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Crooked Timber casts a skeptical eye over the numbers of people going into higher education. I agree. Too many people go to university who gain very little from doing so, bar a pass saying 'I am potential management' and a good time at the expense of their parents and the tax-payer. It is a waste, and also a form of prisoners' dilemma, since everyone wants a pass saying 'I am potential management'.

Lenin discovers that some wealthy Americans now consider floods a particularly cheap form of slum clearance.

The Sharpener has a piece up on flat taxes. All I have to say is, most of that which is to be said in favour of flat taxes arises from the possibility of raising the tax-free allowance, so, why give up the perfectly justified idea that people who can already provide for all their needs don't need their money as much, and so can pay more of it, proportionally, in tax, when all we need to do is raise the tax-free allowance within a progressive system of taxation?