Maggie's Farm

Deirdre McCloskey, author of The Bourgeois Virtues: Ethics for an Age of Commerce, has a new book: Bourgeois Dignity: Why Economics Can't Explain the Modern World

Anchoress discusses Palin.

Love is not enough. (Not enough reason to vote for somebody)

Global Geoengineering Moratorium

Good to see a hint of sanity

Minorities in College---Good News, But... It's a comment on a report. One quote:

 On some of the measures used in the study, whites lag behind Asian-Americans by about as much as Blacks and Latinos are behind whites. If our institutions of higher education have a duty to equalize Black and Latino achievement with that of whites, why not set their goals higher still? Why not figure out how to bring whites up to the level of Asian-Americans, and make this loftier level the aim for African-Americans and Hispanics as well? The answer is obvious. Had the authors contemplated this problem, they would inevitably have had to probe the differences in family values, family structure, and family socioeconomic status that explain Asian educational success. And that would have required them to consider how much these variables shape the performance of black and Latino students as well.

And why not quit categorizing us by skin tone and eye shape? We're beyond that form of racism. When we read about California schools limiting the numbers of Asians they accept, one realizes that this is all absurd. Furthermore, is my friend from Spain Hispanic? Is Obama white or black? Time to end this nonsense.

Obama: U.S. can't afford two years of gridlock

Yes We Can.

Krauthammer agrees that the election was just a return to the norm. A quote:

Nor should Republicans overinterpret their Tuesday mandate. They received none. They were merely rewarded for acting as the people's proxy in saying no to Obama's overreaching liberalism. As one wag put it, this wasn't an election so much as a restraining order.

The Republicans won by default. And their prize is nothing more than a two-year lease on the House. The building was available because the previous occupant had been evicted for arrogant misbehavior and, by rule, alas, the House cannot be left vacant.

I think Dr. K underestimates the force and speed of this return to normal.

The economy: Gridlock's not enough. A quote:

The problem is that Obamanomics has placed the US economy in a hole so deep that it will take more than easy money coupled with political gridlock to fix. To lower unemployment in a meaningful way, Washington needs to unwind the trillions of new debt, higher taxes and new mandates that it's given us over the last two years. The GOP's gains this week aren't enough to make that happen.

How do I know this? It's the assessment made by just about every businessman I spoke to before and after Tuesday's voting. (Almost no one speaks on the record these days, for fear of political retribution. But that's another column.)

Stratfor on the election, via SDA