Tuesday Hoglets

By Fester:

I'm working on a longer piece on Mexico as well as planning to sand and prep the floor tonight, so here are a couple of quick links of interesting things I have seen in the past few days:

Chris Briem looks at the very interesting oddity of Pittsburgh's employment and population:

In 1960 the number of jobs located in the City of Pittsburgh was just about 300K. Today the number of jobs located in the City of Pittsburgh is for all practical purposes identical at 300K. We are approaching a fairly remarkable metric for a major city, but we may soon have more people working in the city daily than living here.

So for all who say the city is a failure and everyone is leaving. That may be true for residents, but you can't begin to say that for jobs.

In other words it has become more competitive as a place to work. In normal circumstances that would be amazing.....For everyone who says that X or Y (fill in your policy of choice) is going to force businesses to flee the city for the suburbs you have to think about how that argument has gone over the last 50 years.

Mark Lynch talks about the limits of a hegemon's power and counsels strategic minimalism:

Responding to every challenge does not become a hegemon. Indeed, it would be counter-productive and exhausting, and would likely trigger even greater resentment among other rising rappers. Better as hegemon to rise above the fray and accept the sniping of the less powerful while reaping the rewards of a status quo which he dominates and profits from excessively. And that's what happened: his wealth, status, and structural power rose inexorably despite the potshots and abuse and unmet challenges -- indeed, the only real hit he's taken was self-inflicted.....

Marcy Wheeler said "Blow Job" on TV ---pass the smelling salts and forget about the violence that is condoned and common place.

Bureau Crash is raising some interesting questions on the California IOUs as Bills of Credit:

The key elements in the Craig ruling are:

There�s a difference between a �bill of credit� and something like a municipal bond. The difference is that ��bills of credit� signify a paper medium, intended to circulate between individuals, and between government and individuals, for the ordinary purposes of society.� The ban on �bills of credit� extends to any paper medium issued by a State government, for the purpose of common circulation.

It is relevant whether the bills can be used to pay taxes or to pay employees, because this gives them currency and makes them likely to circulate as would paper money.

California�s IOUs seem to pass all the tests for being Constitutionally forbidden �bills of credit.� About the only argument I could see being made against them is that their denominations make them ill-suited for circulation, but by all accounts they�re circulating anyway, and California clearly intended them to circulate

Arlen Specter looks to have a 2:1 cash on hand advantage over Rep. Sestak in the PA-Dem-Senate Primary according to the Pittsburgh Post Gazette:

Incumbent Arlen Specter told me a couple weeks ago that he should have around $8 million, or twice that of his expected Dem challenger.

Cunning Realist is attempting to help whip votes on a Federal Reserve Audit law... a good idea as the Fed is the biggest economic policy actor out there with minimal countervailing forces directly arrayed against it. At this point the notion of an independent central bank is quaint, useful perhaps, but quaint.

Defense Tech reports that the African Union peacekeepers are resorting to increasing firepower to avoid getting pushed back out of key points in Mogadishu. The joys of working with governmetns of minimal local legitimacy but a surfeit of foreign support.....