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 Economic Illiteracy, Politics on May 12th, 2008
I was alerted to recent comments by Senator Clinton that seem to demean folks like me:
Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Clinton on Sunday dismissed the “elite opinion” of economists who criticized her gas tax proposal…”I’m not going to put my lot in with economists,” Clinton said when asked to name an economist who backed her proposal.
“We’ve […]
Posted in Politics on May 9th, 2008
All politics stink. Even democracy stinks. Imagine if our clothes were selected by the majority of shoppers, which would be teenage girls. I’d be standing here with my bellybutton exposed. Imagine deciding the dinner menu by family secret ballot. I’ve got three kids and three dogs in my family. We’d be eating Froot Loops and […]
Posted in Politics, Standards of Living, You Can't Have it Both Ways on Apr 7th, 2008
A recent news story (I link to it at the very end of this post) brings to mind two Journey songs (yes, I was/is a Journey fan), “Anyway you want it,” and “Don’t Stop Believing”. Imagine the reaction if I got on the news today and exclaimed,
Posted in Politics on Mar 11th, 2008
And cows don’t winnie;
And dogs don’t meow;
And penguins don’t ribbit;
And ducks don’t chirp;
And griffens and unicorns?
Our elected officials are real life human beings with all the warts, scars, ugliness (and good stuff too), etc. just like you and me. They are not some super-human, super-loving, do-gooding heros that many people seem to believe they are.
Posted in Politics, You Can't Have it Both Ways on Mar 7th, 2008
The political class in Chicago has now made the city the first and only in America where the cumulative sales tax rate exceeds 10%. That seems an awfully strange thing to do in a city where over 21% of the measured population lives under the poverty line (according to the American Community Survey). One of […]
Posted in Politics on Mar 4th, 2008
This is but one small example of why I highly recommend the book, Super Crunchers, by Ian Ayers. More to come on this excellent book. For now, here is my take on the Democratic primaries.
Today is an important day in the Democratic Presidential Primary season. Barack Obama has won 11 straight primary contests over Hillary […]
Posted in Politics on Feb 17th, 2008
Tyler Cowen’s latest NY Times column, “It’s An Election, Not a Revolution,” is a gem. Here is one of many fine excerpts:
We hear so many superficial messages precisely because most American voters have neither the knowledge nor the commitment to evaluate the pronouncements of politicians on economic issues. It is no accident that the most […]
Posted in Politics on Jan 21st, 2008
It doesn’t hurt to shed a few tears. Here, once again, is Adam Smith in his Theory of Moral Sentiments:
they have little modesty; are often assuming, arrogant, and presumptuous; great admirers of themselves, and great contemners of other people. Though their characters are in general much less correct, and their merit much inferior to that […]
Posted in Politics on Jan 14th, 2008
This from Golf World Magazine,
PGA Tour players can also rest easy knowing their tour has the ear of Capitol Hill. Most of us cannot touch our deferred income - IRA, 401(k) and the like - until we are 59 1/2 years old. But a tax bill passed in October 2004 grants an exemption for a […]
Posted in Politics on Jan 9th, 2008
The desire for power pushes a man to the highest degree of arrogance … to erect his own judgments into the supreme standards of right and wrong … to fancy himself the only wise and worthy man in the commonwealth.
That was from an important book first published in an historic year.
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