17.6.06

Sobre as heresias subsidiadas

Colocar uma imagem de Nossa Senhora, um crucifixo ou um Buda numa sanita não comprometem a vida de ninguém nem muito menos põem em risco o subsídio à montagem da peça de Iñigo Ramirez de Haro. Mas suponha-se quem em vez do Crescente Vermelho, equivalente à nossa Cruz Vermelha, estava realmente um símbolo religioso muçulmano? Por exemplo, o Profeta entrando na sanita agarrado a Nossa Senhora ou às cavalitas de Buda?!..
É caso para dizer 'Me Cago en Dios' ... mas não em todos!!

16.6.06

Nova publicação

Policy makers and others often associate entrepreneurship with the creation of new businesses. While this is an accurate description of one of the many outcomes of entrepreneurial activity, entrepreneurship encompasses far more than business start-ups. It derives from the creative power of the human mind and consists of the discovery of profitable ideas that enable market actors to exploit new, socially beneficial gains from trade. As such, entrepreneurship is the driving force of the market, and it makes progress and sustained prosperity possible.

Economists emphasize that the market is a resource allocation mechanism. However, they often fail to explain how this allocation occurs because they fail to mention the role of entrepreneurial activity in trade. Resource allocation is the result of entrepreneurial discovery for potential gains from trade. In this sense, entrepreneurship, rather than resources and their allocations, matters more to individual wellbeing and to prosperity.

In the social context, profit drives the entrepreneurial discovery of previously overlooked opportunities for trade and thereby signals a more desirable way to organize society's resources. In order to foster socially-beneficial entrepreneurial activity, policymakers must pay attention to the quality of institutions-especially as they impact profits. Institutions that enable individuals to bet on the future and to reap the gains they have discovered will foster entrepreneurial discovery and, as a result, will create a dynamic and prosperous society. These institutions include:

  • Well-defined and enforced property rights;
  • Freedom of contract and its enforcement;
  • Limited interference from government with market outcomes
  • (pdf disponível aqui)

    Quase perfeito

    Sobre a cruzada de Al Gore

    Scientists acknowledge contradictory data. But the faith-driven Gore argues that all scientists agree with him -- well, except for those who are bought and paid for by big polluters.

    Because this is a crusade -- and not about science -- Gore is drawn not to the most reasoned scenarios, but the most apocalyptic.

    Claudio Téllez live on radio

    Al Gore's global warming

    15.6.06

    Sinais

    Instead of acknowledging the reality of the Arab-Muslim world as a broken civilization, we Muslims tend to indulge instead in blaming others for our ills; deflecting our responsibilities for failures that have become breeding grounds of violence and terrorism.Many of our intellectuals in public life and our religious leaders in mosques remain adept in double-speak, saying contrary things in English or French and then in Arabic or Farsi or Urdu. (...)We seethe with grievances and resentment against the West, even as we have prospered in the freedom and security of Western democracies. We have inculcated into our children false pride, and given them a sense of history that crumbles under critical scrutiny. We have burdened them with conflicting loyalties—and now some of them have become our nightmare. We preach tolerance yet we are intolerant. We demand inclusion, yet we practise exclusion of gender, of minorities, of those with whom we disagree. We repeat endlessly that Islam is a religion of peace, yet too many of us display conduct contrary to what we profess. We keep assuring ourselves and others that Muslims who violate Islam are a minuscule minority, yet we fail to hold this minority accountable in public. PTBC

    Modelo Social Europeu

    "A maneira mais simples de enxergar a falha do extenso Estado de bem-estar é prestar atenção à demografia da Europa Ocidental. A implosão demográfica da Europa tanto tem causas econômicas quanto espirituais. O problema demográfico ilustra a falha mais básica do sistema: não é sustentável. O Estado de bem-estar moderno, ou Estado de assistência social, não pode se reabastecer porque marginalizou a família.
    (...)
    Portanto, o modelo social europeu provê altos salários e excelentes benefícios – para os poucos que estão empregados. O sistema exclui aqueles que não têm qualificação suficiente para serem economicamente produtivos. Mas todos começam as vidas sendo não muito produtivos economicamente. Na prática, isto significa que os jovens são mantidos à margem do mercado de trabalho exatamente no momento em que estão biologicamente mais aptos para constituírem famílias. Isto também significa que os que são intrinsecamente pobres, devido a incapacidades ou a baixa inteligência, também são excluídos da participação no mercado de trabalho."

