Property prices are rising fast in Eastern Europe according to Financial Times:

…property prices in Riga, the Latvian capital, surged by 45.3% in the year to June, following on from a rise of 73.5% in the preceding year, with growth also buoyant in Bulgaria and Estonia. Mr. Bailey [head of residential research at Knight Frank] attributed this to a “levelling up” of prices across Europe, particularly in the former eastern bloc nations that have joined the European Union. “Wage inflation, growing prosperity and access to less constrained mortgage finance have all contributed to rapidly rising prices,” he said.

The same transformation could occur wherever property rights are dim and mortgage rates are high. I am thinking of Jamaica, Lebanon, Mexico, Iraq and many, many other places around the globe. Dollarize (or Euro-ize) the economy, offer subsidized mortgages, low property and capital gains taxes for houses, no rent control and put home improvement shows on TV and we will have a global home boom. These are sitting assets that can be taxed and repossessed. They create a home ownership culture, security of a locked door and a place to hang mosquito netting. $30,000 of cinder block housing for every 4th person on the globe would be $45T. This is the head end of the promise of capitalism with liquid lending.

Don Boudreaux says that we need to ignore global warming:

Those of us who recognize these important benefits of capitalism — those of us who understand that capitalism’s true greatness lies not (as many critics insinuate) in producing oceans of pointless trinkets and baubles but in making the lives of ordinary people richer and fuller and longer — are reluctant to yield power to governments to tackle global warming. We worry that this power will kill the goose that’s laying this golden egg.

If you think that such a worry is exaggerated, recall the language Al Gore used in his book “Earth in the Balance.” The former Vice President asserted that we are suffering an “environmental crisis” that can be avoided only if we “drastically change our civilization and our way of thinking.”

“Drastically change our civilization.” Hmmm. This sounds like a call to significantly scale back markets, trade and industrial activities in order to lessen humankind’s “footprint” on the Earth and its environment. We can, no doubt, make our environmental footprint smaller — but how great a benefit will this achievement be if it returns us to the ages-old condition of high mortality and morbidity?

I wasn’t sure whether to file this under “Science And Society,” or “Economics.” Had to go with the latter (particularly since so much of the global warming debate is entirely devoid of this topic).

The Economist this week takes on the myth that we need our education system and economy to produce more scientists and engineers. If scientists and engineers are so valuable, why do they make less money than doctors, lawyers and business consultants? I shudder every time I hear doom predicted because of Asian engineers.

…doomsayers are guilty of the

Since people like pennies, but the Mint is losing money on them, let the Mint publish a specification for pennies and let people make their own.

Rich Lowry is a man after my own heart.

[Update at 11:30 Pacific]

Here’s a more recent post from me on the subject.

…must be spinning in its little tiny coffin, at the recent economic growth and deficit reduction numbers:

Did you know that just over the past 11 quarters, dating back to the June 2003 Bush tax cuts, America has increased the size of its entire economy by 20 percent? In less than three years, the U.S. economic pie has expanded by $2.2 trillion, an output add-on that is roughly the same size as the total Chinese economy, and much larger than the total economic size of nations like India, Mexico, Ireland, and Belgium.

…here

…must be spinning in its little tiny coffin, at the recent economic growth and deficit reduction numbers:

Did you know that just over the past 11 quarters, dating back to the June 2003 Bush tax cuts, America has increased the size of its entire economy by 20 percent? In less than three years, the U.S. economic pie has expanded by $2.2 trillion, an output add-on that is roughly the same size as the total Chinese economy, and much larger than the total economic size of nations like India, Mexico, Ireland, and Belgium.

…here

…must be spinning in its little tiny coffin, at the recent economic growth and deficit reduction numbers:

Did you know that just over the past 11 quarters, dating back to the June 2003 Bush tax cuts, America has increased the size of its entire economy by 20 percent? In less than three years, the U.S. economic pie has expanded by $2.2 trillion, an output add-on that is roughly the same size as the total Chinese economy, and much larger than the total economic size of nations like India, Mexico, Ireland, and Belgium.

…here

And I’ll bet that the Norwegian whaling industry does as well. A whale was shot down while being watched by tourist whale watchers:

Jan Kristiansen, who represents the whalers, defended the shootings. He claimed the whalers were simply taking advantage of the nice weather, when the hunting is best.

“Many of the whaling boats had been tied up at the dock for several days, waiting for better weather,” he said. “When it finally came, we have to make the most of it.”

Kristiansen claimed that he and the other whalers “don’t have anything against the whale safari boats… but it’s important to get across that it’s the extreme opponents of whaling that travel out to see whales.

“We can’t prevent them from being against the hunt, and they can’t prevent us from hunting.”

He’s obviously never met American environmentalists.

And, yes, I did have trouble finding a category for this one.