Now that a bunch of polling shows Donald Trump on the move in the prospective 2012 presidential contest, there's beginning to be some more substantial scrutiny of what it is that he's proposing (kudos to Dave Weigel for taking the time to read The Donald's book, something no one else, including yours truly, seemed to be arsed to do).

The Club for Growth has emerged as a non-fan (surprise!)-- Matt Lewis titles his post on this "Club for Growth: Trump is a liberal."

And now CNN has a piece up titled "How 'The Donald' could incite a trade war."

Donald Trump's call for a 25% tariff on Chinese goods is winning him a lot of attention as he weighs a presidential run in 2012.

But Trump seems to be overlooking the consequences that his economic policy would likely trigger -- a destructive trade war and higher prices, according to some experts.

[...]

Most economists would agree with Trump's logic that China is holding down the value of its currency to give its manufacturers an advantage when selling goods to the U.S.

But most experts argue that tariffs are the wrong response to currency manipulation, and come with steep costs.

The piece goes on to talk in more specificity about trade wars and how prices would rise and-- all importantly since lots of voters remain concerned about jobs-- how slapping tariffs on China would not serve to bring jobs back. And if you're someone to whom this idea has had some appeal, you should go read it because by just about any standard going, this is a phenomenally ridiculous idea that should be, uh, FIRED....

This may be the stupidest thing I've read today, and since my job requires me to pay attention to a lot of weird and crazy shit posted on the internet, that's saying something:

Republicans have called for less permits and regulations in 2011, but on Wednesday a proposal for a new regulation was passed unanimously by a Senate panel that would require the homeless to have a permit to panhandle.

SB 1180 is an expansive transportation bill that includes numerous items, from giving theFlorida Passenger Rail Commission all authority to monitor funding for Florida passenger rail, to no longer requiring the Department of Transportation to be responsible for lowering the amount of pollutants that enter transportation stormwater facilities.

The bill passed the Budget Subcommittee on Transportation, Tourism, and Economic Development Appropriations by a 15-0 vote. But one part of the bill that came under fire on Wednesday would require a permit to panhandle and would authorize fines for people who don’t have one and fraudulently panhandle. Local governments, however, would be able to opt out by a majority vote.

Sen. Jack Latvala, R-St. Petersburg and whose district has had an ongoing battle in dealing with panhandling, said the proposal is not meant to hurt the homeless. He said it is an attempt to go after those people who lie and are in fact financially stable, but choose to panhandle.

“If you say that you’re pregnant, you better be,” said Latvala. “If you say you’re homeless, you need to be. If you say you are a veteran, you darn well should have been.”...

Or not, as the case may be:

Hoping to sidestep new financial regulations that could have forced it to raise billions in new capital, Deutsche Bank AG is planning to restructure its U.S. operations, which would allow it to operate with a thinner capital cushion than the new rules envisioned.

Executives of the German Bank had worried it would have to put up as much as $20 billion in new capital to offset losses in its U.S. unit that have left it undercapitalized, according to an internal company document reviewed by The Wall Street Journal. Such a capital injection could have hurt Deutsche's own capital levels at a time when European banks are undergoing "stress tests" to determine if they have sufficient capital.

The corporate shift involves Deutsche's main U.S. subsidiary, known as Taunus Corp. The entity, named for a mountain range outside of Frankfurt, where the bank is based, is one of the largest bank-holding companies in the U.S., with $373 billion in assets. It houses Deutsche's two main U.S. businesses: an investment bank and capital-markets arm, and a banking unit with about $18 billion in deposits. Both of those operating units are well-capitalized under U.S. law.

But Taunus has a third leg, a collection of scores of other holding companies that racked up losses during the financial crisis. The result is that, as of Dec. 31, Taunus's Tier 1 leverage ratio, a primary gauge of its financial health, stood at negative 1.3%. That is lower than virtually all of its peers, which generally are required to keep their ratios at 4% in order to be considered well-capitalized, according to Federal Reserve data....