The curious task of economics is to demonstrate to men how little they really know about what they imagine they can design. - F.A. Hayek
Posted in You Can't Have it Both Ways on Dec 30th, 2007
From Becker and Posner:
the most sophisticated banks and investment companies, including Merrill Lynch, Citibank, and Morgan Stanley, have written down their housing investments by billions of dollars. No one can reasonably claim that these banks lacked the skills and knowledge to evaluate all the terms of, or the likelihood of repayment, on the subprime […]
Posted in Economics Problems on Dec 27th, 2007
One of the reasons government seems to be encroaching upon more and more areas of our private lives (trans-fats, car safety, etc.) is that statists and technocrats have embraced economics! For someone who aspires to be an economic educator this is an odd thing to believe, no? Well, sort of. Like the old proverb says, […]
Posted in Classical Liberalism on Dec 25th, 2007
None comes into the world with a saddle on his back, neither does one come booted and spurred to ride him.
Merry Christmas all.
Posted in Economic Illiteracy on Dec 21st, 2007
As I was baking cookies last night and watching the San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl, a commercial came on from one of the many businesses in the Berkshires that tries to appeal to the do-gooder, environmentalist customers in this part of the world. I can’t blame the business for what I heard, because […]
Posted in Extended Order on Dec 20th, 2007
The private sector made a lot of mistakes in mortgage lending in recent years. In theory, a wise, farsighted government regulator could have meddled two years ago to make things better. But stupid, hindsighted government meddling now will just make things worse.
That was Arnold Kling. And that comment need not be reserved for the mortgage […]
Posted in Government Thuggery, Socialism on Dec 19th, 2007
Time selects Putin as Person of the Year for “extraordinary leadership” and “bringing stability.” You can’t make this stuff up. This is NOT, I repeat, NOT, a headline from the Onion.
Posted in Politics, You Can't Have it Both Ways on Dec 18th, 2007
Presidential candidates are likely to gain lots of popular votes with a class-warfare rhetoric which include proposals to increase taxes only on the richest in society (about $200,000 of income per year). But, these same candidates when in Congress and the Senate simply cannot help but lavishing billions of dollars on tax payers making far […]
Posted in Taxation on Dec 16th, 2007
Conventional wisdom has it that the average worker is being woefully exploited by her capitalist employers. Labor economic analysis aside here, is it in the interest of typical workers to have government mandate higher wages and benefits to be paid by employers and to secure all manner of regulations which on their face works in […]
Posted in Flotsam and Jetsam on Dec 14th, 2007
I have written elsewhere about the climate change debate:
With so many people currently suffering around the world from malnutrition, disease, and other effects of immiserating poverty, and with so many important issues on the table in the developed nations, readers might question why climate change is such a concern for the UN and member governments.
Robert […]
Posted in Macroeconomics on Dec 12th, 2007
Read more here.
Will we ever learn who ends up with the funds?
How will we be assured that this is temporary liquidity? In other words, the Fed needs to take this money back.
Where is the line between bank recapitalization and temporary liquidity injections?
My take - an overhyped mortgage crisis is going to be managed into a […]
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