Unintended consequences, you betcha! - Jeff Jacoby explains how the National Popular Vote compact aims to circumvent 200+ years of American democracy with a Constitutional end-run in "Massachusetts for Palin?"

Here's my guess: when the time comes for the Massachusetts electors to cast their vote for Sarah Palin, Beacon Hill will engineer a deus ex machina "emergency" legislation to reverse a law that goes against their political interests.

The exploits of Paulie "Dot Com" and Jimmy the Geek - Christian Science Monitor: "Are mobsters planting hackers in big companies?" Like credit card companies....yikes.

Dude, I'm totally good for it - Somehow I think the Boston Globe is poking fun with this headline: "Kerry says he always intended to pay tax."

You better bail out, kids

Via Hot Air, here's a campaign video by the guy who's (probably) going to lose to Pat Leahy in the Vermont Senate race. Check out the production value of this baby:

Classic. It reminds me of that commercial of a father telling his kid that he's broke and he'd have to enter the work force. The kid protests that he's "only eight" (or something) and the father remonstrates: "I wouldn't let that slip out during a job interview!" Dang, I can't find the video.

Anyway: get to work you lazy urchins! We need tax revenues!

Too big to fail? - Real Clear World: "Sun could set suddenly on superpower as debt bites."

In related news, the Moody's rating service has warned that the U.S. needs a debt-reduction plan to ensure its triple-A credit rating.

Probably. There's not much else left to tax. - WashPost: "Is an Internet sales tax coming?" Save us, Jeff Bezos!

The Grecian tipping point

Here's Megan McArdle in this month's Atlantic magazine: "Deficits matter"

Unfortunately, we’re now running annual deficits at a level where deficits very much do matter - as the ongoing crisis in Greece so vividly illustrates. The Congressional Budget Office says that after borrowing nearly 10 percent of GDP in 2009, we will borrow even more in 2010, and just a little less in 2011. Thereafter, we’re expected to cut our deficits - but they’ll still be 4 to 5 percent, which is bigger than anything we saw under George W. Bush and bigger than all but two of the deficits tallied under Reagan. The bills for Medicare and Social Security are finally coming due as the obligations exceed payroll-tax receipts. And this administration, like every administration before it, is unwilling to either make the necessary cuts or raise the necessary taxes. Deficits are starting to matter. A lot. Both politically and
economically.
Policy makers are acting as if we have plenty of time to figure things out, but as the Greek experience illustrates, debt crises do not always unfold slowly, with plenty of warning.

And now the CBO has officially decided that Megan is right. Here's a summary via Reason: "Mounting U.S. debt makes fiscal crisis more likely." And then there's the CBO Director's blog giving us a dark glimpse into the future:

Options for responding to a fiscal crisis would be limited and unattractive. The government would need to undertake some combination of three actions. One action could be changing the terms of its existing debt. This would make it difficult and costly to borrow in the future. A second action could be adopting an inflationary monetary policy by increasing the supply of money. However, this approach would have negative consequences for both the economy and future budget deficits. A third action could be implementing an austerity program of spending cuts and tax increases. Such budgetary adjustments, in the face of a fiscal crisis, would be more drastic and painful than those that would have been necessary had the adjustments come sooner.

Hey, we're broke, let's go on The View!

Tilling the earth since 1632 - This is a remarkable story in today's Boston Globe: the oldest-running family farm in America - the 134-acre Tuttle Farm - is shutting down. Well, they had a good run: "End of a 378-year era." I blame Tom Vilsack.

The a-maize-ing ethanol boondoggle – Reason "Biofuels mandate: Greenhouse gas abatement costs $750 per ton": "Translation: The biofuel mandate is a stupid, very expensive, and largely ineffective way to try to reduce greenhouse gas emissions."

You better sit down kids senior citizens

Wall Street Journal: "Health Law Augurs Transfer of Funds From Old to Young"

Since the creation of Social Security and Medicare, younger workers have funded programs for the elderly. It's a compact in which workers paid for retirees with the understanding that they'd be looked after by the generation behind them.
The health overhaul diverges by tapping a program for the elderly to help provide insurance to 32 million Americans of younger generations. Nearly half the funding for the law is supposed to come from paying lower fees to hospitals, insurers and other health-care providers that participate in Medicare, the federal insurance program for Americans age 65 and older, as well as younger disabled people.

