Brink Lindsey has a double-edged post on Hong Kong that rings very true. “I’ve come to believe that, these days, there are only two kinds of people in Hong Kong: the pessimists, and the people who think the pessimists are crazy, goggle-eyed optimists.” On the other hand, “it’s rich, it’s free, it’s dynamic, it’s vibrant. The economy will bounce back when the global economy recovers.”
And he is absolutely right that “to see all those skyscrapers, lit up like Christmas trees, hugging the shoreline and climbing the slopes of that big, barren rock, is one of the great perks of living on Planet Earth in the early 21st century”.
Gates and the dividend tax cut 
MyDD has an excellent post on how Bill Gates Sr is mobilising to take on the Bush plan to cut dividend taxes. But as one comment points out Gates and other billionaires opposed the repeal of the estate tax, to no avail. I think, however, the climate on the dividend tax cut is substantially different.