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 Economics Problems on Dec 5th, 2008
I guess economics is no longer about economics. Needless to say, I did not sign it. Need I remind my “colleagues” that raising taxes is exactly what FDR did during the Depression – largely negating any stimulative effect of spending. When my head stops spinning, perhaps I’ll respond line by line to this. The “Federal” [...]
Posted in Flotsam and Jetsam, Fun Facts on Dec 5th, 2008
According to the survey for public participation in the arts, among which of the following activities do you think Americans were most likely to be engaged in the previous 12 months?
Posted in Education, Government Gone Wild on Dec 4th, 2008
Demonstrating of course that the goal of public education is to educate the public… The June 28, 1998, New York Times reported that 56 percent of Massachusetts’ up-and-coming teachers failed their basic test in reading and writing. This result means that well over half of Massachusetts’ freshly minted college graduates with degrees in education cannot [...]
Posted in Classical Liberalism on Dec 4th, 2008
You find me a criticism of capitalism that does not devolve into a criticism of something that is NOT capitalism, or simply not true. My penalty for such a discovery? I’ll continue my series on “being nice to government” as much as it pains me to do so. I am confident I won’t be having [...]
Posted in Standards of Living on Dec 3rd, 2008
I am sure people will still not get the message from it.
Posted in Macroeconomics on Dec 3rd, 2008
My colleague who shall remain nameless (he is smarter than me … OK, that eliminates … none of them) and I were talking about the silliness of national income accounting today. In particular, we were talking about a NY Times article that claims for every dollar of US government spending, we would get an additional [...]
Posted in Inflation on Dec 3rd, 2008
A picture series on Zimbabwe’s inflation “problem.” Scroll through the whole series. HT: Balveer Singh
Posted in Regulation on Dec 2nd, 2008
Like the NY Jets, it seems the AP writers cannot bear the thought of success. A day after I praised them for getting some economics right for a change, it is back to the same old stuff. This is what qualifies as groundbreaking review of regulatory documents these days (I am analogizing here …): The [...]
Posted in Corporatism, Environment, Government Gone Wild on Dec 1st, 2008
In Terry Anderson’s “Water Options for a Blue Planet,” he writes of the insanity of federal water subsidies in the American West. Over 90% of the water from Army Corp of Engineers and Bureau of Reclamation projects go to agricultural uses. And all of this water is delivered to favored interests at enormous discounts to [...]
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