More Wednesday Morning Links

One running shoe in the grave: new studies on older endurance athletes suggest the fittest reap few health benefits, WSJ. I'll be back in a minute. Going to get another doughnut.

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Okay, I'm back.

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Two-thirds of Britain's millionaires left to avoid 50% tax rate: hey, you have to have millionaires if you're going to tax millionaires, The Telegraph. 

Everyone WILL pay taxes -- in Cuba -- CNBC. Fidel's Cuba: epic fail.

The government's free market reforms introduced over the last two years, are designed to encourage small businesses, private farming and individual initiative, along with plans to pay state workers more. Under the new tax code the state hopes to get its share of the proceeds.

The government also envisions replacing subsidies for all with targeted welfare, meaning that the largely tax-free life under a paternalistic government is on its way out.

"This radically changes the state's relationship with the population and taxes become an irritating issue," said Domingo Amuchastegui, a former Cuban intelligence analyst who lives in Miami and writes often about Cuba.

The new code covers 19 taxes, including such things as inheritance, environment, sales, transportation and farm land, various license fees and three contributions, including social security.

The landmark regulations will change the relations of Cubans with their government and are a signal that market-oriented reforms, launched since President Raul Castro succeeded his brother, Fidel Castro, in 2008, are here to stay.

Traders stalk a rally for US corn, WSJ. 

Huge: Iowa fields attract Google, WSJ.

Add another log on the fire: front page story in today's WSJ: federal student lending swells.

Nearly all student loans—93% of them last year—are made directly by the government, which asks little or nothing about borrowers' ability to repay, or about what sort of education they intend to pursue.  [And Dodd-Frank suggests US banks are the problem. Give me a break.]

Payments on 11% of student-loan balances were 90 or more days behind at the end of September, up from 8.9% at the end of June, a rate that now exceeds that for credit cards. Delinquency rates for all other consumer-debt categories fell or were flat.

Put Another Log On The Fire, Tompall Glaser
Heightened alarm over low river, a continuing story, WSJ.

Senator vows to block any Clinton successor at SecState, WSJ. This is going to get fun.

The media choke on a Twinkie: why it has been so hard to hear what the bakery union is saying, WSJ.

A mandate to raise food prices: the cause of higher grocery bills isn't the drought. It's the federal ethanol policy, WSJ.  Cue up Connie Francis.

Obama vetoes a carbon tax, WSJ.

The feds blame the states for refusing to become ObamaCare subsidiaries, WSJ.

Tax wealth, not income. This is not going to happen; it's a throwaway article at  Yahoo's Daily Ticker, but it helps explain why Warren Buffett talks so much about taxing income; he doesn't want the talk to stray into his biggest concern: taxing wealth.