Quick Hits

• I've read some breathless exhortions from leading Democrats to pass the stimulus package right away. The package is $825 billion -- the equivalent of the GDPs of Poland and Switzerland combined. Isn't it worth discussing this thing a bit before we move on it? I have a feeling that its proponents fear that the more daylight is shed on this that the less attractive it will become.
  

• Love this headline: "U.S. Existing Home Sales Rise on Record Price Slum". No kidding. You know it's amazing what happens when the free market is allowed to function. We will eventually emerge from the current economic difficulties in spite of the government, not because of it.
  

• Paul Krugman is a complete hack and an embarrassment to economics. Update: More here.
  

• In an effort to be even-handed and not treat Obama with the same bile and contempt that Democrats treated Bush here is a libertarian handing plaudits to the new president for some of his early actions. The problem, however, as I see it as that these marginal developments are completely overshadowed by the spending of this country into oblivion.