Brookes News Update

How the Laffer curve really works: The basis of the Laffer curve is the intuitive knowledge that if you want more of something then reduce the cost of producing it. Nevertheless, no one has shown how the Laffer curve works This article attempts to do just that with the use of a couple of simple diagrams
Defending tax cuts against leftist journalists: Lefty journalists cannot help themselves. Once again revealing their total ignorance of economics, economic history and the history of economic thought they engaged in scaremongering by making false statements about the dire consequences of tax cuts
China's economy is heading into very stormy weather: Credit-led boom is piling up ever increasing amounts of malinvestments. Calculations done by Morgan Stanley estimated that whereas 13 per cent of reported profits were of the non-operating variety last year, this has now soared to over 30 per cent
Hillary Clinton's middle class tax hike: Hillary Clinton is planning a range of tax hikes that will sock it hard to the middle class, which is odd considering that politicians like Hillary constantly talk about how much they want to help the middle class
Fidel Castro: Reagan's savior?: The evidence that Castro personally ordered the murder of President Kennedy is steadily mounting. Nevertheless, the media still refuses to report anything that might possibly implicate Castro in Kennedy's assassination. So much for media honesty
Clinton Doctrine versus Bush Doctrine : The Clinton doctrine is carried forth today by Democrats who blame America for the terrorists who seek to overturn the will of millions of Iraqis who voted in the first free election held in the region in history
Moonbats jump the shark: All the Democrats have to sell are defeat, fear, and bad news - plus their traditional solutions for any perceived problem: higher taxes and more government control over your life. Thus any good news for America and the world is bad news for them
The Gray Lady's shame: Never has the New York Times behaved more shamefully on September 10, 2007. On that day it ran a full-page ad accusing General David Petraeus of being a traitor for doing his job fighting the War of Terror
Productivity vs. jobs: another economic fallacy: Like all enemies of the market Mike Steketee cannot bring himself to accept certain fundamental economic laws, one of which is that overpricing goods or services will create a surplus. According to this genius increasing productivity destroy jobs and creates poverty. So does Rupert Murdoch's Australian publish Steketee's rubbish?

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Union Fund Embezzlements 'Epidemic,' Analyst Says: "Eleven union officials were indicted and eight were convicted in August on charges of embezzling union pension funds, following probes launched by federal auditors and investigators at the U.S. Department of Labor. According to a report released Monday by the department's Office of Labor-Management Standards (OLMS), 84 indictments for corruption have been issued thus far in 2007, leading to the conviction of 108 union officials. All told, nearly 800 convictions have been obtained since 2001, with court-ordered restitution exceeding $101 million, said Deputy Assistant Labor Secretary Don Todd, who announced the report's release. In the largest enforcement effort, Jorge Aponte-Figueroa, the former president of the International Longshoreman's Association Local 1740 in San Juan, Puerto Rico, was sentenced to five years in prison and three years of supervised release for embezzling $1.9 million in union funds. He also was found guilty of falsifying records and money laundering".

Kicking them when they're down: "Politicians and bureaucrats have power and are often careless about how they use it. Respect for the rights of innocent people? Not always a priority. Not even in New Orleans, where so many are struggling to pick themselves back up after one of the toughest gut punches anybody can suffer. So you live through Hurricane Katrina, return to the city, spend thousands to fix your home. Double-check to make sure it isn't targeted for demolition. Then what? Well, if you're IdaBelle Joshua, two days after City Hall says your home is safe ... it's smashed! Gone. No prior notice except tiny type in a newspaper somewhere."

Wheel rediscovered: "For centuries men believed themselves to be smarter than the fairer sex, who they felt were only equipped for wifely duties. Now a study has revealed that the male of the species is actually more intelligent. But there's a catch - he's also more stupid. When scientists measured the intelligence of more than 2500 brothers and sisters, they found a disproportionate number of men in both the top 2 per cent and the bottom 2 per cent. There were twice as many men as women in the smartest group. But there were also twice as many men among the dunces. The subjects were tested on science, maths, English and mechanical abilities. The average scores of the men were virtually identical to that of the women. Professor Bates, of Scotland's Edinburgh University, said: "The female developmental program may be tilted more towards ensuring survival and the safety of the middle ground."

Same old drivel: "Listening to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad address the UN, I was struck by how mainstream American left he is. From his anti-Semitism to blaming the United States for all the woes of the world to blaming poverty on capitalism - even to his views on global warming - Ahmadinejad hit all the lefty talking points except for gay marriage. Well, Bill Clinton codified don't-ask, don't-tell and signed DOMA into law. Nobody's perfect. But Americans have heard it all before. In the 1960s, it was Nikita Khrushchev and Fidel Castro. In the 1970s, Yasser Arafat. In the 1980s, Mikhail Gorbachev. Last year, Hugo Chavez. This year, this guy. What they share in common besides their iron-fisted rule at home (Arafat within the PLO) is a streak of anti-Americanism, anti-capitalism and anti-Semitism."

Tax the internet? "Legislation in Congress to make the Internet tax ban permanent has strong bipartisan support, but that doesn't mean it should be taken for granted. In fact, it recently hit a snag over the unrelated issue of how satellite TV is taxed, while there continue to be disputes over when grandfather clauses that allow some states to tax the Internet should finally be closed. Given the tight timeframe - the current moratorium is due to expire on November 1 - it's possible that a slew of new Internet taxes could in fact arrive this fall.... A federal moratorium first put in place in 1998, and subsequently extended, has protected the Internet from access taxes and discriminatory or multiple taxation... If the moratorium is allowed to expire, states will likely impose new taxes on Internet access fees, bit-taxes on downloads, and perhaps even e-mail taxes."

Major Insurance Company Planning to Escape Germany's High Taxes: "Hannover Re, one of the world's largest reinsurance companies, is considering switching its operations to Ireland or another low tax jurisdiction, the company's chief executive told a conference recently. According to Bermuda's Royal Gazette, Wilhelm Zeller, CEO of Hannover Re, told a press conference at the annual reinsurance gathering, Le Rendez-Vous in Monte Carlo, that the $5.5 billion firm is considering moving from its present base in Germany... "For us, the ideal location, from a fiscal point of view, would be Ireland," Zeller stated, although he added that setting up headquarters in Dublin could be costly." [H/T Market Center blog]

For more postings from me, see TONGUE-TIED, EDUCATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL, GREENIE WATCH, POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH, GUN WATCH, SOCIALIZED MEDICINE, FOOD & HEALTH SKEPTIC, AUSTRALIAN POLITICS, IMMIGRATION WATCH INTERNATIONAL and EYE ON BRITAIN.

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"Why should the German be interested in the liberation of the Jew, if the Jew is not interested in the liberation of the German?... We recognize in Judaism, therefore, a general anti-social element of the present time... In the final analysis, the emancipation of the Jews is the emancipation of mankind from Judaism.... Indeed, in North America, the practical domination of Judaism over the Christian world has achieved as its unambiguous and normal expression that the preaching of the Gospel itself and the Christian ministry have become articles of trade... Money is the jealous god of Israel, in face of which no other god may exist". Who said that? Hitler? No. It was Karl Marx. See also here and here and here.

The Big Lie of the late 20th century was that Nazism was Rightist. It was in fact typical of the Leftism of its day. It was only to the Right of Stalin's Communism. The very word "Nazi" is a German abbreviation for "National Socialist" (Nationalsozialistisch) and the full name of Hitler's political party (translated) was "The National Socialist German Workers' Party".

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