Political Cliques in Austin, Texas, and the US Congress

We voted early in the Austin city council election today. The city's taxpayers paid for an additional election because a majority of council members thought that Brigid Shea had a better chance of unseating incumbent Mayor Lee Leffingwell if the election was not moved to November, at which time the election costs would be shared. This is a non-trivial waste of money. There is no party affiliation in city elections, but you can see that there are presently cliques on the city council that work in their own interest and in this instance waste taxpayer dollars instead of sharing election costs with other governmental entities by scheduling county and city elections together, for example.

No doubt every council member could be labeled a liberal, given that this is Austin, Texas, but the polarization on the council which led to this waste of taxpayer dollars brought to mind this video of the spectrum from liberal to conservative in the 1st through 112th US Congress. Enjoy!

Certainty vs. Uncertainty (Death and Taxes, continued)

Mitt Romney's economic agenda for expanding jobs and shrinking government conveniently follows on certainty vs. uncertainty in the earlier post, Death and Taxes. Mr. Romney makes the previously mentioned complaint regarding uncertainty: "Almost every action the president has taken has deepened and lengthened the downturn. The private sector has retreated, frightened by his agenda and paralyzed by the uncertainty, lack of predictability, and outright hostility he has engendered."

In presenting his agenda, Mr. Romney ignores that energy, trade and entitlement reforms are all major topics that will have to be addressed in detail over a long period of time, and are also reforms that have no sure path to success. There is much research,, legislating, regulating and lobbying to be done. For a good result, a period of uncertainty is both necessary and welcome, in my view. Eliminate the capital gains tax? That alone guarantees paralysis while investors wait to see whether their earnings might receive more favorable tax treatment later.

In his call for certainty, Mr. Romney is not promoting certainty of the outcomes of expanding jobs and shrinking government, and is using it as a pretext for something else. What is that something else? I encourage your own answers, but here is mine, based on a less well known definition of certainty. In this case certainty represents a contract between Mr. Romney and people who will work for him, contribute to his campaign, and  vote for him. The contract is that they will share the same destiny. In this specific instance, that destiny would be the result of the economic agenda in the article below.

Mitt Romney - Grow jobs and shrink government

Purchasing a Car in Tokyo

Tyler Cowen's article, Why Free Parking Comes at a Price, brings to mind something I learned several years, perhaps even a decade ago, while working with Japanese translators and consultants. Purchasing a car in Tokyo requires proof of ownership of a parking place. That must be an expensive piece of real estate!