Preppy Deal of the Day

In the midst of my deal searching this morning, I ran across Endless Shoes and Handbags and they�re having a great sale. Right now, any order will be shipped overnight and they�ll credit you five dollars towards your order.

I got these cute Stephen Bonanno look-alikes in black and with the overnight shipping, they were 12 bucks! They may not be the same quality, but they�re cute and totally wearable for the honeymoon.



Here are some other great finds:

So head over to Endless Shoes for some great deals, they�re running out of sizes quickly, so shop now for the great deals!

UPDATE: The sandals are now all out of black. They still have pairs in white, sand, melon, gold and silver

SAO PAULO - on the street, jardins, 01/30/07

Leonhardt on Prizes

David Leonhardt writes about GMU economist Robin Hanson's work on prizes and incentives.

SAO PAULO - spfw shows, bienal, 01/29/07

Tuesday Musings

The husband-to-be and I made it through pre-marital counseling on Saturday and all is well. We actually ended up being almost completely alike on out on our Myers & Briggs testing, which I did not expect.

Thought I would leave you with some fun shots of the dogs. I attempted a photo shoot yesterday for a project I am working on. Aren�t they the cutest.

Rodrik

Today's NY Times has a nice profile of Kennedy School prof Dani Rodrik, emphasizing his somewhat heterodox views on trade.

Central Bankers as Celebrities

In Ec 10 this semester, monetary policy will be one of our major topics of study. In yesterday's Washington Post, you can read profiles of current U.S. monetary policymakers.

One of them is a former Ec 10 sectionleader. Can you guess which? I will give the answer in an update tomorrow.

Update: Kevin Warsh was an Ec 10 sectionleader while he was a student at Harvard Law School. Randall Kroszner has his PhD from the Harvard economics department, but I don't think he was an Ec 10 sectionleader while here. Ben Bernanke was an undergrad at Harvard and most likely began his economics career as a student in Ec 10.

Preppy Bridesmaid Shoes

The preppy lil sis and I were searching online last night for the dreaded bridesmaid shoes and found these precious imitation d�osrsay pumps at Target. I already plan to grab the black pair for a wedding in February. They also come in a beautiful scarlet color a la Reese at the Golden Globes. And white for all you brides that still need shoes. Oh, and they are twenty dollars.

Happy Shopping!


UPDATE: Get me off target.com. Look at this super cute Issac white leather bag for the spring. Is it too early to shop for the honeymoon?

Hassett signs up

Kevin Hassett becomes a member of the Pigou Club:

If our leaders are serious about weaning us off of oil, then the economic textbooks provide guidance on how to do it. Government should tax things that produce pollution. If you are worried about global warming and energy security, then you should support a carbon tax.

Consider a tax of $15 per metric ton of carbon dioxide -- a tax rate comparable to the current carbon price in the European Emissions Trading System. Focusing only on carbon and assuming a short-term reduction in carbon emissions of 10 percent in response to the tax, a $15-per-ton tax rate would collect almost $80 billion a year, an amount that represents 28 percent of all corporate taxes collected in the U.S. in 2005.

The price changes aren't huge. The price of gasoline would increase by 13 cents a gallon, the cost of electricity generated by natural gas by 0.6 cents per kilowatt-hour, and the cost of electricity generated by coal by 1.4 cents per kwh. And all that revenue could be used to reduce corporate taxes, perhaps even stimulating higher economic growth....

If the president and congressional leaders are serious about energy security and global warming, they should zero out all our energy programs and replace them with a carbon tax.

Milton Friedman Day

Happy Milton Friedman Day, everyone. Many PBS stations are today broadcasting the new documentary about Friedman, The Power of Choice. In Boston, it's on channel 2 at 10 pm.

SAO PAULO - mario queiroz party, sofitel, 01/28/07

SAO PAULO - spfw shows, bienal, 01/28/07

SAO PAULO - spfw shows, bienal, 01/27/07

Gliberalism

Harvard Prof Ruth Wisse writes about gliberalism at elite universities and, in the process, quotes from an old post at this blog.

Paul Mulshine signs up

Columnist Paul Mulshine joins the Pigou Club:

George W. Bush says his energy plan will reduce gasoline consumption by 20 percent over the next 10 years. Jerry Taylor says it won't. And it's all because of the dolt in the F-150.

Taylor is an expert on energy with the free-market Cato Institute. The dolt in the F-150 is a constituent of U.S. Rep. Jack Kingston, a Republican from Georgia.

Not too long ago, Kingston appeared at an event to tout a bill of his designed to reduce oil imports. The bill was very similar to the proposal Bush introduced in his State of the Union address Tuesday night. Kingston's spiel was loaded with all the Beltway buzzwords that Bush likes to employ: "flex-fuel" vehicles, ethanol,"alternative energy" and so on. If only we could employ enough of this groovy new technology, Kingston argued, we could be energy-independent by 2015.

That sounded nice. But the congressman went on to bring up the sad tale of a constituent who complained that he was going broke pumping gas into the Ford F-150 pickup he drives on his daily commute of 75 miles each way. The feds have to find a way to help guys like this with their gas bills, Kingston said.

No, they don't, says Taylor. Cutting the price of gas would encourage more gas consumption, not less. If this guy wants to save money on gas, he should buy a more fuel-efficient car or move closer to work....

In case you're wondering what most economists suggest as the No. 1 solution to cutting oil imports, that's simple: Hike the hell out of the gas tax. The higher you raise it, the less gas people use. Simple.

Taylor doesn't support that option, but I do. Another of Bush's fanciful promises the other night was a promise to balance the budget. But he won't cut spending. So the Democrats are already insisting on raising the income tax.

But let us consider that in light of the aforementioned dolt. Raising the income tax would have little effect on him since, being a dolt, he probably doesn't make all that much money. It's us smart people in New Jersey who would suffer the most from an income tax hike.

Raising the gas tax, however, would require those hicks in the heartland to pay their fair share of the cost of government. That's far from the only advantage. A big gas tax would also reduce what economists call the "externalities" of car use--traffic, air pollution and so on. But best of all a big tax would reduce the amount of U.S. dollars going to such dubious characters as the Saudi sheiks and Hugo Ch�vez. Taxing gas at the pump in the United States has the exact same effect as taxing oil at the wellhead in Saudi Arabia or Venezuela - except that the U.S. gets to keep the money.

I particularly enjoyed the cheerleading for New Jersey, my state of birth.

Hayek, Picture Book Edition

Here is The Road to Serfdom in Cartoons. It doesn't do the book justice, but it's worth a look. Notice the product placement for Thomas Friedman's book on page 16.

Cruel Ironies

The Economist (subscription required) endorses the Bush health plan:

IT IS a cruel irony that George Bush has come up with one of the most sensible proposals of his presidency just as the chances of getting it implemented are close to zero. In his state-of-the-union speech, Mr Bush laid out a plan to limit the vast federal tax subsidies for health insurance. His ideas are bold and mostly good. Too bad that with Democrats in control on Capitol Hill and his approval ratings at dismal lows, the plan is more likely to end up in the dustbin than on the statute books.

At the National Journal, Clive Crook also likes the plan.

The Bush health plan is starting to look a lot like a gasoline tax hike or a gradual increase in the normal retirement age for social security and medicare--a policy that appeals to many policy wonks from the right, left, and middle but is nonetheless unlikely to command a Congressional majority.

SAO PAULO - spfw shows, bienal, 01/26/07