TV boss a real doll

Fast Company Now explains just what you get for buying the new Donald Trump talking doll. Its 17 programmed phrases include some that are much more entertaining than the hopelessly tired "You're fired!" Personally, I rather like "Have an ego. There's nothing wrong with ego."

Hm, the standard write-up describing the doll notes that RealScan laser technology was used to produce an "amazing likeness" of Trump. This implies that a perfect digital representation of His Donaldness can now be included among the artifacts that our civilization will leave for posterity. Am I the only one who finds that thought mildly disconcerting?

How the rich show off

The richer are getting richer -- and they're feeling more pressure to show it off, the Wall Street Journal notes:

With the population of millionaires soaring to more than two million in the U.S., the rich are finding it harder to set themselves apart. Many are turning to supersized luxury consumer products to rise above the pack. Today's super-wealthy, and the companies that serve them, are creating a whole new category of high-end products that are priced beyond the reach of mere millionaires.

"High-end products" as in vast estates, watches and cars with six- or seven-figure price tags and luxury yachts like Paul Allen's new Octopus, which reportedly "extends over 400 feet and has a basketball court, music studio and personal submarine."

In fact, the Journal notes, the inflation rate for luxury items hit 7 percent last year -- twice the overall U.S. inflation rate. This trend isn't necessarily new, however, if you look at it in a broad historical context:

Edward N. Wolff, a professor of economics at New York University who studies wealth, likens modern-day big spenders to nobles at the court of France's Louis XIV, who reigned from 1643 to 1715. To ensure the nobles' loyalty, Louis continually raised the "entry price" of being in his court, requiring them to wear increasingly expensive clothes and keep larger and larger homes. The nobles' need for greater wealth made them even more dependent on the king's good graces, and left them less money to spend on arms.

Today, Mr. Wolff says, it's the wealthy themselves who are bidding up the price of being on top. "For the wealthy to keep their status, they have to compete in terms of luxury consumption," Mr. Wolff says. "The mere fact that this group can pay these prices becomes an indicator of social standing."

The Libertarian factor

P-I political reporter Neil Modie takes a look at the complicated role the Libertarian party now plays in state politics. For example, Republicans and Democrats alike think that Libertarian candidate Ruth Bennett played the spoiler in the still-contested governor's race -- but, confounding conventional political wisdom, by siphoning left-wing votes away from Democrat Christine Gregoire.