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 Health Care on Oct 31st, 2011
Megan McArdle points us to the following chart: Let me ask, which is more dangerous – not having a sufficient density of the population vaccinated against infectious diseases that were responsible for life expectancy being below 50 just 100 years ago, or people drinking coffee? When we have nationalized medicine will such situations be allowed [...]
Posted in Regulation on Oct 31st, 2011
You cannot order Dunkin’ Donuts coffee online in California. It all goes back to the 2002 discovery by Swedish scientists that acrylamide, a chemical that in large doses has been shown to cause cancer in mice and neurological damage to humans, is present in coffee – – as well as in many other products, including [...]
Posted in Health Care, Welfare State, You Can't Have it Both Ways on Oct 31st, 2011
John Goodman with a typically astute observation on the double standard that applies to health policy: Arizona…plans to limit adult Medicaid recipients to 25 days of hospital coverage a year, starting as soon as the end of October. Hawaii plans to cut Medicaid coverage to 10 days a year in April. Other states have already [...]
Posted in Voluntary Society, You Can't Have it Both Ways, ethical foundations on Oct 31st, 2011
I am perhaps among the economists who wields a heavy bludgeon of, “as compared to what” any time I see a proposal that “we” ought to do something, or some paper analyzing the desirability of some program. You might criticize me for that, but I am happy to take the criticism as compared to being [...]
Posted in Methodology on Oct 29th, 2011
I was at a talk the other day on sustainability. During that talk the speaker used the term (B)leading edge of technology. It’s clever. I had not come across it before. Stay tuned for a post next week to illustrate why I think that term is coming into popular use. The context in which it [...]
Posted in Central Planning, Market Failures, Price System, Property Rights, You Can't Have it Both Ways on Oct 28th, 2011
Among the avalanche of policies that has been enacted in the name of igniting a green economic revolution (taxes, subsidies, loan guarantees, tariffs, …) include mandates for use of particular technologies. Good economists will understand the basic problem with mandates (they are a classic input standard, which is theoretically and empirically inferior to output standard [...]
Posted in Price System, Ultimate Resource on Oct 27th, 2011
I was walking around a local market not too long ago and overheard someone speaking about he virtues of “fresh food” and in particular the food that goes “from farm to table” – you know, the stuff grown locally and then eaten in season. I hate that I have to preface everything I say with [...]
Posted in Socialism on Oct 26th, 2011
My friend John B. should really have his own blog! After we’ve taken care of their wealth, to keep the nation happy and prosperous we should pass a law making it illegal for there to be a wealthiest 1 percent — this country should just be the normal 99 percent. Sure, that isn’t mathematically possible, but [...]
Posted in Flotsam and Jetsam on Oct 26th, 2011
Some of you may remember this commercial: Now, I was watching a show this weekend when I saw the latest from Audi, talking about how America’s infrastructure is crumbling so that you should buy an Audi which has the unique ability to handle it. Would have been nice if they put up this chart. Note [...]
Posted in Environment on Oct 25th, 2011
Windmills, famous now for chopping up bats and birds, seem to pose … an oil spill threat! (note, I think the bird chopping is overblown … cats kill orders of magnitude more birds and I don’t see any movement to ban outdoor cats taking shape). Here, from the Alliance to Protect Nantucket Sound: In addition [...]
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