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 Methodology, Money on Jul 26th, 2010
I teach a course on Money and Banking, so I try to read some of the modern literature on international financial markets. This paper came across my desk:
Fetters of Gold and Paper
We describe in this essay why the gold standard and the euro are extreme forms of fixed exchange rates, and how these policies had [...]
Posted in Economics Problems, Methodology on Jul 24th, 2010
“… the Mid-Willamette Valley Community Action Agency in Oregon had claimed to create 205 jobs with its $397,761 in stimulus money — spending less than $2,000 per “new” job.”
That was from a very good Greg Mankiw article on economic epistemology (i.e. how do we know that we know anything about economics?). Here’s another one:
“… A [...]
Posted in Methodology on Mar 4th, 2010
New study finds that weakening undersea Artic permafrost is allow substantial amounts of methane to seep into the atmosphere. Read about it here. This could possibly make global warming a much more serious problem, as methane is a much more potent greenhouse gas. So what I am about to say has nothing at all to [...]
Posted in Methodology on Dec 14th, 2009
Climate scientist Al Gore tells us that Artic Ice soon to vanish in summer. So what? Won’t that make shipping goods easier and have us consume less fossil fuels getting goods from East to West?
I love this quote at the end:
Jensen said the biggest ice sheets – Greenland and West Antarctica – were already contributing [...]
Posted in Methodology on Nov 18th, 2009
Some of my favorites:
3. In the 18th century, when virtually all bread was baked in the home, the average life expectancy was less than 50 years; infant mortality rates were unacceptably high; many women died in childbirth; and diseases such as typhoid, yellow fever, and influenza ravaged whole nations.
96.9% of all Communist sympathizers have eaten [...]
Posted in Methodology on Oct 30th, 2009
Read all about it here … but really here.
Posted in Methodology on Oct 11th, 2009
I used to be “warmer” to the idea that climate change is a serious problem. That was, until the folks started intentionally exagerrating claims in order to “get our attention” and to want to spend 5o times more funds to prevent change than even the worst case damage scenarios portray. But when these sorts of [...]
Posted in Methodology on Oct 30th, 2008
The beautiful thing about the blog-world is that anyone can now witness what has been happening at lunch tables all across American institutions of higher education for decades. No need to get a PhD, or to by a soggy tuna salad sandwich to partake.
Posted in Methodology on Feb 10th, 2008
If you’re single and yearn to live in a city with lots of other single people, Money magazine’s data suggests moving to Bloomington, Indiana, where 58.2% of the population is unattached.
Read the rest here.
If you observe that every time you wake up with a headache that you have your shoes on from the night [...]
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