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 Education on Feb 16th, 2010
This Inside Higher Ed story claims that an injection of $2.4 billion “saved” public higher education last year – as the recession caused states to reduce funding for public schools by $2.8 billion. The difference was made up for by other fees and student tuition. This is a really tiring story. How come the private [...]
Posted in Education on Feb 15th, 2010
In addition to bringing in the era of post-partisanship, our President also promised to look at any and all scientific research to help him in his policy recommendations – especially when it comes to school policy. Add this to the list of research on school competition and choice that will be systematically ignored for the [...]
Posted in Economic Illiteracy, labor markets on Feb 15th, 2010
The following chart depicts Net Job Changes by Firm Size for the Last Six Years. I broke out firm size by those under 50 employees (small), those from 50 to 499 employees (mid-sized) and those over 500 employees (large). Note that the trends are similar for finer increments of the data. Macroeconomic Aggregates: Employment Situation [...]
Posted in Institutions on Feb 14th, 2010
From Mark Perry: The highest paid city government employee of Madison, Wisconsin, last year wasn’t the mayor. It wasn’t the police chief. It wasn’t even the head of Metro Transit. It was bus driver John E. Nelson, says the Wisconsin State Journal. Nelson earned $159,258 in 2009, including $109,892 in overtime and other pay.
Posted in Flotsam and Jetsam on Feb 14th, 2010
A student of mine Jackie Monaghan penned the following: Roses are red, These times have been blue. Yet with self-interest, no dread, To ensure the highest value. From ideas widespread Ideas and technologies brew To remain or get ahead Would require skills anew If rules remain unsaid That invisible hand rings true Uncle Sam has [...]
Posted in Economists on Feb 13th, 2010
It is always a delight to read Bob Fogel’s work. He ends this 2004 paper with the following story: I close with an anecdote from Simon Kuznets. He used to give a one-year course in growth economics both at Johns Hopkins and Harvard. One of the points he made was that if you wanted to [...]
Posted in Economic Illiteracy on Feb 12th, 2010
Arnold Kling talks about something I am very familiar with: from Ed Kilgore, of the Progressive Policy Institute. Certainly, few self-conscious libertarians have much tolerance for racism, but they are encouraging a point of view about “welfare” that has long been catnip to racists. And that’s a problem for liberals. How can an alliance last [...]
Posted in Education on Feb 12th, 2010
The best solution is not always to “just watch it” though there are probably cases where that is necessary. The report bluntly concludes that neither DeFleur and nor Thirer “reacted with sufficient objectivity and self-inquiry when faced with growing concerns from the [America East Conference] and its member institutions regarding the direction of [Binghamton’s] men’s [...]
Posted in Ultimate Resource on Feb 12th, 2010
While many celebrate the life of Abraham Lincoln today, I celebrate the wonderful life of Julian Simon – the economist I have learned the most from, and the one I never heard a thing about in my 4 years as an undergraduate or 5 years as a graduate economic student. Here is an excerpt from [...]
Posted in Government Gone Wild on Feb 11th, 2010
… steal from me over and over and over again, shame on you even more. President Obama sold the $862 billion in stimulus spending as “targeted, timely and temporary.” Critics said that was highly unlikely, and now the 2011 Obama budget has proven them right. To wit, the White House is proposing to convert spending [...]
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