Easter Greetings
Happy Easter. Augustine said a Christian should be an "alleluia from head to toe." It's a beautiful idea. I wish I could be an alleluia from just my elbow to my wrist, but I can keep trying and this is a wonderful time of year for it. * * * "If it was good for the hunter-gatherers, it's good for you: short spurts of exercise, like you're running from a bear." That's the theory behind evolutionary fitness. The proponent is an economist with a good head on his shoulders. His podcast interview at Econtalk is very interesting and highly recommended. I'll let you know how my sprint workouts go. They oughtta be comical, if nothing else. * * * Charles Carroll of Maryland: Catholic in the early American era, rich, learned. The American Cicero? Maybe. A new book has been issued about his life. It is reviewed here (though the review frustratingly doesn't cut to Carroll until a third into the piece). * * * Jim Grant contemplates what the world would think of the U.S. Treasury's debt issuances if it didn't have its own printing press. From Zero Hedge:
'The first risk factor, via the GAO, "improper payments that should not have been paid by the Treasury totalled $98.7 billion, equivalent to 5% of Treasury outlays.' . . . Grant also discusses the Coinage Act of 1792, whose section 19 stipulates 'that the penalty for anyone who would debase the coinage of the US, is death.' By that logic, a firing squad may soon need to be sequestered to Washington. Grant's concludes that there is a 'great suspension of disbelief in out US monetary system on behalf of the world over. One wonders when people will say no.'
