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 Money, Regulation on Sep 30th, 2010
Newly appointed (if that is what you can call it) CFPB czar Elizabeth Warren in her own words: It has the power to get rid of old ones that are outdated, expensive or don’t work. OK folks. Place your bets. How many old regulations will be removed in the next two years?
Posted in Classical Liberalism on Sep 30th, 2010
Have you ever noticed the way public policy organizations, think tanks and educational establishments advertise for their programs? I have an IHS mailing that is very honest and open about what it is doing. In one of the mailings I have for various positions it is seeking to fill it advertises: “Advance liberty” “Advance free [...]
Posted in You Can't Have it Both Ways on Sep 29th, 2010
… then at least break all of them equally. After having taught basic economic principles for 5 years now, and given the title of the post, I am finally starting to understand the difficulty students (and others) have with the concept of opportunity cost in its various manifestations. The most recent example surrounds the heretical [...]
Posted in Environment on Sep 28th, 2010
What if I asked you whether you supported the idea of oil companies drilling in “pristine wilderness?” What if I continued and added that this wilderness was characterized by brutal climatic conditions that made it nearly inhospitable for man to live in? Many of you probably have Alaska’s brutal North Slope in mind and probably [...]
Posted in Health Care on Sep 27th, 2010
Kate Sebellius in today’s Wall Street Journal in response to attacks (justified in my view) on her for massively violating the rule of law: In the mid-1960s, for example, some claimed Medicare would put our country on the path to socialism. Well, I wasn’t around in the 60s, but does the evidence on Medicare raising [...]
Posted in Behavior, Flotsam and Jetsam on Sep 27th, 2010
As my regular readers know, I often venture into the realm of being removed from polite society because of some of the beliefs I hold, and some of the ideas that bounce around my head. Perhaps the strongest of these ideas is that I cannot understand why soldiers, police officers and fire fighters are deserving [...]
Posted in Flotsam and Jetsam on Sep 26th, 2010
I remember seeing other black and white videos when I was a schoolkid which included things like how to walk a girl to the door … I need to find those. In any case this is funny: HT: Matt L.
Posted in Government Gone Wild on Sep 24th, 2010
Not even in the lead headlines, I find tucked away in my RSS reader: “US Bails Out Major Credit Unions” Well, it is only $30 billion. Just to put that number in perspective, if you take some estimates seriously, it would seem to take only about $75 billion in total to largely eradicate malaria around [...]
Posted in Extended Order, Methodology on Sep 24th, 2010
A while ago I linked to a few stories highlighting some miserable failures in urban planning in Cleveland and Pittsfield. I received several e-mails asking things like, “propose something better” and “should we let them all die?” Without discussing either of those (I will soon) allow me to make a methodological argument about the problem [...]
Posted in Entrepreneurs, Price System on Sep 23rd, 2010
Oops, wrong again. Blockbuster Inc., once the dominant movie rental company in the U.S., filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Thursday, reeling from mounting losses, rising debt and competitors that have better catered to Americans’ changed media habits. What? I thought companies told people how to consume? I thought we were powerless to choose? [...]
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