Plethora at WSJ Today

Lots of juicy stuff on the WSJ's Op-Ed page today.  First, Rich Kaalgaard pens a great piece about Wal-Mart's problems, and America's.  Wal-Mart is suffering because low-income America is suffering, after four years of Obama.  Funny that.  Incidentally Kaalgaard references gas prices as an anti-stimulant to the economy.  I covered gas prices as a stimulant way back in 2008 .  The process works in reverse too, as it is doing now.

Next up is the WSJ is an Op-Ed from the best/most important economist you've never heard of, Hernando de Soto.  I've referenced him here on this blog a couple of times.

Finally we get a boring subject made interesting by the offbeat perspective and brilliant word-smithing of Holman Jenkins.  Check out this sentence.

Though racing has grown in popularity around the world and sponsor dollars seem to be available in profusion, nobody anywhere has yet revealed an urge to replicate Nascar's serendipitous, crowd-pleasing and Faustian invention of aerodynamic pack racing.

Who today in a large circulation paper is treating their readers to writing like that?  Nobody I can think of.

As a bonus, in the news pages we are treated to the revelation that California is bracing for an energy crisis because...wait for it...they've come to rely too much on wind and solar for their electricity supply.  Delicious stuff.

However, the surplus generating capacity doesn't guarantee steady power flow. Even though California has a lot of plants, it doesn't have the right mix: Many of the solar and wind sources added in recent years have actually made the system more fragile, because they provide power intermittently.

Laugh or cry, your choice.