Morning roundup

• William Watson gives thanks for capitalism. Why is dedication in any field other than business esteemed while dedication in business is vilified?


• Money substitutes in Iraq (HT: NotPC)


• Canada's National Post comes out in favour of legalizing prostitution


• The RBNZ does very well in currency trading operations, having sold lots of foreign reserves when the NZ dollar was at its trough. Dividend cheque to the government: $630 million. Recall that NZ is about 1/100 the size of the US: this would be roughly equivalent to the Fed providing a half a trillion dollar return to Congress.