The Unbroken Window

Yes, I know, I surprise myself sometimes. This evening, they excerpted a quote in their usually excellent “Notable and Quotable” feature which includes: But to argue that differences in policy ought to lead us to consider secession is lunacy. It also shows a (presumably) unwitting contempt for America, for its history, and for its role [...]

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I teach a course on Money and Banking, so I try to read some of the modern literature on international financial markets. This paper came across my desk: Fetters of Gold and Paper We describe in this essay why the gold standard and the euro are extreme forms of fixed exchange rates, and how these [...]

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If we paid more attention to the nuances of our everyday lives, we would all be going crazier than we already are. Did you ever go to a restaurant that serves lobster and think carefuly about what the menu is saying? I was at a wonderful Italian place in Newport a few weeks ago when [...]

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Our ethanol follies reduce a ton of carbon for the cost of $754 per ton. In case any of you were wondering what the social costs of CO2 are (i.e. the evil bad horrible negative externalities caused by our voracious capitalistic consumption of fossil fuels and meat) they are somewhere in the $25 to $50 [...]

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“… the Mid-Willamette Valley Community Action Agency in Oregon had claimed to create 205 jobs with its $397,761 in stimulus money — spending less than $2,000 per “new” job.” That was from a very good Greg Mankiw article on economic epistemology (i.e. how do we know that we know anything about economics?). Here’s another one: [...]

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From the AP: Some major health insurance companies will no longer issue certain types of policies for children, an unintended consequence of President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul law, state officials said Friday. Florida Insurance Commissioner Kevin McCarty said several big insurers in his state will stop issuing new policies that cover children individually. Oklahoma [...]

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The government’s recipe for brownies is … 26 pages long. You cannot make this stuff up. The Pentagon’s brownie recipe is 26 pages long. Among the ingredients: water that conforms to the “National Primary Drinking Water Regulations (Copies are available from the Office of Drinking Water, Environmental Protection Agency, WH550D, 401 M Street, S.W., Washington, [...]

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I am becoming increasingly skeptical of the practical usefulness of social science research though I do believe it makes for great fodder for satisfying simple intellectual curiosity. People make excellent careers answering questions such as “why do gays smoke so much” and I begrudge them not, but after doing a good amount of social science [...]

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Chalk up another Maywood resident who approves of this city’s unusual experience in municipal governing. City officials last month fired all of Maywood’s employees and outsourced their jobs. While many communities are fearfully contemplating extensive cuts, Maywood says it is the first city in the nation in the current downturn to take an ax to [...]

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For once in the capitalistic, greed-driven, morally bereft Western world we live in today, a business is standing up for the environment. For once, social consciousness overcomes the evil influence of money to help save our children’s futures. For once, a Gulag is not necessary to compel the tyrants that promote economic anarchy into selfless [...]

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