    Jennifer Roback Morse, "Uma alternativa católica ao modelo social europeu"

    (via CIEEP)

    Dúvidas (3)

    O peculiar sentido empresarial bloquista

    Esta semana, a colecção 'Uma aventura aqui, Uma contestação ali' que pauta a agenda do BE ganhou novos rumos. Francisco Louçã vai tornar-se empresário. Mais precisamente empresário do sector automóvel. Louçã não só explicou que «Portugal não pode ser só uma etapa na fileira de montagem» como ainda defendeu a criação de um «cluster». Desde o design ao recurso às tecnologias, Louçã explicou claramente como se pode manter a fábrica da Azambuja a funcionar.
    Ao ouvi-lo acreditei estar diante dum novo Agneli. Na Azambuja, Louçã vai fazer nascer a nossa Zara, a nossa Ikea, a nossa Microsoft. Francisco Louçã, o gestor que salvou a a fábrica da Opel na Azambuja - eis um título a não perder.

    14.6.06

    Um caso de "obstipação cerebral"?

    Mais sobre Alckmin e a situação brasileira

    Se

    "Não foi para isso que votamos nele"

    Leitura recomendada

    Ronaldo vs. Lula

    Dúvidas (2)

    An Israeli investigation into what caused an explosion on a Gaza beach that killed eight Palestinians will conclude that the blast was most likely caused by a mine planted by Palestinian militants and not an Israeli shell, military officials said Tuesday.

    "These rich people are bad for America"

    So the estate tax cut went down in the Senate, to the cheers of class warriors everywhere. Congratulations to Democratic senators Evan Bayh, Mary Landrieu, Ron Wyden, and Mark Pryor — all of whom voted against death-tax repeal after voting in favor of it a few years ago. At last, they’ve come to their senses!

    (...)

    These rich people are bad for America. We don’t need their ingenuity, their entrepreneurship, or their capital investment. In the name of egalitarian socialism, the only thing we need from them is more tax dollars. We now tax their incomes as salary, corporate profits, dividends, capital gains, and at death. But we must do better.

    Perhaps we can tax them when they contribute to charities, or the building of a new church or synagogue, or a symphony orchestra, or a small-town cultural center; or when they create another college; or when they finance private scholarships for inner-city educations.

    But we can’t stop there. Let’s criminalize the entire class of successful American entrepreneurs. Let’s haul out the distributional tables from the Joint Tax Committee and the Congressional Budget Office and target all upper-end earners for special wealth taxes.

    Maybe we can even impose jail sentences on rich people. No more interest income at all, just like the radical fundamentalist Muslims do it!

    (...)

    This may all sound wrong, but our soak-the-rich liberals are deep thinkers. They have their fingers on the pulse of the hundred-million-strong investor class. They know that the worldwide spread of free-market economics, which was launched by Reagan and Thatcher twenty-five years ago, which has raised global prosperity to record heights, and which has caused the phenomenal growth of the middle class in places like India, China, and Russia, is absolutely nuts.

    After all, capital is the enemy of labor! Forget the obvious facts that you can’t create a new job without a business and that you can’t fund a new business without capital. That’s obviously wrong.
    (agradeço ao leitor Carlos Carvalho a indicação do link)

    Alckmin é de direita?

    Democracia e Liberdade

    13.6.06

    Desilusão (mais uma) com Chicago

    12.6.06

    Guerra civil?

