Zero Hedge quiz - They asked to "Name that Bubble" but my guess of "Twilight" DVDs was wrong.

Incentives - Megan McArdle argues that corporate tendencies are geared towards avoiding taxes instead of building business and current policy does little to rein in corporate power: "Why I still think we should eliminate the corporate income tax."

Daytona 500 today!  Oscars tonight!

I'm rooting for Tony Stewart in the race and "The Artist" for Best Picture.  In the meantime, here's Danica Patrick going for a ride after getting forced down the track in the Gatorade Duel.  The former Indy driver takes her hands off the steering wheel just before impact because the open-wheel cars will snap a wrist as the force is transmitted to the wheel.

Hoisted on his own eco-petard - Watts Up with That?: "Gleick confesses."

Obama: victim of circumstance or man of action

It all depends on the outcome.  If gas prices rise it's Bush's fault, Exxon, oil speculators, unrest in Iran, demand in Brazil, people buying big trucks, etc.  If they go down, it must be due to the GM bailout, Chevy Volt subsidies, and new fuel mileage standards.  Opinion Journal reviews Obama's latest slice of un-reality:

"The American people aren't stupid," thundered President Obama yesterday in Miami, ridiculing Republicans who are blaming him for rising gasoline prices. Let's hope he's right, because not even Forrest Gump could believe the logic of what Mr. Obama is trying to sell.
To wit, that a) gasoline prices are beyond his control, but b) to the extent oil and gas production is rising in America, his energy policies deserve all the credit, and c) higher prices are one more reason to raise taxes on oil and gas drillers while handing even more subsidies to his friends in green energy. Where to begin?

I'll take a shot at Obama taking credit for increasing fuel mileage standards to 55mpg.  NPR had an excellent series called "Getting to 55 MPG" that reviewed the challenges.  The first thing to remember is that this is level is for a carmaker's entire fleet average, meaning that the companies are going to have to churn out thousands of cars that few people want since hybrids and electric cars make up a tiny percentage of vehicles sold in America.  If you want to stick with a car that doesn't plug in, you're going to have to do without some, uh, comforts:

"Like, when was the last time you actually took your hand and rolled down a window?" she asks. "But now there's an expectation that every vehicle, even if it's an entry-level vehicle, will have that kind of creature comfort [power windows]."
Wooldridge says we expect our cars to heat faster in winter, to cool faster in summer, have seat warmers and plugs for two cellphones, maybe a DVD player, and - of course - have a radio.

So get ready for the return to stick shifting, America.  Or as Fark put it: "To get to 55mpg you'll have to give up power windows, heated seats, DVD entertainment, and AC that could freeze the Sahara.  But on your deathbed you will receive total consciousness."

So you got that goin' for ya.

Extra - Lots of stuff at Memeorandum.

What kind of club is this? - Maggie's Farm: "Almost half the members don't pay any dues."

General Motors says: "Let's try this Internet thing"

I read somewhere that the management culture at General Motors is so sclerotic and old-school that it's unable to adapt to trends in the automobile industry until they're introduced by other (foreign) car makers.  So I can just imagine the boardroom meeting where somebody proposed starting a blog without understanding what every blogger understands: anybody can make comments.

Here's a good'un from "We did not engineer the Volt to be a political punching bag"

When GM took the route of getting bailed out rather than bankruptcy & restructuring in order to save the UAW’s featherbed contract it made itself into a political football.
When the crooks in DC gave $7500 subsidies to the VOLT to help rich tree huggers preen as green it made the Volt into a political football.
Get used to it. Volt is viewed as a laughable subsidized toy for the trendy rich, and GM is a now pariah in Conservative circles. All my Democrat friends always drove Japanese cars and laughed at our Buicks & Cadillacs. I always bought GM out of loyalty. No more. From now on, I’ll buy Toyotas and Hondas built in the US by non union workers. Cheaper and better.

I think this blog will have the lifespan of "Attack Watch."

End game - Well, this is a cheery post from Zero Hedge: "As US debt-to-GDP passes 101%, the global debt Ponzi enters its final stages."  "The Fed now has just one mandate: to keep the US fiscal machine well-greased by buying up US debt at zero rates, through wanton monetization."  Hmmm, maybe it's time to re-think gold....and ammo.

That's not how I remember it - The White House goes full-out Rashomon.  Hot Air: "Jay Carney: Hey, Obama didn't cancel the Keystone pipeline, Republicans did."  Uh-huh.

Everybody's on the dole

Missed this last week, but the Grumpy Economist has a good post about how intractable entitlement spending has become because it's mostly cash sent to, well, people who vote:

Comment: Now, could we please stop talking about how we need more taxes to pay for roads and bridges or to help the poor? The main function of our government is to write checks to middle-class and wealthy voters. And that's the reason its finances are in the toilet.

RTWT as they say, but the key to remember is that discretionary spending is getting squeezed by payments to banks (to cover interest on the debt) and relatively well-off seniors.

From Paris to Daytona - Talk about a culture shift: this afternoon, I watched Woody Allen's Oscar-nominated "Midnight in Paris" which was a great movie with a neat little time-shift plot twist.  Now I'm watching the unofficial kickoff to the NASCAR season with the Budweiser Shootout.  What a wreck fest and Kyle Busch won with a backup car he spun out twice.

Take it from me, buddy: nobody cares - LA Times: "Payroll tax cut undermines Social Security's security."  It's always been a big accounting trick and people want their money now.

The end of America, visualized

Doug Ross: "A chart from the Obama budget that is so horrifying it must have been left in accidentally."  Here it is: the new plan is that debt goes up and never comes down.

Tim Geithner thinks it's funny.  Zero Hedge has been covering the austerity riots in Greece and the dissolution of the European Union - that's fun reading too.

Extra hilarity - Hit & Run: "Geithner admits Obama budget leaves America with unsustainable entitlement commitments."