Commentary on investing, the line between religion and the civil code, the fight for the soul of the GOP, the dangers lurking in the bond market, the split personality of economics, and Harpergate.

Uber-investor Jeremy Grantham’s long essay on getting through the next decade alive. Thanks to David of Victoria.

Pdf below – The Longest Quarterly Letter Ever

Related.

Advisor One -- Breaking Ranks: Former Broker Turns Bomb Thrower
Joshua Brown is a reformed broker and thinks you should be one too­ — or else.

Related.

Pdf below – How Unrealistic Optimism is Maintained in the Face of Reality

Where will the line be drawn? Religion and the civil code.

New York Times -- Theocracy and Its Discontents
Ah, the founders, those starch-collared English souls planting liberty in the Massachusetts Bay Colony in the 17th century.

Quote worth quoting.

“But most Americans also will part ways with him when he advocates that civil code should adhere to his religious beliefs.”

Related.

The Atlantic -- Symbolic Legislation to Nowhere: Why Statehouses Fail in Governance
Virginia's attempt to intrude (literally and figuratively) upon the privacy of its pregnant women would be bad enough if it were merely a rare example of state lawmakers unhinging proposed legislation from law, science, and sense.

The battle for the GOP.

Financial Times -- The new battle for the old soul of the Republican party
In a debate on Wednesday, former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney bested former Pennsylvania senator Rick Santorum, who has emerged as Mr Romney’s most serious challenger for the Republican presidential nomination. Mr Santorum stammered timidly while Mr Romney voiced one half-truth after another, to the delight of his claque in the audience.

Has the ECB planted another bomb in the bond market?

Telegraph -- ECB's Mario Draghi magic corrupts bond markets
The European Central Bank's blitz of measures to stave off a credit crunch and shore up EMU states are profoundly distorting debt markets and may ultimately do more harm than good.

Economics splits again. (ed’s note – the problem economics has is thinking that it is a science and that there is one right way).

voxec -- The return of schools of thought in macroeconomics
Just five years ago, macroeconomists talked about a new synthesis, bringing together Keynesian and Classical ideas in a unified, microfounded theoretical framework. Following the Great Recession, it appears that mainstream macroeconomics has once again split into schools of thought.

Harpergate? (ed’s note -- interesting that a leader that prides himself on complete control of his party’s political outcomes ‘didn’t know’).

National Post -- All too plausible to think the Conservatives are involved in the robocall scandal
Here is a list of some of the things we do not know about the Robocon scandal.