    The Strand Connection

    Oriana Fallaci

    Fallaci remains defiant: “This trial is not against me. Nor is it a trial brought by a judge in search of publicity. It is a trial aimed at creating a Precedent, the Fallaci Case. I will not deign to honor them with my presence. This lawsuit is unacceptable, unpardonable. To distort a person’s thought, pick at a word here and another there, sew it all together with little dots, is illegitimate. Illicit. Illegal. Criminal. Contrary to every moral and intellectual decency. For shame!”[35]
    During a speech in Washington in 2002, Fallaci said: “The hate for the West swells like a fire fed by the wind. The clash between us and them is not a military one. It is a cultural one, a religious one, and the worst is still to come.” The suit against her is just one hint of that terrible denouement.FPM

    Globalização e Futebol

    Swedes are still depressed after 0-0 against Trinidad and Tobago in the first World Cup football game. And I must confess that globalisation is to blame. A freer market and increased mobility mean that players from more countries play in other countries and for the best football teams, and this exposure to competition and the best management means that they improve and close in on the best countries. Just like in world economics, in other words.
    Do sueco Johan Norberg.

    Ministério da Educação promove absentismo

    Os 450 professores que estão destacados nos sindicatos – 180 na Federação Nacional de Professores (Fenprof), 120 na FNE, 40 no Sindicato Nacional e Democrático de Professores (Sindep), 20 no Sindicato Nacional dos Profissionais da Educação (Sinape) e dez em cada um dos independentes – representam uma despesa anual superior a oito milhões de euros. No ano lectivo passado, estavam destacados 1327 docentes. Destes, 1089 estavam a tempo inteiro, sem dar aulas, que custavam por ano 20 milhões de euros, segundo estimativas do Governo.

    [Correio da Manhã, via Blogue dos Marretas]
    Dúvida: os sindicatos são entidades estatais?

    Poupança energética?

    Se fosse possível juntar todos os contributos relevantes para a poupança de energia, Portugal podia gastar menos 20% da energia consumida num ano. Só ao nível do petróleo a poupança poderia chegar aos mil milhões de euros, cerca de 25% do que é importado. A ideia foi transmitida pelos participantes no e último debate "Energia: que futuro?", uma parceria DN/TSF que vai hoje para o ar naquela estação de rádio. O tema final foi "Eficiência e poupança".

    [DN]
    Será que os intervenientes no debate fizeram as contas aos custos necessários incorrer para atingir tal poupança energética?

    The end

    Dia D

    (Cristina, obrigado pela lembrança)

    Testes matemáticos

    A resposta enviada pela Portugal Telecom ao princípio de decisão da Autoridade da Concorrência de avançar para investigação aprofundada, recorre ao índice utilizado pelos reguladores de concorrência da União Europeia, para "chamar a atenção" de Abel Mateus que a fusão TMN/Optimus pressupõe um nível de poder de mercado dez vezes superior ao permitido pela UE, soube o Jornal de Negócios.

    Este índice é o Herfindahl-Hirschman e, no conjunto das linhas gerais definidas pela UE para a análise a fusões horizontais, é recomendada a sua utilização, assim como o seu "delta", para se avaliar o impacto de uma fusão na concorrência de um mercado.

    [Jornal de Negócios, meus links]
    Já que os reguladores da concorrência gostam tanto de usar índices matemáticos, pode-se saber se eles próprios já foram testados?

    Disponíveis para venda

    A Parpública classificou de "disponíveis para venda" activos no valor de 1,3 mil milhões de euros, de uma carteira global que soma dois mil milhões, de acordo com o relatório e contas da empresa, conhecido na sexta-feira.

    (...)

    A lista de activos disponíveis para venda é longa, mas não constam as participações na TAP, ANA e REN, que deverão ser alvo de processos de privatização, de acordo com o plano de vendas de participações públicas aprovado este ano.

