A clever YouTuber (would that be a Potato 2.0?) came up with a brilliant way to demonstrate the effect of Obama's proposed "cuts" of $100 million compared to the $3.5 trillion proposed budget. (Thanks to Randy Barnett at the Volokh Conspiracy for sharing.)

The Wall Street Journal published an opinion piece today slamming government regulators for forcing Bank of America to acquire Merill Lynch. Before I get into my tirade, let me disclose that I own Bank of America stock, and have owned some of it for quite awhile.

The newest chic is to call everything "2.0," as though adding a major version number actually changes anything. Of course, sometimes it changes things completely.

I found a link to an interesting pictorial that shows the breakdown of your tax dollars (according to 2008 budget funding and requests) over at The Daily Paul.

The most interesting part to me is the section that describes how the money is collected. Here's a transcription – the visual is much prettier.

Who Pays?

For every $1 Billion of total federal spending...

Many of my posts focus on the first word of my blog's name: Money. This one is all about the second: Liberty.

Saw this on the Young Americans for Liberty blog, and it is absolutely awesome. If the visual becomes too disconcerting, just close your eyes and listen to the words.

It's a common epithet these days: "Taxpayers are shareholders." You read it in online articles, hear it in the news, feel it reverberating in the air, see it in the bounce of people young and old who really have no idea about the truth.

Taxpayers don't own a single thing.

I like the Freakonomics blog, even though I often disagree with some of the conclusions they make (or at least imply). For example, Wednesday's post about how the recession will affect "clean" technology is somewhat lacking.

Fortunately, I don't have to explain my position, because I agree 100% with my good friend Dave, who gave me the following response:

In response to the failure to pass a bailout for the Big 3 auto makers, VP Dick Cheney make the comment, "It's Herbert Hoover time." (Doesn't have quite the same ring as "It's Miller time!") The implication is that by not passing the aid, we will face a period of extended recession, much like the Great Depression, which many people believe was protracted by President Hoover's economic policy.

In other words, this is the worst form of double speak.

Free Money Finance has a great guest post about giving generously during hard times. I encourage everyone to read it.

One particular section, however, has elicited a few negative responses.

I ran across an article today that asks whether people who currently pay their mortgages are dumb. My primary answer is: Perhaps, but you should do it anyway, for both moral and practical reasons.