Hey, bacon works on nose bleeds too (HT: Instapundit).

Americans recognize rights not widely protected, including ones to a speedy and public trial, and are outliers in prohibiting government establishment of religion. But the Constitution is out of step with the rest of the world in failing to protect, at least in so many words, a right to travel, the presumption of innocence and entitlement to food, education and health care.

There's a good reason that the U.S. Constitution or any other constitution should not recognize entitlements to food etc.--such a "right" implies an obligation that someone else provide the food or medical care. While many people believe that in a decent society people should voluntarily help others, compelling a person to provide another with food or medical care or whatever is enslavement. It is depressing that this point was not mentioned in the NYT article and that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg thinks the U.S. Constitution is an anachronism because it eschews such provisions.

FT's Martin Wolf, the author the superb Why Globalization Works, thinks that British policymakers' belief that fiscal stimulus would not help the sluggish British economy indicates they think Herbert Hoover was correct. Never mind that Hoover wasn't much of a fan of fiscal restraint either since he boosted spending some 50% during his four years in office.

Of course, it is also silly to think that current British policy rises to anything resembling "masochism in economic policy" as Wolf claims. Don Boudreaux and Scott Sumner point out that British spending has increased since 2007 and that Britain's budget deficit as a share of GDP trails only Greece and Egypt among 44 major economies tracked by The Economist.

Much better than thinking up new ways to tax and spend ...

1. From Valerie Ramey (WP #17787): "Using a variety of identification methods and samples, I find that in most cases private spending falls significantly in response to an increase in government spending. These results imply that the average GDP multiplier lies below unity."

2. From Nathan Nunn and Nancy Qian (WP #17794): "Our estimates show that an increase in U.S. food aid increases the incidence, onset and duration of civil conflicts in recipient countries."

Thanks to Mike H. for the pointer.

Private equity critics claim that leveraged buyouts bring huge job losses. To investigate this claim, we construct and analyze a new dataset that covers U.S. private equity transactions from 1980 to 2005. We track 3,200 target firms and their 150,000 establishments before and after acquisition, comparing outcomes to controls similar in terms of industry, size, age, and prior growth. Relative to controls, employment at target establishments declines 3 percent over two years post buyout and 6 percent over five years. The job losses are concentrated among public-to-private buyouts, and transactions involving firms in the service and retail sectors. But target firms also create more new jobs at new establishments, and they acquire and divest establishments more rapidly. When we consider these additional adjustment margins, net relative job losses at target firms are less than 1 percent of initial employment. In contrast, the sum of gross job creation and destruction at target firms exceeds that of controls by 13 percent of employment over two years. In short, private equity buyouts catalyze the creative destruction process in the labor market, with only a modest net impact on employment. The creative destruction response mainly involves a more rapid reallocation of jobs across establishments within target firms.

So private equity enhances efficiency with minimal effect on employment. Yet another reason Professor Cornpone Gingrich is a just another slimy politician.

We examine the long-run consequences of the scramble for Africa among European powers in the late 19th century and uncover the following empirical regularities. First, using information on the spatial distribution of African ethnicities before colonization, we show that borders were arbitrarily drawn. Apart from the land mass and water area of an ethnicity's historical homeland, no other geographic, ecological, historical, and ethnic-specific traits predict which ethnic groups have been partitioned by the national border. Second, using data on the location of civil conflicts after independence, we show that partitioned ethnic groups have suffered significantly more warfare; moreover, partitioned ethnicities have experienced more prolonged and more devastating civil wars. Third, we identify sizeable spillovers; civil conflict spreads from the homeland of partitioned ethnicities to nearby ethnic regions. These results are robust to a rich set of controls at a fine level and the inclusion of country fixed effects and ethnic-family fixed effects. The uncovered evidence thus identifies a sizable causal impact of the scramble for Africa on warfare.

1. The driving force behind the shortage [of ADHD drugs] is a U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) policy that sets limits on the manufacturing of ADHD drugs, to limit the supply of these drugs to people who might use them illegally, according to a report by The New York Times. Source.

2. About half of the shortages of injectable drugs are due to production problems. The FDA has stepped up its efforts to ensure that drug manufacturing processes and facilities meet its quality standards by instituting a "zero tolerance" policy. As a result, if a shortage develops because the FDA shuts down a competitor's plant, a manufacturer must seek FDA approval to increase output and alter its production timetable, slowing down production. Source.

3. At least one former Obama administration official also believes Medicare price controls may be a big factor in drug shortages. Ezekiel Emanuel, MD, PhD, an oncologist, bioethicist and former health care adviser to President Obama, said no one has confirmed all the reasons behind drug shortages. But he said Medicare price limits are one of three likely main culprits. The others are slow FDA approval of new or upgraded drug manufacturing facilities and consolidation in the drug industry, said Dr. Emanuel... Source.