    [DN]
    Boas notícias. Mas, noutros tempos, alguns chamar-lhe-iam laxismo:
    O expediente das receitas extraordinárias para disfarçar o défice prejudica o património do Estado, é um convite ao laxismo orçamental e não resolve nenhum problema das finanças públicas.

    Devemos perdoar as dívidas?

    "Atualmente, por todo o mundo, o clamor para um amplo perdão das dívidas de algumas das nações mais subdesenvolvidas do mundo continua a ecoar. Cada político ocidental, de presidentes a primeiros-ministros, várias vezes são advertidos por líderes religiosos, atores e estrelas de rock que um grande perdão de dívidas para algumas das nações mais pobres do mundo é uma obrigação moral. Deixar de abraçar essa causa, às vezes ouvimos, é como condenar milhões a morte.
    (...)
    Mais provavelmente, o resultado de um vasto perdão de dívidas é destruir ainda mais a reputação de muitos países em desenvolvimento de cumprir com suas obrigações contratuais. Isso, por sua vez, limita o acesso futuro ao capital estrangeiro de que precisam para o crescimento econômico.
    (...)
    Os países em desenvolvimento precisam criar uma reputação de tomadores de empréstimo responsáveis, que não somente dispõem dos montantes emprestados de modo produtivo, como também pagam seus débitos conforme o contratado.
    (...)
    Além disso, será que alguém realmente pensa que o perdão das dívidas, que falham em dar conta daquelas elites do mundo subdesenvolvido que corruptamente desviam os bilhões emprestados aos seus países, é capaz de desencorajar os futuros líderes das nações de trilhar caminhos semelhantes?"

    Samuel Gregg, "As dívidas, a morte e o ditador"

    (via CIEEP)

    Presente

    Somos nós, somos...I

    Desportos radicais

    Somos nós, somos...

    "Pallywood"?

    Dúvidas

    The Israeli military is still trying to determine if shells it fired killed seven members of a Palestinian family picnicking on a beach in Gaza on Friday.

    The military has accounted for five of the six shells it fired into Gaza, and said they didn't kill the family.

    But investigators aren't sure what happened to the sixth shell. It may have fallen among the Ghalia family.

    Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert on Sunday said he was sorry about the deaths. But chief of staff Dan Halutz said an expression of regret does not mean Israel is taking responsibility, because the investigation is continuing.


    Palestinians: Hamas cleared site of Gaza explosion

    A Palestinian security source said Sunday that Hamas operatives had cleared the debris from the explosion which killed seven Palestinian civilians on Friday in order to frustrate the IDF's attempts to investigate the incident.


    (via LGF)

    Proibido assistir ao Mundial

    MOGADISHU, Somalia — Islamic militiamen in control of Somalia's capital fired guns in the air and cut electricity to makeshift cinemas to prevent people from watching the World Cup, witnesses said.

    11.6.06

    Em destaque

    Post sectário, saloio e insurgente

    Por que será?

    Tangencial mas positivo

    Mundo Moderno

    À esquerda tudo é permitido?

    A "classe média baixa" a banhos?

    Re: O magnífico crescimento de 1%

    Sobre o fenómeno Ann Coulter

    In her book, Coulter writes that Democrats “choose only messengers whom we're not allowed to reply to. That's why all Democratic spokesmen these days are sobbing, hysterical women. You can't respond to them because that would be questioning the authenticity of their suffering.” As an example, she cites the Jersey Girls, four World Trade Center widows who argued for the commission to investigate 9/11. Then she directly questions the authenticity of their suffering, saying they are “reveling in their status as celebrities... I've never seen people enjoying their husbands' death so much.” The comments caused an all-too-expected firestorm, even ensnaring Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, who should have known better. “Perhaps her book should have been called Heartless,” Senator Clinton said. “I know a lot of the widows and family members who lost loved ones on 9/11. They never wanted to be a member of a group that is defined by the tragedy of what happened.”

