• June Was the Bloodiest Month of the War in Afghanistan — John McCreary (via Tom Ricks) – This is not progress.
• Energy Industry Spends $28 Million in First Quarter Lobbying Congress on Climate Bill — The Washington Independent – Can you say “lobbying reform“?
• Popularity Is In Your Genes — Scientific American – Clever study. Very true.
• UNESCO: US Seriously Damaged Historic Babylon — The Associated Press (via Common Dreams) – This makes the historian in me want to cry.
• The Dangers of Bad Financial Products — Mike Rorty (via Ezra Klein) – Another way of saying what I said yesterday. Great example!

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• So This Is What Victory Looks Like? — Scott Ritter – By far the best commentary on the Iraqi situation in light of the recent “troop withdrawal.” Ritter was one of the few people who knew Iraq from the inside before the invasion and accurately predicted everything that followed. He remains one of the few people who knows what is happening on the ground and understands the underlying political and military dynamics. Here he paints a picture that all Americans need to read — every last word. And, of course, we still are ignoring the major issues: “[The] cost paid by Iraqi society, shredded by ethnic cleansing and segregation, raises the question of whether or not the alleged ‘cure’ is any better than the ‘disease’ it purports to address. [...] The Shiite-Sunni schism has only worsened, and there is increasing risk that the Arab-Kurd disagreement over oil rights will escalate from a war of words into something more violent.” The most disheartening and illuminating article published on Iraq in quite some time.
• The Paradox of Thrift — For Real — Paul Krugman – If you like economic-theory-made-easy, this is Krugman at his best. If you just want the bottom line, it couldn’t be clearer: “Slashing spending or raising taxes right now wouldn’t just deepen the slump — it would actually make us poorer in the future, too, because it would lead to lower overall saving and investment.”
• The Man Who Crashed the World — Michael Lewis – One of my favorite, favorite, favorite authors doesn’t disappoint.
• Humans Can Learn to “See” With Sound, Study Says — National Geographic – Way cool.
• The Clean-Energy Debate Guide — Climate Progress – Worth a read before you go bashing Waxman-Markey.
• The Best Thing Since… — Don Boudreaux – Haha, go figure.
• Must-Read NOAA Paper Smacks Down the Deniers: Q: “Is There Any Question that Surface Temperatures in the United States Have Been Rising Rapidly During the Last 50 Years?” A: “None At All.” — Climate Progress
• Breaking News: Regulators Are (Re)Discovering that Maybe Speculation CAN Be Excessive — Justin Fox – Part of the continuing debate — which will only accelerate as the recession draws to a close — about how to deal with future asset bubbles. Fox is right: Something must be done; hopefully economists find the correct “something.”
• Baseball Injuries, an Increasingly Predictable Part of the Game — New York Times – Odd timing, this article coming as the movie adaptation of “Moneyball” has apparently stalled amid administrative troubles. That sidebar aside, this is a very interesting continuation of the mathematization of our lives, across all industries and behaviors. This is a very positive development, so long as practitioners remember that all mathematical models are just models, and therefore are only useful within the correct perspective — something Wall Street has taught us lately.
• Obama’s Strategic Blind Spot — Andrew J. Bacevich – Andrew Bacevich is a national treasure. No new ideas or insights here, but it is brilliant in its brevity and engaging with its historical overtones — both patented Bacevich approaches. Two golden quotes: “In Washington and in the field, a preoccupation with tactics and operations have induced strategic blindness.” and “Yet we’re more likely to enjoy success by modeling freedom rather than trying to impose it. …let’s not deny others the prerogative of defining for themselves exactly what it means to be free.”
• Strands of Libertarianism — Arnold Kling – Quote of the day: “Activities that require taxation are sometimes beneficial in theory, but public choice issues make them much less beneficial in practice.” (There are areas, as indicated in my post on Waxman-Markey, where government investments do have high ROIs, but in general Kling’s point — and public choice theory, for that matter — should be given more attention by legislators and voters.)
• Obama on Israeli Attack on Iran: ‘Absolutely Not’ — Juan Cole – Thank goodness.
• How Did Dinosaurs Get So Big? Maybe Because They Were Couch Potatoes — 80beats – When people talk about humans going the way of the dinosaur, I don’t think this is what they have in mind…

