My brother took this picture at the Master's last Wednesday. What a site!

Just read a statistic that has floored me....Think there is any correlation?

Just 28% of working-age Portuguese have completed high school, and Portuguese workers are among the least productive in Western Europe.

The Government needs to get out of the mortgage business. Here's a road map on how to do it.

Peter Wallison, Alex Pollock and Ed Pinto try to provide a roadmap here to get the government out of the mortgage business. This is a great idea. Fannie and Freddie should be put "on budget" and should be scheduled to fade away over time. Underwriting standards need to be maintained and all government guarantees should end. Maybe we are getting somewhere?

Paul Ryan in his own words...Mediscare? Reforming entitlements and going back on the gold standard are our only hopes for long-run sustainability.

Well one out of two ain't bad.

The FHA is the new Fannie and Freddie. Have we learned nothing?

Peter Wallison and Ed Pinto sound the alarm here. Will anyone listen? What have we learned if the government simply shifts the purchasing of bad mortgages from Fannie and Freddie to the Federal Housing Authority, which is what Dodd-Frank has done? Risky mortgages and shotty underwriting standards are bad bets no matter who holds them on their balance sheet. It is going to happen again and no one is trying to stop it.

Today is the 78th anniversary for the banning of private gold holdings during the Great Depression.

Executive order #6102 instructed all US citizens to turn in their gold coins and bullion by May 1, 1933. This was the end of the commodity/gold standard as it was known back then.

John Cochrane and QEII.

http://www.voxeu.org/index.php?q=node/5900

"Skin in the game" and economic behavior.

http://www.frbsf.org/publications/economics/letter/2010/el2010-37.html

Robert Mundell and growth.

High times at the Fire Dept.