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 Unintended Consequences on Oct 2nd, 2009
I have anywhere between 250 and 400 students in my courses each semester. A good number of them (apx 20 students) have documented learning disabilities. Now I have no way of knowing what these disabilities are, for privacy reasons, so I am not able to figure out teaching strategies to help these students do well [...]
Posted in Environment, Unintended Consequences on Sep 3rd, 2009
Yesterday I wrote a little bit about the unintended health costs from the Cash for Clunkers program. Today I want to look on an overlooked environmental cost of the program. In the course of unfettered market activity what you would see is that as gas and oil prices increased, consumers would respond to these higher [...]
Posted in Environment, Regulation, Unintended Consequences on Sep 2nd, 2009
You know, that silly little idea that gave states some autonomy from despotic central government rule? I just read an Oped in the WSJ citing how a (federal) EPA ruling on the Endangered Species Act has had the (yet again) unintended consequence of helping thousands of California farmers into a severe drought. Aside from the [...]
Posted in Unintended Consequences on Sep 2nd, 2009
Many excellent articles have been written demonstrating the nonsense of the cash for clunkers program, so I do not want to reiterate those points here. I would like to ask a simple question. Who is going to be held responsible for the increase in automobile deaths and injuries that might result from such a program? [...]
Posted in Government Gone Wild, Unintended Consequences, Welfare State on Aug 18th, 2009
New York State Governor David Paterson defended a program experiencing fraud on a massive scale by saying tales of increased sales of video game equipment and televisions are just anecdotes. The program allows families who couldn’t otherwise afford back-to-school supplies to equip their children for a new year. However, What’s clear is that the actual [...]
Posted in Unintended Consequences on Aug 13th, 2009
Right. If you ever believed that cash for clunkers was about the environment … well, maybe if they had some sociologists design the program, they would have gotten it right.
Posted in Financial Institutions, Immigration, Regulation, Unintended Consequences on Jun 28th, 2009
New institutions like private stock markets emerge. It will be entertaining to watch the dogs in DC chasing their tails after they institute their new financial institution regulatory overhaul, and when they try to regulate hedge funds, derivatives, money funds and more. A key point from the article: Besides the economy, startup investors say the [...]
Posted in Unintended Consequences on Nov 20th, 2008
The free market is running wild! Girls Gone Wild –> Attractive Girls Union Refuses To Enter Into Talks With Mike Greenman And yes, only the last piece is from the Onion. HT: my friend Ray D.
Posted in Unintended Consequences on Sep 4th, 2008
Suppose, hypothetically of course, that you instruct a class of 175 students. The course is in a room that is 10 degrees warmer than it has any right to be. As expected, some students begin to squirm as the class nears its end (as if I am not interesting enough – imagine that!).
Posted in Unintended Consequences on Aug 9th, 2008
Or should I say Broken Olympic Rings? During last night’s Opening Ceremonies for the 29th Summer Olympic Games, I heard that the Chinese government spent something like $40-$50 billion on the games. The opening ceremony, which was awesome, cost around $100 million.
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