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 Politics on Aug 27th, 2009
I certainly have skeletons in my closet, and in pointing out some of the “flaws” with others does not me I am hallucinating about my own imperfections. But some things must speak for themselves. What follows is the Wikipedia entry for the Chappaquiddick incident. Our campus is flying flags at half-mast today, I wonder if [...]
Posted in trade on Aug 27th, 2009
Ben Hogan set up a golf club company in 1954. Before it had barely produced and sold a single set of clubs a union organizer came to the Ben Hogan Company plant. When the workers called an organization meeting, Hogan spoke first: I understand that all of you fellows want to organize my business here [...]
Posted in Education on Aug 26th, 2009
Todays’ WSJ in a review of NurtureShock: The benefits of teaching tolerance and promoting diversity look equally unimpressive in the current research. According to “NurtureShock,” a lot of well-meaning adult nostrums-”we’re all friends,” “we’re all equal”-pass right over the heads of young children. Attempts to increase racial sensitivity in older students can even lead to [...]
Posted in Corporatism, Price System on Aug 26th, 2009
Here is a question I ask my freshmen economics students: I sometimes feel like the world wishes to live in a “Goldie-Locks Economy.” For example, I often hear complaints about interest rates that are too high (discrimination) AND also about interest rates that are too low (predatory lending); about gas prices that are too high [...]
Posted in Competition, Corporatism on Aug 25th, 2009
My wife and I have two young children. We experience all of the usual pleasantries and unpleasantries that other parents do. However, there is one aspect of parenting that I have come to loathe – the car seat. Why, you might ask, do I have such vitriol inside of me? They are expensive – a [...]
Posted in Corporatism on Aug 24th, 2009
Here is the whole thing. Below is the “top” 20: I honestly do not know what to say. 12 of the top 20 “donors” are unions. The top 20 “spent” nearly $600 million during this time. Part of me is shocked at how … little … this amount is, given the trillions of other people’s [...]
Posted in Education on Aug 24th, 2009
In a recent NBER Working Paper,”The Rug Rat Race,” authors Garey and Valeria A. Ramey find: After three decades of decline, the amount of time spent by parents on childcare in the U.S. began to rise dramatically in the mid-1990s. Moreover, the rise in childcare time was particularly pronounced among college-educated parents. Why would highly [...]
Posted in Environment on Aug 24th, 2009
Admitting such might get me uninvited to some parties locally, but it is true. But what if I told you it gets 64 miles per gallon, and under the right conditions it gets 96 miles per gallon? You’d say I was drinking motor fuel, but I am not lying. We have a growing family – [...]
Posted in Standards of Living on Aug 23rd, 2009
A horrendously painful … kidney stone. Gosh, I wish we could all live the simple life like they did back then.
Posted in You Can't Have it Both Ways on Aug 22nd, 2009
Is it possible to be both worried about overpopulation, and at the same time be horrified by the prospect of global warming?
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