Economics and Politics - Paul Krugman Blog - NYTimes.com

Economics and Politics - Paul Krugman Blog - NYTimes.com: "Ezra Klein wonders why we still have multiple agriculture committees when we hardly have any farmers, and proposed their abolition. But I’d propose the opposite solution: more committees to represent comparably-sized segments of the population.

We should, in particular, have several Congressional committees, plus a Cabinet-level department, representing Americans who play World of Warcraft, who outnumber American farmers."

Matthew Yglesias » Home Page

Matthew Yglesias » Home Page: "one additional potential bonus of Plumer’s ideas is that the public also seems to have no concept whatsoever of how tax incidence works. Thus it’s possible that if you could reformulate the basic gas tax concept as not a tax on gasoline that consumers pay at the pump, but a tax on oil paid by evil oil companies, that you could get further with it politically even though the actual impact would not really be different."

Parental Leave

Matthew Yglesias » Home Page: "the general lack of paid parental leave in the United States. In most developed countries some form of paid leave is mandatory.

This is basically a recognition on the part of everyone from Japan to Norway to Canada that having a child isn’t just a random consumption choice that we should leave entirely up to the free market. Parents have a special social role to play, and it’s important to all of us to put them in a position to play it well."

Economist's View: "An Umbrella that Melts in the Rain"

Economist's View: "An Umbrella that Melts in the Rain": Health insurance is like 'An Umbrella that Melts in the Rain' for many people.

Bankruptcy

CQ Politics | Gas Taxes Fall Short Again, Strapping Highway Trust Fund

CQ Politics | Gas Taxes Fall Short Again, Strapping Highway Trust Fund: "The federal Highway Trust Fund will run out of cash this summer, marking the second year in a row that gasoline tax revenues have failed to meet prior projections and federal spending commitments. ...Congress approved an $8 billion transfer of general tax revenues in September to shore up the Highway Trust Fund, which ran low because revenues from gasoline and diesel fuel have slowed as motor vehicles become more fuel-efficient and Americans drive less because of the economic recession."

According to The WonkRoom:

Currently, 81 percent of the fund’s money is dedicated to highways, while 19 goes toward mass transit.

Matthew Yglesias » Home Page

Matthew Yglesias » Home Page

: "Via Felix Salmon, a helpful dataset that allows me to put together this chart, showing car ownership rates in a few wealthy, sparsely populated countries:"

Parking Shortages vs. Coke

Most cities require that new businesses provide a certain amount of free parking for both customers and employees. Residential developers are also required to create a minimum amount of parking for new homes. This is not a free market approach which is probably preferable.

Yglesias: "if I proposed dealing with the ensuring shortages by saying that anyone who wants to build a new building needs to also provide millions of dollars worth of Diet Coke to people in the neighborhood, people would look at me as if I were insane. Creating the Diet Coke shortages is not a favor to anyone—neither fans nor haters of Diet Coke benefit—and the regulatory mandate is an absurd subsidy to Diet Coke drinkers with no conceivable policy justification."