Billmon plays Thomas Paine

Anyone within earshot should do themselves a favor and read Billmon's commentary on Hobbe's Leviathan as it pertains to the NSA wiretapping scandal/issue/debate(?). Even scarier is the recent poll showing 50% of Americans have no problem with having their phone records monitored if it prevents terrorism.

http://billmon.org/archives/002440.html

I am constantly impressed with Billmon's ability to put ideas into words. Something my education at engineering school never quite instilled. Likewise, despite being well read for a midwestern engineer I apparently missed the section on the enlightenment.

Also of interest today is Robert Reich's commentary on the tax cut extension the President is about to sign and the some dispute as to his data. I think perhaps what Brad Delong and Greg Mankiw are missing are the qualifiers for including sales and other taxes (gas, vehicle registration, and other things that are essentially taxes). I am not an economist, nor do I pretend to be but I am anxious to see if Reich can provide some data.

Path:
Brad DeLong http://delong.typepad.com/sdj/2006/05/tax_incidence.html
to Greg Mankiw:http://gregmankiw.blogspot.com/2006/05/reich-on-taxes.html
to Robert Reich: http://robertreich.blogspot.com/2006/05/tax-obscenity.html

All three are interesting reads and some of the comments bring up the "all taxes" point I made above.