The Unbroken Window

I am sure many bytes are being “spilled” to analyze and comment on Krugman’s latest outburst or peacocking or whatever you wish to call it. Read the comments. Remember that all of those folks think you should get into the community hot-tub with them. A few points: Remember what I said about Woody Going Straight [...]

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What can the economics of altruism inform us about why we might hold particular political beliefs? Lots, I think. Let’s assume for simplicity that altruism is an act or emotion that provides no benefit to oneself and which redounds exclusively to someone else. Some may go so far as to suggest that true altruism must [...]

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I was listening to the radio on the way in when a caller chimed in to discuss last November’s cancellation of the NYC Marathon. The caller indicated that the reason Bloomberg was going to “let the show go on” even as the rest of New York suffered without power and fuel and heat, is because [...]

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“Markets corrode moral character and capitalism is to blame.” This was the message in well over 10% of the final essays I assigned for my intro Econ class. This is only noteworthy because my assignment simply asked students to peruse the news over the last six months for something that is interesting to them and [...]

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Earlier this Spring we examined how one aspect of our tax code (our current debates are like two people fighting over the last egg salad sandwich on the titanic) is anti-family and anti-women. For all of the rhetoric we hear out there about “equal pay for equal work” the idea that you can ever achieve [...]

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I am sure you folks are familiar with the claim that “markets are prone to monopolies.” Let’s just take that as given and accept the conclusion that this requires considerable government interference in the course of voluntary transactions. The data are not very clear that this is, indeed, what happens. Take a look at the [...]

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Just as the consensus on homeopathic medicinal techniques has found them to be little more than quackery, so too should the brand of economics that is regularly practiced that I shall call Homeopathic Economics. Homeopathic medicinal techniques generally take substances that are known to cause diseases in healthy people, and repeatedly diluting them to create [...]

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Economists may seem puzzled by an obvious paradox. Economics is among the most popular majors on college campuses; on many campuses it is the largest major (it is either the largest or second largest at my current place of employment). Very few people seem to “get” economics. Point 2 requires some elaboration. It’s not just [...]

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Ezra Klein’s blog is typically very good. But this piece is terrible, pardon my French. It basically shows that people who defaulted on their mortgages today are not quickly getting new mortgages and buying houses, and among the reasons are that they don’t have money for a down payment. The author claims this is not [...]

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If you watched the debate you are aware that the bailout of the American automobile industry is seen as a badge of honor, a sign of economic rectitude, evidence of leadership and so on. Ignore the fact that pointing to the “success” of the auto-bailouts is akin to celebrating the rock-tossing boy in Bastiat’s famous [...]

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