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• Afghan Air Strike Report Belies ‘Blame Taliban’ Line — Gareth Porter – This kind of misdirection doesn’t fool anyone — except the American press and public. Citizens in the Middle East know exactly who is responsible for most casualties. Hopefully General McChrystal’s new focus on civilian casualties will end this practice.
• An Answer to the Gridlock in Iraq?- – The Plank (The New Republic) – Prime Minister al-Maliki is trying a switch-and-bait here. The problem in Iraqi politics is divisive politics that resort to warfare instead of diplomacy. The Prime Minister is one one side of that divide. Giving him more power won’t end the “gridlock”; it’ll only infuriate the other side. The solution is to broker a peaceful governance solution, but the United States still fails to see that the quickest and least violent way out of this mess is to lead the international community in a Dayton-type accord for Iraq.
• Full-Spectrum Idiocy: GOP and Chavez on Iran — Norman Solomon – Solomon’s recounting of history and understanding of attitudes “on the ground” are excellent — and misunderstood (or not understood at all) by most Americans.
• FBI Ignored Evidence of bin Laden Role in Khobar Attack — Gareth Porter – This fourth article in the 5-part series is quite damning. Worth a read to see where we erred.
• US Officials Leaked False Story Blaming Iran for Khobar Attack — Gareth Porter – Porter continues his fascinating in-depth report (see earlier posts for parts one and two in the series).
• New Robot Walks and “Emotes” at the Same Time — National Geographic – Pay attention: This is the future.
• Can the Right War Be Won? — Steven Simon – Foreign Affairs, it seems, is dedicating a significant portion of their latest issue to how we can “win” in Afghanistan. They pay precious little attention to the larger question, which Simon, to his credit, at least points out as a drawback of the books he is reviewing, “The conspicuously odd thing about these books is that neither explores in any depth why the United States is still so involved in Afghanistan at this juncture. [...] Why the United States needs to be their benefactor is unexplained.” He calls it “the new Washington consensus,” and then goes on to suggest the solution that is staring everyone in the face but no one considers: “[Maybe] a narrower strategy that focuses on the immediate threats to the United States would be an appropriate fallback.” The new consensus falls into the pile of poor assumptions that always govern military strategy in Washington, like ignoring whether it is even legal or moral to be in these places in the first place.

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• Why the Catholic Position on Homosexual Marriage Is Not Mere Bigotry (But Still Is Mistaken) — Gene Callahan – Fun and quick philosophy/theology lesson. I’d wager that most Catholics don’t even understand this argument fully, even though it’s their religion. My favorite part is, “The Catholic view…holds that it is a sin to have sex that is not pleasurable!” Read the article to find out why.
• Globalization — Donald J. Boudreaux – A good overview of the case for free trade, explained for the non-economist. Here’s a beautiful one-liner to get the message: “By directing resources around the world into those tasks that each resource does best, free trade arranges the world’s resources so that they produce the greatest possible output while giving consumers maximum access to this output.”
• House Takes Up Creating Consumer Financial Protection Agency — McClatchy Newspapers (via truthout) – This is very good news, for reasons I explain in my forthcoming book. We will surely see Congress take up several useless, counterproductive, or even dangerous regulations over the next couple years, but at least they are starting with a positive one.
• Misinformation from Heritage — Benjamin H. Friedman – Defense spending is a major, and I mean major, problem, both because we have massive budget deficits and because our military strategy has been, shall we say, less than ideal over the last few years. One of the worst acts of political duplicity constantly resurrected in Washington is the notion that defense spending is sacrosanct, almost off-budget, and that anyone who keeps it from growing exponentially is somehow hacking away at our national security. Benjamin Friedman at Cato is particularly good at showing why this argument is wrong…time and time again.
• McChrystal’s Tactical Priority: Avoid Civilian Casualties — Spencer Ackerman – “McChrystal is prioritizing the need to prevent civilian casualties above attacking an enemy.” Bravo! Ask any counterinsurgency expert, and they’ll tell you that minimizing civilian casualties are priority #1. Not to mention, it’s morally the right thing to do.
• Did Everyone See Me Do That? — Allen R. McConnell – Two lessons: (1) We’re a little more self-absorbed than is warranted; and (2) Don’t be afraid to go out on a limb to be happy and successful, even if it means going against the crowd. Your fear probably isn’t as justified as you think it is.

