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 Government Gone Wild on Jul 19th, 2009
Just looked at the fine print of my car insurance bill from State Farm. Each year, per car, I must pay a $5 “New York Law Enforcement Fee.” I still do not know what it is for. I’d love to see a comprehensive list of all the taxes and fees that governments extract directly or [...]
Posted in Health Care on Jul 19th, 2009
Blame markets for everyone not having formal health insurance For political expediency, make everyone get health insurance Do not allow consumers choice in the types of health insurance they purchase, or where they purchase it from Get input on design of reform from the private insurers, union representatives, and academics who are smarter than you [...]
Posted in Corporatism on Jul 19th, 2009
Goldman Sachs to buy Treasury?
Posted in Regulation on Jul 18th, 2009
I bet the big companies don’t have problems like this. Why is the government in the business of granting permission anyway? Another rhetorical question. This is exactly what you need to do to jumpstart your local economy in the depths of a recession.
Posted in Education on Jul 18th, 2009
The Pope Center sponsored a fun colloquium to discuss the issue. Here is a summary of what we talked about. My thinking about what is “wrong” with higher education has changed dramatically in the last 9 years that I have studied it. In addition to some of the arguments you would find here, I believe [...]
Posted in Taxation on Jul 17th, 2009
I’ll never make anywhere near the income to be “targeted” by the Obama Administration for income tax surcharges. You might say that I should not care about higher taxes on the rich. But somehow, being an employee at an institution that depends on alumni donations and a fully loaded price of $50+ thousand per customer [...]
Posted in ethical foundations on Jul 16th, 2009
Moral and Social Constraints to Strategic Default on Mortgages by Luigi Guiso, Paola Sapienza, Luigi Zingales – #15145 (AP CF) Abstract: We use survey data to study American households’ propensity to default when the value of their mortgage exceeds the value of their house even if they can afford to pay their mortgage (strategic default). [...]
Posted in Health Care on Jul 15th, 2009
Our (then 17 month old) son was having (apparently) an asthma attack back in March. We first brought him into our pediatrician’s office, who treated him with an inhaler and observed him for an hour. Upon not improving much from these treatments, our pediatrician suggested we bring him to the emergency room where he could [...]
Posted in incentives on Jul 14th, 2009
Inspired by my recent trip to the Monroe County DMV: By the way – I got there at 1:15. When I returned at 3:30, the wait was STILL over 2 hours for me, and for the rest of the poor souls who thought to come by leaving work early – they had a 4 hour [...]
Posted in Flotsam and Jetsam on Jul 14th, 2009
In particular, the whole notion of “congestion” really struck me. City planners always talk about fighting congestion, but they always mean traffic on roads (though ironically much of what they do actually increases congestion on roads). But what about pure human to human congestion? As a native of New York City, I was never able [...]
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