation" was refreshingly sardonic and satirical.  Recorded before Christmas.

By Steve Erbach on Saturday, February 07, 2009 7:42 AM

I've written with some amusement about hyperinflation before on my old blog. That examination took in the decline of the Yugoslavian currency in the early 90s when Yugoslavia was breaking apart. The Yugoslavian dinar printed before 1990 was worth 1.3 octillion (that's 1,300,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000) of the 1994 dinars!

From the Voice of Africa comes this story about the currency devaluation in Zimbabwe:

 

Read More »

By Steve Erbach on Thursday, February 05, 2009 2:14 AM

[http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/5b3cf80a-f2ac-11dd-abe6-0000779fd2ac.html]

Story from the Financial Times about Russia's interesting mish-mash of policies:

• huge budget cuts in an attempt to limit its fiscal deficit
• authorities are not giving in to public demands for a quick-fix response
• deliberately choosing to allow gross domestic product growth to fall to zero or below in 2009 to stabilise the economy and maintain foreign exchange reserves

Read More »

By Steve Erbach on Monday, February 02, 2009 3:10 AM

...why do I get the feeling that it's simply another example of government control over our lives and the destruction of freedom?  Let me illustrate.

This article is from the Life & Style section of the London Times, believe it or not, and the article was written by the "Health editor" of the Times: