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 Sep 30th, 2011
Crackdown on “criminal” mothers who desperately try to enroll their kids in better schools: An African-American mother of two, Ms. Williams-Bolar last year used her father’s address to enroll her two daughters in a better public school outside of their neighborhood. After spending nine days behind bars charged with grand theft, the single mother was [...]
Posted in Macroeconomics, You Can't Have it Both Ways on Sep 30th, 2011
In a few posts, we’ll begin digging through the evidence on taxation and economic growth. In the meantime, I just wanted to ask if you were familiar with: An Empirical Characterization of the Dynamic Effects of Changes in Government Spending and Taxes on Output? by Blanchard and Perotti? The Macroeconomic Effects of Tax Changes: Estimates [...]
Posted in Classical Liberalism, Taxation, You Can't Have it Both Ways on Sep 30th, 2011
Let’s recall the basic argument we are addressing: the reason the rich should pay more in taxes is that they were only able to earn their income by hiring people that went to (taxpayer funded) public schools, employ people who drove on (taxpayer funded) public roads and otherwise could not do what they do were [...]
Posted in Institutions on Sep 29th, 2011
From Radley Balko, Illinois man put in prison for filming a cop pull him over. Via Owen O., South Korean tax and fine bounty hunters
Posted in Central Planning, Classical Liberalism on Sep 29th, 2011
If I were to list some problems with modern American society and include on that list these items: Excessively large numbers of people relegated to prisons. Many of them are not real criminals, and the prisons are so overcrowded and budgets so tight that states have turned to outsourcing some of the work to private [...]
Posted in Price System, You Can't Have it Both Ways on Sep 28th, 2011
I’ve commonly encountered arguments for regulating various markets that sound like, “well, if you allowed for a market, then the poor wouldn’t be able to afford it.” That’s certainly true. This thought is not about rationing devices and the poor in general, but rather it is asking a simple consistency question. The most common market [...]
Posted in Employment, Government Thuggery on Sep 27th, 2011
My thoughtful lefty friends regularly try to convince me when I suggest that the current Administrative is not exactly “business-friendly” that I am perhaps being too harsh… and whenever I am about to soften a bit and hear more of their arguments, along comes a story like this: The job creation bill that President Obama sent [...]
Posted in You Can't Have it Both Ways, trade on Sep 27th, 2011
Opponents of free-trade like to make claims that, “it is just too hard for people to retrain and adjust to losing jobs” when we allow free trade. I want to comment on a metaphysical aspect of this, not an economic one (though I imagine some of you would like me to point out the basic [...]
Posted in Central Planning, Taxation on Sep 26th, 2011
There’s no point in dancing around it. There is little economic justification for taxing the rich. People are envious of others. People seek ways to lower the status of others and raise the status of themselves (I suppose I do that too, I’m no saint). The reason to tax the rich is because”we” don’t like [...]
Posted in Corporatism, Regulation on Sep 25th, 2011
Gazprom, the Russian oil giant and one of the most profitable corporations in the world is warning Western greens of the dangers of hydrofracking. For those of you not following, fracking is the technology that is allowing the shale-gas revolution to escalate not only in the US but in dozens of countries around the world. [...]
![[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)