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• Saudi Account of Khobar Bore Telltale Signs of Fraud — Gareth Porter – Porter continues his incredible investigative reporting (see yesterday’s post for the first article in the series). Reads like a great detective novel.
• Tobacco, Public Health, and the FDA — New England Journal of Medicine – It’s not often that I get to say this, so let me make it loud and clear: Bravo to Congress and the President!
• Justice for Rape Victims: Don’t Ignore Evidence — San Francisco Chronicle (via truthout) – This is unconscionable. Can we find out if this is the case in other cities too?
• US Automakers to Gain on New Gas Mandates — Associated Press – Just in case you wanted more evidence that GM dug its own grave: Their research told them to build fuel efficient cars, and they ignored it. How’d that work out for them?
• A Withdrawal in Name Only — Erik Leaver & Daniel Atzmon – We leave 50,000 troops but say we’ve withdrawn…Orwellian, no?
• Ingested Magnets — New England Journal of Medicine – Probably not a good idea to click this link if you get queasy. It’s just an X-ray, but if you let your imagination get the best of you, it’s hard not to wonder how this must have felt.
• Retrospective Voting: Worse Than Chance — Bryan Caplan – Sadly, this is very true, but it’s one thing this blog hopes to correct by raising the level of public debate.
• U.S. Objects to China’s Web Filtering – New York Times – Keep an eye on this. It seems like a trivial development amid everything else going on right now, but risking our relationship with our most important trading partner is a big deal. This could turn out very well (China opens the country to greater freedom of speech), very badly (we end up in a trading war and inflation goes through the roof), or ho-hum (China ignores or makes a useless promise that they never follow up on, and the Obama administration lets it go). This could turn into quite the poker game to see who blinks first.
• Egypt’s Young Unemployed — Yasser M. El-Shimy – Here’s the reason why our support of Egypt’s repressive regime and our tendency toward military over humanitarian assistance are both dangerous policies: “When 20 of every 100 young Egyptians spend most of their time hanging out at the local coffee shop, smoking shisha financed by the meager allowance their parents give them, they are unlikely to silently accept the probable transfer of power from Mubarak to his son. Additionally, they are likely to fall prey to all sorts of ‘isms’ that tell them why the world is such a nasty and an unjust place.”
• Making Financial Regulation Work: A Systemic Risk Regulator — Dean Baker – Baker’s analysis of the Systemic Risk Regulator is spot-on (full disclosure: I make the same argument in my forthcoming book), but his solution leaves something to be desired. Will firing the current regulators be enough to prevent regulators twenty or thirty years down the road from making the same mistakes with new financial innovations, the inevitable regulatory capture, and the go-go-go of the next boom? I doubt it. (For more long-term solutions, of course, you’ll have to read my book.)
• The President’s Press Conference: Climate Change – Keith Hennessey.com – Hennessey is a good economist, but he should be more careful when he takes President Obama to task for saying that efforts to reverse climate change “will lead to the development of new technologies that lead to new industries that could create millions of new jobs in America.” In fairness to Hennessey, his revulsion to this sort of language is not unwarranted. Politicians make these sort of claims all the time with little understanding of the economic implications of their policies. Hennessey is right to point out that the President does not guarantee a NET increase of jobs. But his counterargument, that taxing carbon necessarily implies a net decrease of jobs, is incorrect. If the government taxes the private sector and invests that money in projects that yield a higher return on investment than that money would otherwise have generated in the private sector, then it can easily lead to a net increase in jobs and GDP. The most likely time for this to happen is a recession, i.e. now.
• 20% of Teens Are Sexting – Why Is This a Surprise to Anyone? — Ryan Sager – “The adolescent brain is a risk machine.” Well said, but often forgotten. Environmental factors are undeniably important, but it helps to remember just how much of teenage behavior comes hard-wired.
• Partisan Bias in Evaluations of the Supreme Court — John Sides – File under “The Irrationality of Blind Ideology.”
• The Non-Debate over Non-Reform — Arnold Kling – I disagree with Kling’s solution, for reasons that I will explain in the next edition of “From the Editor’s Desk,” but his complaint about the current debate in Washington is right on the money: “Some form of restraint in our choice of medical procedures is going to be necessary. The debate we should be having is over whether restraint in our use of medical services should be initiated by government officials or left to consumers.”
• Fish Capable of Judgment Calls — Scientific American – We like to think we have superiority over the rest of the animal kingdom because we have emotions, judgment, and the like. The truth, though, is that we just have much greater brainpower. The actual elements in that brain aren’t much different from many other species.
• Weaponized Keynesianism — Paul Krugman – Kudos to Barney Frank on the phrase of the day. This kind of hypocrisy is rampant in Washington.
• Senate Democrats Share Plans for Immigration Reform — Washington Post – Climate change, health care, financial regulation, and now immigration? I love the energy — long overdue — but what are the odds that all 4 issues see comprehensive reform this year? Bravo to Congress for finally doing their job. We haven’t seen them work this hard in several years. I just hope they know what they’re doing (politically, I mean)…
• Evolutionary Origins of Your Right and Left Brain — Scientific American – Another facet of a point made earlier today (see below): The elements of our brain that we often think are so unique, in this case hemispheric division of labor (so to speak), are not unique at all, though our brainpower remains far above the rest of the animal kingdom. This article is full of gems, from stories about how different species use parts of their brain to how language evolved. Set it aside for when you have the time to enjoy it all.
• The Science of Economic Bubbles and Busts — Scientific American – Most of this is old news; behavioral economics is well-known by now. If you’re not up on all the cognitive biases of the investing mind, though, it is an excellent overview. The really hopeful point comes at the end: Adaptive-market models may be part of a bright future for finance and the right tool (once developed properly) for the Fed to use in pricking asset bubbles.

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