    Of course they didn't. But Clinton went some way toward confirming the very thing Coulter had alleged: that certain kinds of discourse — caustic, yes; outrageous, yes; illiberal, certainly — are not allowed.

    The same day I was reading Ann Coulter's book, I read Margaret Talbot's excellent New Yorker piece from last week on Oriana Fallaci, the Coulteresque Italian journalist who has written that the "art of invading and conquering and subjugating" is "the only art which the sons of Allah have always excelled." Fallaci has said that Muslims "breed like rats," and she has complained that Muslims have left "yellow streaks of urine that profaned the millenary marbles of the Baptistery" in Florence. As it happens, it's illegal in much of Europe to say such outlandish things: Fallaci currently faces trial in Italy for defaming Islam. At least in the U.S., Coulter is not threatened with prosecution for being Coulter, but as I read Talbot's piece I wondered why the de rigueur intellectual response to Coulter in the U.S. is to dismiss her automatically.

    (...)

    I don't agree with much of what Coulter says, but I find it bracing to read, for example, her cold-eyed assessments of Bill Clinton's treatment of the women in his life. I find her slurs against Muslims offensive, but I do laugh every time she refers to Islam as "the Religion of Peace." In the new book, she is right to belittle the ridiculous overreaction in the press after the mother of Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito stated something obvious: "Of course he's against abortion," Mrs. Alito said of her son. Coulter unearths 25 years of public statements by abortion-rights supporters who stipulated that, as a Planned Parenthood official said in 1978, “Strictly speaking, no one is for abortion... We are pro-choice.” But apparently Mrs. Alito shouldn't be allowed to say her son is against abortion, which everyone knows anyway.

    Timor, Austrália e a ASEAN

    Timor's civil war is a tragic story that puts an immediate test to the relevance of ASEAN at two levels. The first is that of the ASEAN defense ministers meeting (ADMM) which emerged last month as a new forum for security in the region. The second is that of the larger ASEAN grouping as the primary facilitator of peace in Southeast Asia and the Asia Pacific. But the test is most severe on Timor, or East Timor as it was formerly known. Can it survive as a nation-state? And should it fail, how will that affect ASEAN as a grouping?

    Timor as a failing state

    Timor is the youngest member of the United Nations (UN) as well as one of the poorest countries in the world. Despite the discovery of oil in the Timor Sea, such potential wealth has flowed neither to the Dili government, nor to the Timorese people. That potential wealth has also attracted the strategic attention of Australia, which has always maintained an interest in East Timor even before it fell into the hands of Indonesia in 1975 following the exit of Portugal as a colonial power.

    (...)

    Yet, if Timor collapsed as a state, no-one is to be blamed but the Timorese themselves. And the tipping point would be the current leadership crisis, if not power struggle, in Dili. It would be disingenuous for anyone to point an accusing finger at Jakarta. In fact, the Indonesians have been studiously staying out of harm's way, lest they be accused of instigating the current civil strife.

    It is actually in the interest of many parties that President Xanana Gusmao and Foreign Minister Jose Ramos-Horta have asserted their leadership. At the very least, this will prevent the disintegration of the Timorese state. For Indonesia, a stabilization of Timor will prevent unnecessary distraction for the Jakarta government, which already has its hands full with domestic challenges, such as the Yogyakarta disaster. For Australia, it will prevent skepticism that Australia has always wanted Timor to fall under its sway. But a failed Timor state, as Defense Minister Nelson said, could also be a haven for crime and terrorism that could threaten the region.

    For ASEAN, the failure of Timor will not make the regional grouping look good at all. ASEAN cannot afford to go down in history as having failed to step in to help stabilize the small country in its hour of need.

    Evangelização blogosférica

    Não ao terrorismo, não a Zapatero

    Sobre o ataque do MLST ao Congresso Nacional