Strategy Page: If Egypt went to war with Israel, the Palestinians would benefit. Obviously, these folks have ignored the lessons of history. If the Egyptian army goes after Israel, the Egyptians will be defeated. Gaza, caught in the middle, will be seriously damaged. But all that would be declared another Palestinian victory, and that’s what […]<\/div>\n<\/li>\n

Spengler channels Richelieu. \u00a0With a nice Chelm reference at the end.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n

Walter Russell Mead: In particular the report calls for a shift away from large state owned enterprises to private firms if the economy is to continue to grow. This will come as a profound shock to so many in the developing world and even in the US who think that the Chinese have discovered a […]<\/div>\n<\/li>\n

Zerohedge. \u00a0I think he goes wildly over the top, especially at the end. \u00a0And I don’t think Armageddon is nigh. \u00a0But the numbers are of concern, and his basic point is worth remembering – a lot of these commercial real estate loans are still heavily-leveraged, and we’re operating with a lot less margin, making a […]<\/div>\n<\/li>\n

The neuroscience of magic: 2. Make the secret a lot more trouble than the trick seems worth. You will be fooled by a trick if it involves more time, money and practice than you (or any other sane onlooker) would be willing to invest. My partner, Penn, and I once produced 500 live cockroaches from […]<\/div>\n<\/li>\n

I thought this sort of thing only happened in grubby capitalist assembly plants like Apple’s in China. \u00a0Who knew that trendy lefty ideas could be infected by it, too? More than 200 poor, debt-ridden residents of Andhra Pradesh killed themselves in late 2010, according to media reports compiled by the government of the south Indian […]<\/div>\n<\/li>\n

Hoping we won’t call their bluff.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n

Maybe: “It was quite destructive in many ways,” Cady said during a taping of the Iowa Public Television program “Iowa Press.” “We got through it. It has made us much stronger, and our resolve is strong.” Cady said the justices have tried to make their work more visible by hearing cases throughout Iowa, which is […]<\/div>\n<\/li>\n

This is one area where India really is an outlier in the Anglosphere. So, if we leave the foreign investment in markets out of the big picture for now, then the answer is no, no foreign investor of the serious kind is very concerned about India’s macroeconomics at the moment. Cutting deficits and balancing budgets […]<\/div>\n<\/li>\n

Captain’s Journal: A second official said that local religious leaders who came to look at the damaged material as part of an investigation into the incident were \u201cshocked by what they saw.\u201d Pages of the Korans contained many handwritten messages and in some cases printed notes were found inside the books. This official described the […]<\/div>\n<\/li>\n

According to The Hill: Gov. Jack Markell, the Democratic governor of Delaware and the vice chairman of the National Governors Association, told The Hill that the meeting was \u201cvery good\u201d and said many of the governors were responsive to ideas about bypassing Congress. \u201cThere was a sense that none of us should wait, we can\u2019t […]<\/div>\n<\/li>\n

Walter Russell Mead on why primary and secondary education have been so resistant to innovation, and what to do about it: Unfortunately, venture capitalists are staying out of the K-12 education market in droves. The world\u2019s central bankers are printing money as fast as they can, there is more capital floating around the world system […]<\/div>\n<\/li>\n

I’m sure we’ll see a lot about the reprisals, though.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n

Via the new online publication, The Times Of Israel: Israel has agreed to sell Azerbaijan military technology, including drone airplanes, in a deal reportedly worth $1.4 billion. The Caucasus nation, which borders Iran, will receive planes, drones and an advanced missile defense system. The country has recently found itself caught between Israel and Iran as […]<\/div>\n<\/li>\n

Abigail Esman has the scoop: In itself, this is fully understandable and would be laudable \u2014 were it not for the fact that among the schools of Islam Gain Peace defends is one which stands against American democratic values. Worse, the organization the Times cites (again) on the issue \u2014 and who supports the Gain […]<\/div>\n<\/li>\n

The NY Times has an interactive graph. The unemployment benefits measure is more cyclical, and 2009 happened to correspond to recovery from a recession, which none of the previous years (1969, 1979, 1989, 1999) did. \u00a0But the rest of the chart is both illuminating and depressing. \u00a0Colorado remains stunningly less dependent than other places, but […]<\/div>\n<\/li>\n

It’s not just banks who can’t collect: This whole story blows me away. I\u2019m not surprised that the bankrupt PIGS are late payers. But three-years? That’s ridiculous. If the PIGS are stiffing drug companies, who else are they stiffing? Are they paying for the oil they use? Food? How big are these trade IOUs?  <\/div>\n<\/li>\n

Ira Stoll has some questions: Third, Mr. Buffett announces in a backhanded way that the Berkshire board has chosen his successor. But he doesn’t name the successor, only giving clues to trigger a kind of cutesy guessing game: “Your Board is equally enthusiastic about my successor as CEO, an individual to whom they have had […]<\/div>\n<\/li>\n

Tyler Cowen reads David Hackett Fisher’s latest. From his comments, I suppose admirers of each will find their biases confirmed; DHF is one of my favorite serious historical writers, and while he tends towards the left, he rarely picks and chooses freely or unfairly.<\/div>\n<\/li>\n

Employers are just the wrong conduit: It is insane that we get our health care from our employers. That happens because we have given a tax advantage to in-kind compensation such as health care. It\u2019s a horrible idea and it leads people to complain about our employers deciding what health care we can receive. Our […]<\/div>\n<\/li>\n

People paying less, and also driving less: The downward trend in both series would also suggest that higher gasoline prices in 2012 would have less of an impact on consumers than in past years. Maybe, but I think people are already cutting vacation driving, and seeing that as a cut in their standard of living. […]<\/div>\n<\/li>\n

and\u00a0The New Reallocation of Global Manufacturing Hal Sirkin of the Boston Consulting Group discusses the rebirth of manufacturing that is underway in the U.S., partly because of the erosion of China\u2019s manufacturing cost advantages, especially for wages, which has started bringing manufacturing production and jobs back to the U.S., reversing a decade-long trend of outsourcing […]<\/div>\n<\/li>\n

Hollywood Cinemetrics, 2007-2011<\/div>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n