Smart Links 05 August 2012

Paul Summerville • August 4, 2012

Tags: Yes

Commentary on the role of the state, the two person bike race, money market fund danger, and bilingualism in Quebec.

America’s infantile debate.

Economist -- Another fine mess
A useful debate has begun about America’s biggest domestic challenge, but it is comically shallow.

Quotes worth quoting.

“Our prejudice is firmly in favour of a leaner state, but the Republicans need to recognise, as their intellectual forebears did from Adam Smith to Abraham Lincoln, that government has an important role to play in a capitalist economy, providing public goods and a safety net.”

“Mr Obama seems to think the public sector is inherently more moral than the private one. Companies are at best cows to be milked, at worst prey to be hunted.”

Related.

Globe and Mail -- Age collides with politics in today's fractured Quebec
Sitting on a stool at Caffe della Via, a hip student hangout on the fringes of Montreal’s fast-gentrifying Petite Italie, Gabriel Nadeau-Dubois is remarkably composed.

Tactics on winning the two person bike race. Thanks to Ken of Tokyo/Hong Kong.

New York Times -- How to Win: Track Cycling
Each step is followed by a case study – the 2008 World Track Championship featuring Theo Bos vs. Chris Hoy.

Duel

The next financial bubble.

Financial Times -- The Achilles heel of America’s financial system
What is the weakest link in America’s financial system today?

More sore teeth.

National Post -- Pauline Marois makes clear that bilingualism only applies outside Quebec
Anyone who ever dealt with the Bloc Quebecois knows they rarely make much effort to sell their case in English.

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Twin Virtues: Inequality of Outcomes & Equality of Opportunity©

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Ultimately, the most successful societies find the balance between the twin virtues of inequality of outcomes and equality of opportunity.

The new politics must marry the twin virtues of unequal outcomes and equality of opportunity.

When too few get too much everybody ends up with less.

Can it be that striving for equality of opportunity however imperfect the process not only benefits the individual but also creates benefits for the society as a whole that are unintended but wonderful?

Economics must be a 'moral enterprise' as much as politics claims to be. Economic outcomes need to be framed in terms of right and wrong not just efficiency if only because these often align in surprising ways.

My vision of Canada is that any Canadian child from a family of limited circumstance can expect to have a chance at lifetime of unlimited opportunities.

Tax policy should be founded on the principle of generating steady tax revenues sufficient to maximise environmentally sustainable economic growth in order to fund fair government.

Public policy should be designed to decrease inequality before the law and increase equality of opportunity.

Capitalism is not the problem; the problem is what we do with capitalism.

Content is always more difficult to argue than conspiracy.

Let the state regulate and the market operate (most things).

Welfare strategies are best designed as a hand up not as a hand out.

Political debate should not be fact free fighting.

Explanation lasts longer than eloquence.

Always favour empowerment over dependency.

The most enduring public figures are embraced for the causes they fought for and not the concept of themselves they hoped others would remember them by.

Find your voice and don't be the echo of somebody else.