second floor

hint: most acts with the word “patriot” in them are a bad idea.

via greg mankiw, a piece on obama’s “protectionist legislative initiative” at voxeu. no comment on most of the article, but this sounds about right:

Much of the US infrastructure is old and inadequate following decades of bipartisan neglect; it serves as an obstacle to the ability of the United States to respond and adapt to change. The quality of primary and secondary education in the US has fallen behind the level provided by most other industrial countries and is even threatened to be eclipsed by levels in quite a number of emerging market nations.