1. The AJC on the joys of Georgia in the spring: "Atlanta's pollen count skyrocketed to nearly 2,600 Thursday, more than 20 times the level considered "extremely high" by allergists." Even with my daily dose of Claritin, a short walk between buildings leaves me with watery, itchy eyes.

2. George Will writes on occupational licensing for interior designers. It's a silly attempt at rent-seeking similar to florist licensing in Louisiana. [HT: George Leef]

3. Part of my post on tenure has reproduced in The Chronicle of Higher Education (no link, the article behind the firewall). [HT: George Leef]

4. Andrew Young is back in the news--this time for having connections to a firm that "is entangled in a controversy concerning the firm's dealings with Nigerian President Olusegun Obasanjo." At least this time he isn't spouting off about inner city markets selling "stale bread and bad meat and wilted vegetables."

5. Readers thinking it's been too long since I've blogged on Wal-Mart (the indirect reference to Wal-Mart in the Andrew Young post above doesn't count) might turn to this column by WaPo's Sebatian Mallaby. [HT: Mark Perry] An excerpt:

The average Wal-Mart customer earns $35,000 a year, compared with $50,000 at Target and $74,000 at Costco. Moreover, Wal-Mart's "every day low prices" make the biggest difference to the poor, since they spend a higher proportion of income on food and other basics. As a force for poverty relief, Wal-Mart's $200 billion-plus assistance to consumers may rival many federal programs. Those programs are better targeted at the needy, but they are dramatically smaller. Food stamps were worth $33 billion in 2005, and the earned-income tax credit was worth $40 billion.

Set against these savings for consumers, Wal-Mart's alleged suppression of wages appears trivial. Arindrajit Dube of the University of California at Berkeley, a leading Wal-Mart critic, has calculated that the firm has caused a $4.7 billion annual loss of wages for workers in the retail sector.

6. John McCain issued a warning about the spead of socialism in Latin America. While he's correct in thinking Chavez is a menace, I'm also concerned about the socialism peddled by McCain. Senators who live in glass houses ...

7. The International Property Rights Index looks to be an interesting project.

8. A new NBER Working Paper co-authored by Princeton's Harvey Rosen finds that financial market liberalization over the past 35 years has benefitted mortgage borrowers. The paper also finds no evidence that GSEs Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac have contributed to households' gains.