The Unbroken Window

I usually hate infographics and here is another one just littered with reasons to go crazy. But focus only on the very bottom: The changes Brill suggests would allow the US to provide better care at lower costs without substituting the kind of government-provider system typical in comparison countries. Holy smokes. This is the previous [...]

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(1) Sierra Club to promote “peaceful civil disobedience.” That’s beyond oxymoron. If they promote steps to prevent legitimate business to operate, it ain’t peaceful. If you got past the title of the press release, you probably should have stopped once you read this nonsense (i.e. go check out the science on this stuff, dear bastions [...]

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Lots to chew on in Mark Goldman’s excellent history of Buffalo in City on the Edge. my favorite parts thus far include learning about the many ethnic neighborhoods that attracted Poles, Italians, and Jewish immigrants to work in the mills, factories, etc. There was even a famous Rizzo from Palermo (my dad’s family is from [...]

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A few short thoughts today: 1. My taxes increased between $1,000 and $2,000 today. How about yours? 2. If you do not have children, ought you have any legitimate input on climate change policy? 3. Within 10 years, the modern environmental movement will … (Insert your favorite prediction there)

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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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A popular sentiment regarding health care is that unlike other goods, we simply cannot tolerate differences in consumption based on income differences. Having a rich guy with a 90-inch plasma TV as compared to a poor guy suffering with a 36″ cathode-ray tube TV is not nearly as intolerable as the idea that if both [...]

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It is almost tautological that people who create value by being particularly successful in markets will be treated as parasites who prey on unwitting customers, exploit unwitting workers and otherwise use mischievous means to get where they are. Indeed, watching any of Michael Moore’s films (which counts as economics in high school economics courses) will [...]

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Today I reprint a piece I put together several years ago. Happy Thanksgiving to all. Four centuries after the celebration of the first Thanksgiving, there is still widespread disagreement about the reason for the Pilgrims’ feast. But whether it was a harvest festival, a strictly religious observance, or a thank you to the local Wampanoag [...]

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I’m off to class, but a few quick things that will surely have people stop inviting you to their holiday afterparties this year: It’s likely that the main beneficiaries of “Veterans’ Day” and other ways we celebrate Veterans are not the Veterans at all. It is almost surely the government itself (on many dimensions). The [...]

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Well, imagine my pleasure at opening my Saturday morning Grist readings a few weeks ago to find the following proclamation: “Frankenstorm: God’s Latest Warning.” Perhaps this weather scare that may well be much more than just a scare is God’s revenge for the refusal of the U.S. government to take action on the climate crisis. Or [...]

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