Bizzy’s AM Coffee Biz-Econ-Life Links (072106)

Free Links:

• I don’t know why people are surprised at the, uh, flat demand for flat-panel TVs, since there are only so many people willing to pay 4 grand, 3 grand, or even 2 grand to be early adopters, when a perfectly serviceable TV costs about $200. Prices are as low as $1,100 now and heading lower. Holding out has its benefits.
• Jeff Jacoby at The Boston Globe gets in his digs at The Big Dig (HT Large Bill).
• This is so disappointing on so many levels (HT Club for Growth blog) –
  

  Rep. Tom Davis, R-Va., has convinced the House of Representatives to approve the “largest earmark in history.” That’s how the Maryland Public Policy Institute describes his $1.5 billion, 10-year federal bailout for Metro, to be paid for with revenues generated by offshore oil drilling. This proposal, which just made it over the required two-thirds majority by one vote, is wrong on so many counts that it’s hard to know where to start, but here are three points to open the discussion.

  Let’s begin with the totally regressive, even elitist, nature of the new spending that would be authorized by the Davis earmark. A big chunk of Metro’s customers live in Davis’ district, especially in Fairfax County. The median household income there is twice the national average, $88,133 to $44,684, according to U.S. Census Bureau data. Does Davis really think the daily commuting costs of people making twice the national median household income should be subsidized by hard-working middle- and lower-middle-class taxpayers?

  I haven’t seen anyone mention another “unforeseen” development I expect to occur in a few years — Public-transit systems in New York City, LA, Chicago, Frisco, and who knows where else will put their hands out for ever more federal money in the name of (take your pick, multiple choice is allowed) national security, reducing pollution, saving energy, or reducing traffic congestion. After all, they’ll argue, why should DC Metro get all the breaks?

• Tom Vilsack (is that an abbreviation for “village sacked”?) may think that his veto of an eminent-domain law won’t affect his presidential ambitions. If so, he is in the process of learning that he is wrong (HT Can’t Make This Stuff Up)–
  

  For the first time in 40 years, both chambers of the Iowa Legislature have overridden a governor’s veto — a move that could lead to a legal showdown.That’s because an Iowa attorney general’s ruling in 1998 casts doubt on the Legislature’s legal ability to override a veto after its regular legislative session ends.

  Lawmakers reconvened Friday in a special session to vote 90-8 in the House and 41-8 in the Senate to override Gov. Tom Vilsack’s veto of a bill that puts new restrictions on local governments’ ability to seize private property.

  The legal wrangling is important to whether the law gets enacted, and you can be sure that someone will sue to overturn the law even if Vilsack signs it.

  The larger point for Vilsack is that he is obviously going against the grain of bipartisan popular sentiment on a very important issue. I doubt that his other Democratic opponents will be so foolish.

• My, this has been kept quiet — President Bush’s poll numbers have gone into the mid-40s (graphic saved for future reference is here).