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 Competition on Aug 21st, 2009
Curt Sampson’s biography of legendary golfer Ben Hogan is choc full of economics: After 40 years in Dublin, the Hogans left the town in June 1921 for Fort Worth. It is uncertain if the Hogan children had ever been to the big city before, although Cowtown had a new attraction that was drawing people from [...]
Posted in Behavior, Health Care, Politics on Aug 20th, 2009
Here is Don Boudreaux on the criticism of “over-reaction” to health care reform: Paul Krugman believes that only irrational right-wing ideologues – along with paid agents of a mysterious cabal of sinister billionaires – could possibly worry that Obamacare threatens ordinary Americans’ freedoms, finances, and health (“Republican Death Trip,” Aug. 14). But while many Obamacare [...]
Posted in Education on Aug 19th, 2009
This Inside Higher Ed piece describes how the University of Southern Mississippi decided to shut down its economics department, it was not productive: Much of the justification for eliminating the economics department was tied to student demand. An outline of the plan drafted by the committee notes that the program has “less than five graduates [...]
Posted in Government Gone Wild, Unintended Consequences, Welfare State on Aug 18th, 2009
New York State Governor David Paterson defended a program experiencing fraud on a massive scale by saying tales of increased sales of video game equipment and televisions are just anecdotes. The program allows families who couldn’t otherwise afford back-to-school supplies to equip their children for a new year. However, What’s clear is that the actual [...]
Posted in Standards of Living on Aug 17th, 2009
Coming into to work this morning I was overwhelmed by the following thought: how much of what I was taking part in during the commute could I actually have done and enjoyed if I had to produce it myself? The answer should be obvious, but in case it is not, let me remind you what [...]
Posted in Education, Price System on Aug 15th, 2009
For one very good school that I am working with right now, with a Freshmen class of approximately 500 students, in the last two years, they have had roughly 25 “full-pay” students each year matriculate in the fall. In other words, roughly five percent of the enrolled students at an elite college pay the full [...]
Posted in Health Care on Aug 14th, 2009
Apparently it used to happen. My apologies, I do not recall where this image came from, but will post a link when I find it.
Posted in Economic Illiteracy on Aug 13th, 2009
In what could be the most awful thing I have read about the social sciences in over a decade, the sociologists display their utter contempt for economists in this Inside Higher Ed piece: “the same old cast of characters,” and that means economists. On this point I agree. There should be no economists in Washington, [...]
Posted in Unintended Consequences on Aug 13th, 2009
Right. If you ever believed that cash for clunkers was about the environment … well, maybe if they had some sociologists design the program, they would have gotten it right.
Posted in Taxation on Aug 13th, 2009
I would have offered a proposal very near to what Charles Murray does. Don’t change the tax code. Don’t promise anything. Rather, just end withholding and have workers pay their income taxes just like they pay their cable bills, cell phone bills, and every other bill they are used to paying. What could you possibly [...]
![[Most Recent Quotes from www.kitco.com]](http://www.kitconet.com/charts/metals/gold/t24_au_en_usoz_2.gif)
![[Most Recent Quotes from www.kitco.com]](http://www.kitconet.com/charts/metals/silver/t24_ag_en_usoz_2.gif)