'Cheese-eaters' angered at US Roquefort tax

This blog was originally a place for a sometimes heated and always interesting email discussions on economics by some colleagues. But the emails have been stubbornly difficult to move on from. So the Liberty Lunch blog has languished. But here is some economic news from the end of the Bush Era: 'Cheese-eaters' angered at US Roquefort tax to get things started again.

In the Seventh Year

I have always liked reading Roger Cohen's perspective on things (he's a Brit with the International Herald Tribune). He does his best to look back on the seven years since 9/11: In the Seventh Year

Playing with Fire II

Well, after the undersea methane article, it was worth noting that scientists at CERN in Switzerland researching subatomic particles are about to fire up their new supercollider. The downside? A small but finite chance it could create a large black hole which will swallow up the earth: Legal bid to stop CERN atom smasher from 'destroying the world' The big day is supposed to be September 10. A slightly funnier article from the New Yoke Times opinion page: Digging Ourselves a Black Hole

Playing with Fire

An interesting article from Forbes about vast amounts of methane trapped under the sea floor: Energy's Most Dangerous Game The only downside to tapping it is the possibility of ending life as we know it on earth.

James Galbraith's 'Predator State': damning, incisive

A review on UT Professor James Galbraith's new book from the Austin American Statesman:
James Galbraith's 'Predator State': damning, incisive
The UT professor and son of a famous economist denounces the 'free market' that has created a vulture-like capitalist culture

Anthrax

The 2001 Anthrax attacks on the east coast of the US just after the 9/11 terrorist attacks has long been an unusual mystery for many reasons. Among them:

• The very unusual choice of weapon: high grade anthrax spores
• The timing related to 9/11: one week later
• The bogus ties to Saddam Hussein in Iraq: press reports of bennonite in the anthrax connecting this to Iraq's chemical and biological weapons programs
• The location: on the east coast of the US, near US government biological weapons labs
• The victims: two relatively obscure US senators in the minority party as well as media outlets, not well-known or powerful international leaders.
• The lack of fatalities: notes in the letters warned the victims and, somewhat bizarrely, even recommended specific medical treatments. Except for postal workers and others accidentally exposed, the attacks were relatively harmless, by design.

All of this indicates not a major foreign terrorist organization, but someone looking to very publically frighten US citizens. After a seven year investigation, the prime suspect has been cleared and won a large damages award. Shortly after this verdict, another suspect has committed suicide. Both worked in the same government weapons lab pinpointed by new DNA techniques as the source of the anthrax. All we need now is an Oliver Stone film on ths subject.

How I Didn’t Dismantle Iraq’s Army

An interesting Letter to the Editor in the New York Times. It concerns L. Paul Bremer III's article 'How I Didn’t Dismantle Iraq’s Army' on the decision to disband the Iraqi Army, largely viewed as a major blunder in the US occupation of Iraq. The 'letter' is in the form of a video by filmmaker Charles Ferguson that interviews high-level participants that refute much of what was published by Bremer. It seems some of the Neo-Conservatives who instigated and prosecuted this war are trying to rewrite history.