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 Extended Order, Government Gone Wild, Institutions, Unintended Consequences on May 7th, 2012
Can a good thing be turned into a bad thing. It appears that Americans are responding to the taxes, exhortations, health risks and other anti-smoking efforts and have actually been reducing their smoking at rates faster than experts initially calculated. So what’s the problem? Some of you are old enough to remember the tobacco boondoggle [...]
Posted in Education, Institutions, incentives on Apr 28th, 2012
The average time to degree at Western Governors University is 2.5 years. By the way, when students wish to complete a degree early at my dear college, the college charges them for virtually the entire year’s worth of tuition to do so. Talk about collegiality! Of course, it IS very costly to attract and retain [...]
Posted in Constitution, Government Gone Wild, Institutions on Mar 23rd, 2012
I was going to post a story a friend who runs a local manufacturing company just shared with me about the absurd experience with the EPA he had in his past. It was too depressing, plus I don’t think I can share it without giving away names … I am rewriting it as a piece [...]
Posted in Institutions on Mar 22nd, 2012
Radley Balko shares a thought: Want to guess how many Lower Merion School District Officials did prison time? Not a single one. They weren’t even charged, not even with misdemeanors. And of course the taxpayers, not the spying school officials, paid the settlement. Click through to see the story.
Posted in Institutions on Mar 11th, 2012
Meliocre: / n. or adj. |MEH * lee * oh * kur| A great student of mine has coined a pretty hilarious phrase that is a play on our University’s motto, which is “Meliora.” Here is what Meliora means: Meliora is not just our University’s motto, it’s an ethic that we share as a community, [...]
Posted in Institutions, labor markets on Mar 7th, 2012
Following an example David Friedman used over 30 years ago when he wrote Machinery of Freedom, let’s ask the question of what it would take for all American workers to buy out the oppressive, exploitive, greedy firms that are keeping them down for the benefit of the 1%. The market value of all stocks listed [...]
Posted in Institutions, incentives on Mar 3rd, 2012
For about three years I have had my undergraduate TAs do a lot of my grading. I can write more one day on what I ask of them and why I like them. Over that time period, I have taken samples of about 5% of the things that they grade, and quietly grade them myself [...]
Posted in Institutions on Jan 27th, 2012
My former governor Deval Patrick, in comments in response to Bruins’ goalie Tim Thomas’ refusal to see President Obama, says that “”It just feels like we are losing in this country basic courtesy and grace.” Gee, how to respond to this … I think if Mr. Patrick revisited our history he might be astonished at [...]
Posted in Institutions, incentives on Jan 14th, 2012
I just learned that the large blue books that I use to give essay examinations in cost $1.00 each! They’re 12 pages (6 sheets) of lined 8.5″ by 11″ paper. If you asked me what I thought they cost I probably would have said 10 cents each. I use somewhere between 300 and 500 of [...]
Posted in Education, Environment, Institutions on Dec 26th, 2011
If only it was $11,500 we were talking about. At the same time as our university installed the Solar-Dok, it broke ground on a new student dormitory. This time the stakes are a little bit higher – the dorm is slated to cost $17 million. How is this relevant, don’t we need to build dorms to [...]
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