S.O.B. Alliance Member Porkopolis Is on a Roll

No, not a pork roll, a good post roll:

• “When Inequality Matters” points to a Cato-Unbound piece that nukes the “zero sum game” mindset and points to its stark dangers (shameless plug: a previous BizzyBlog post on income inequality is here).
• “Compassionate Conservatism Run Amok” — Here he finds a Peggy Noonan piece at OpinionJournal.com that questions whether President Bush was ever legitimately interested in controlling government spending. Noonan “lifts” a post title Porkopolis used months to describe the spendfest of Katrina relief.
• “WSJ: Trade Deficit Disorder” goes to a subscription-only Wall Street Journal editorial that makes the historical case that trade deficits, rather than being a bad thing, are indicators of a strong economy (since it’s subscription, I’ll lift a key paragraph that Porkopolis didn’t grab:
  

  Here we go again. For at least the past 30 years protectionists have warned that the trade deficit will lead to ruin, but it’s closer to the truth to say this has it exactly backward: Since the mid-1980s the trade deficit has risen when the economy has grown and receded when the economy has faltered. The lowest annual U.S. trade deficit in recent times was recorded in 1991, a recession year. Dan Griswold of the Cato Institute recently ran the numbers and discovered that “there is a strong correlation between rising trade deficits and falling unemployment.”

  I agree with the pure economic argument, but I worry, and I believe legitimately, about who we are running the trade deficit with and the potential for mischief on their part. I do like the “rabbits in a vault” analogy though, which you’ll have to read to appreciate.

So go there, and to the source material. And, besides, that flying pig is the neatest effect I’ve seen at any blog, anywhere.