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 Economics Problems, You Can't Have it Both Ways on Jan 4th, 2012
One justification for progressive income taxation is that a dollar of additional income to someone earning $600,000 per year in income is not valued nearly as much as a dollar of additional income to someone earning $18,000 per year. I’d like to point out three implications/observations based on this justification. If you use this as [...]
Posted in Economic Illiteracy, Economics Problems, Environment on Dec 29th, 2011
In the year 2000 there were 8,354 oil and petroleum based product spills in US navigable waters. 5 years later? 4,073. In 2008? 3,633. In 2009? 3,492. How much oil has been spilled? 2000: 1.43 million gallons 2005: 2.36 million gallons 2008: 777,000 gallons 2009: 196,000 gallons While 10x less oil spilled in waters since [...]
Posted in Classical Liberalism, Corporatism, Economic Illiteracy, Economics Problems on Dec 8th, 2011
Diligent readers will know that I frequently bang on the idea that we ought to be humble regarding the state of our knowledge and our ability to act on it. But that does not mean, as Hayek correctly pointed out, that economists cannot say anything, about the world. We are well positioned to make what [...]
Posted in Economic Illiteracy, Economics Problems, Politics on Nov 2nd, 2011
In an OpEd in tomorrow’s WSJ, Democratic Senate Candidate Jeff Greene tells us we should listen to the message of OWS folks. I may agree with him, but not when he pulls out the boilerplate arguments: … These policies, and deregulation, created the environment for widespread defaults as well as predatory lending, exotic mortgage derivatives, [...]
Posted in Economic Illiteracy, Economics Problems, Government Gone Wild on Aug 2nd, 2011
Here was Krugman on the pending Fiscal Train Wreck, it is sure to be a crowd pleaser: Now it projects a 10-year deficit of $1.8 trillion. And that’s way too optimistic. The Congressional Budget Office operates under ground rules that force it to wear rose-colored lenses. If you take into account — as the C.B.O. cannot [...]
Posted in Economics Problems, Property Rights on Jul 29th, 2011
I really try to do my best to read Progressive blogs and to stay away from getting near anything resembling an ad-hominem. With that in mind, I reprint in full today’s post from Scott Sumner, who is always well worth reading (of course, after reading him you will realize how utterly bad your macro education [...]
Posted in Classical Liberalism, Economics Problems on Jul 23rd, 2011
Since participating in a year-long seminar on the major works of Hayek I have decided to continue reading some of his less known works. I have been especially intrigued by the more personal of his writings, many of which can be found in the later years of his life. The following is from his speech/essay, [...]
Posted in Economics Problems on Jul 13th, 2011
From the American Economic Association (note: I allowed my membership to expire a few years ago): ALERT: Amendments may be offered to disproportionately reduce funding for the National Science Foundation’s Social, Behavioral, and Economic (SBE) Sciences Directorate when NSF’s 2012 Appropriation is voted on by the full U.S. House of Representatives in August. Although the [...]
Posted in Economics Problems on Jul 2nd, 2011
I must go to our local libraries one or two times a week. It would be more often if I could find the time and manage to wrangle the kids. I’ve done a complete back of the envelope calculation since I’ve moved here two years ago. About 75% of the economics/social science material that is [...]
Posted in Economics Problems, Flotsam and Jetsam on May 11th, 2011
We just completed our finals here at the University of Rochester. It is probably the most frustrating time for me as a Professor. No, it’s not because I do not like grading. It’s probably closer to the opposite — grading finals gives me a terrific chance to see how well our kids write, how well [...]
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