REWIND: The week gone by: NOTED

Just in case. Can you still claim your child as a dependent if he has been kidnapped? Topic 357 at irs.gov says yes, provided (among other things) “the child had, for the taxable year in which the kidnapping occurred, the same principal place of abode as the taxpayer for more than one-half of the portion of such year before the date of kidnapping.”

You said it. Rhode Islander Douglas Carey tells Congress on credit card reform: “There are many of us in the middle class —- the unemployed —- who may have overstepped our budgets, but although we struggle to make our payments, we make them. Bank of America has come before you asking for help and understanding, with both hands open. … Yet when we the consumers go to these institutions … we get roughed up and receive no compassion.”

Forget GWOT. We must win OCO. The Obama administration apparently is distancing itself from the Bush-era term “Global War on Terror,” The Washington Post reports. The Post cites a recent memo to Pentagon staff saying, “This administration prefers to avoid using the term ‘Long War’ or ‘Global War on Terror.’ Please use ‘Overseas Contingency Operation.’”

Back to basics. From “Grasping Reality With Both Hands,” the blog of Berkeley economist Brad DeLong:

Q: What if markets never recover, the assets are not fundamentally undervalued, and … the government doesn’t make back its money?

A: Then we have worse things to worry about … for we are then in a world in which the only things that have value are bottled water, sewing needles and ammunition.

More cuts. HealthDay.com quotes doctors across the country as saying the number of vasectomies they’re performing is up sharply. Says Dr. Stephen Jones at the Cleveland Clinic: “We were doing 40 to 45 a week, and then it went to 70 to 75 each week. Some patients were concerned about losing their insurance, but it seems to me more of it is the idea of ‘I can’t commit myself to raising another child in uncertain times.’ “

A written proposal. George Mason University economist Peter Leeson came up with a novel dedication for his new nonfiction book “The Invisible Hook: The Hidden Economics of Pirates,” says Publishers Weekly. It says: “Ania, I love you; will you marry me?” Leeson took the newly printed book and a ring to his intended a week ago. She said yes.