The Sinecure Clause: Alive But Dead

P.S. Huff

Is Hillary Clinton eligible to become President-elect Barack Obama's secretary of state? Strictly speaking, no.

The Sinecure Clause of the Constitution provides that "[n]o Senator or Representative shall, during the Time for which he was elected, be appointed to any civil Office under the Authority of the United States which shall have been created, or the Emoluments whereof shall have been increased during such time" (Article I, § 6). Federal law calls for cost-of-living adjustments (5 U.S.C. § 5318) to the secretary of state's pay, and in January of 2008, President Bush (pursuant to that provision) increased it from $186,600 to $191,300. Because Hillary Clinton was elected in 2006 to another term in the Senate—this one spanning from January 2007 to January 2013—she falls directly within the letter of the Sinecure Clause.

That said, it's hard to imagine Senator Clinton being denied the position. The issue has come up before, only to yield the anti-textual "Saxbe fix," which waves away the objection by lowering the pay to its earlier level. But while that perhaps conforms to the spirit of the Sinecure Clause, the Clause's text is not so forgiving. It does speak, after all, of "any civil Office . . . the Emoluments whereof shall have been increased during [the Time for which he was elected]." We should all cry foul, even knowing full well what difference it will make: none.

My Shrinking Google Books "Collection"

P.S. Huff

Curiously, a number of titles on Google Books have gone from fully viewable to snippet view. Among them are several that I found especially useful for research:

• Thomas Cooley, A Treatise on the Constitutional Limitations Which Rest Upon the Legislative Power of the States of the American Union (1868)
• John Stuart Mill, Principles of Political Economy (W.J. Ashley, ed., 1909)
• William Stickney, ed., Autobiography of Amos Kendall (1872)

So what's going on? My searches haven't turned up any hints; but whatever the case may be, I hope this is only a temporary regression.

Ancient Rome Lives

P.S. Huff

On Google Earth, that is. From BBC News:

Google has added a new twist to its popular 3D map tool, Google Earth, offering millions of users the chance to visit a virtual ancient Rome.

Google has reconstructed the sprawling city - inhabited by more than one million people as long ago as AD320.

Users can zoom around the map to visit the Forum of Julius Caesar, stand in the centre of the Colosseum or swoop over the Basilica.

Researchers behind the project say it adds to five centuries of knowledge.

"This is another step in creating a virtual time machine," said Bernard Frischer of the University of Virginia, which worked with Google on the Roman reconstruction.

I'm not a user, but it looks impressive.

Parody as an ideal?

P.S. Huff

From America's finest news source:



Amusing, to be sure. But it ignores a fundamental law of economics.

Dropping dollar bills into a gigantic hole would be less wasteful than much of government spending. Money, as economists are fond of pointing out, is not wealth. If there's less money chasing the same number of goods, the price level simply falls.

But then, maybe I'm over-analyzing what is, after all, a parody... You decide.

The slippery slope in action

P.S. Huff

Step by step, our nation is moving away from markets, and toward central planning. As Bloomberg.com reports:

U.S. automakers, burning through cash because of tumbling sales, are moving closer to a federal aid package to prevent them from collapsing as politicians rally behind the idea of a bailout.

President-elect Barack Obama's chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, called the industry an "essential" part of the U.S. economy yesterday, a day after the top House and Senate leaders said the $700 billion bank-rescue plan could be tapped to help the companies. Emanuel stopped short of endorsing that idea.

Backing from the new administration and Congress for assistance improves the prospects for action to stem a crisis that threatens to topple General Motors Corp, the biggest U.S. automaker. Still undecided is the size and timing of any aid as GM says it may run out of operating cash this year.

But capitalism is a profit and loss system. The losses are as meaningful and important as the profits; they punish firms for misallocating resources. If U.S. automakers cannot survive on their own, they should not survive at all.