Then there's this from the Christian Science Monitor: "Deficit cutting axe may fall on Social Security." Dagnabbit.

The smartest guys in the room - Writing in the Boston Globe, Neal Gabler discusses the intellectual superiority and hubris of the Obama White House in "The best and the brightest redux." I've used that title before in a book review on Enron.

Headline of the day - LA Times: "Colorado man delivers pizza and saves heart attack victim."

Shameless attempt to generate web traffic - US Magazine: "Justin Bieber escorted away in prison jumpsuit." Did I say Justin Bieber? Yes, Justin Bieber...who was filming a scene for the season premiere of CSI. Good luck, tween heartthrob Justin Bieber!

Is Obamacare Constitutional?

A very good review from Georgetown law professor Randy Barnett. First he acknowledges that the "individual mandate" in which everybody needs to purchase health insurance is uncharted territory:

Such a mandate is unprecedented: "This is the first time in American history that Congress has claimed to use its power over interstate commerce to mandate, or require, that every person enter into a commercial relationship with a private company," Mr. Barnett notes. "As a judicial matter, it's also unprecedented. There's never been a court case which said Congress can do this." That doesn't establish that Congress can't do it, but the high court could reach that conclusion without undoing existing law.

In addition to the expanded view of the Commerce Clause, Barnett also doubts the new "tax that wasn't a tax before" argument stands legal muster. Now the bad news: Barnett writes that the courts have deferred to Congress on matters like this, presumably because subsequent Congresses can fix legislative defects:

"If I want to bet actual money, I'll always bet the court upholds anything Congress does," Mr. Barnett says.

Constitutional issues aside, Barnett also sums up my less-than-legal opinion on Obamacare: it just feels wrong.

"What is the individual mandate?" Mr. Barnett says. "I'll tell you what the individual mandate, in reality, is. It is a commandeering of the people. . . . Now, is there a rule of law preventing that? No. Why isn't there a rule of law preventing that? Because it's never been done before. What's bothering people about the mandate? This fact. It's intuitive to them. People don't even know how to explain it, but there's something different about this, because it's a commandeering of the people as a whole. . . . We commandeer people to serve in the military, to serve on juries, and to file a return and pay their taxes. That's all we commandeer the people to do. This is a new kind of commandeering, and it's offensive to a lot of people."

No kidding. I have a bad feeling that the Supreme Court will not overturn this shoddy legislation because they'll argue that any redress can occur at the ballot box. What I think much more likely to happen is that, just like in Massachusetts, Americans will not purchase health insurance and opt to pay for the excise penalty (which is not a tax, remember). Then, when the uninsured get sick, they'll just purchase insurance because the new law requires the insurance companies to sell it. Just like in the Bay State, it's the gaming of the system, nationwide, with predictable results.

Extra - Flopping Aces: "Obamacare makes life much easier for Michelle Obama."

Follow the bouncing ball

The Onion: "Budget cuts force British government to shut down mysterious seaside village"

That was then, this is election season - CBS News: "Obama changes tune on paying for unemployment benefits extension."

GM seeks cheap credit to sell crummy cars - Megan McArdle: "General Motors to purchase auto finance company."

Extra - More on the AmeriCredit deal from The Truth About Cars. Subprime loans? What could go wrong?

Big trouble in Obamacare Land - I don't quite understand the legal verbiage here but I'll take the word of law professor Glenn Reynolds: since the new health care individual mandate is now being characterized by the Obama Administration as a "tax" it's no longer Constitutional because it represents a "capitation" tax. Interesting.

On the edge of the Laffer curve - How high would taxes need to go to pay off this year's $1.5 trillion deficit? According to the Tax Foundation, one option is to raise the top three tax brackets to 100% - and this still wouldn't be enough.

Bernanke to Krugman: drop dead

NY Times: "Fed sees no quick end to high jobless rate"

The chairman of the Federal Reserve, in saying that it had no immediate plans to provide additional support to the economy, dashed the hopes of some economists and executives who have been pushing for action to add momentum to the sluggish recovery.

The Fed has already pushed the accelerator to the floor and dropped interest rates to historically low levels. At this point, the only move left is to start paying banks to take money, preferably in those cartoon sacks with the dollar signs on the side.