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 Price System, Property Rights on May 21st, 2012
I really enjoy watching Deadliest Catch on the Discovery Channel. The show tracks a half-dozen major fishing boats as they journey around the Bering Sea exploring for crab during various seasons. The upcoming “Opie” season is among the most treacherous – there are only short time-spans when the crab-fishing season runs (we should blog that [...]
Posted in Health Care, Market Failures, Price System, You Can't Have it Both Ways on Apr 24th, 2012
The query in the title suggests an epic post, but we’ll keep it simple today. Let me ask folks what they think of a policy proposal that does the following: Examines the entrepreneurial ability, dynamism, job creating tendencies, etc. of companies and puts companies into two groups: dynamic/productive and stagnant/destructive. Takes the dynamic companies and [...]
Posted in Education, Price System on Apr 19th, 2012
Free, high quality education for all, right?
Posted in Economic Illiteracy, Price System, You Can't Have it Both Ways on Apr 17th, 2012
On my drive to school yesterday I saw a person outside the gas station on my way to the I-490 giving away/selling? bumper stickers. Among the panoply of choices included a “Romney-Gekko 2012″ selection, another touting, “The Problem is Corporate Greed,” and another touting, “Oil Speculators Raise Gas by 60%,” and another, “Your Need to [...]
Posted in Economic Illiteracy, Price System, You Can't Have it Both Ways on Apr 3rd, 2012
On my drive into work this morning I heard several soundbites from folks in the current Obama Administration, including from the Central Planner himself, to the effect that, “Drill Baby Drill is stupid. Increasing the supply of oil will not have an impact on gas prices.” Now, I won’t yet paint this as the stupidest [...]
Posted in Macroeconomics, Price System, You Can't Have it Both Ways on Mar 22nd, 2012
The foundation of modern macroeconomic theory (yes theory, the empirical work is scant) is based on the idea that prices (nominal) are sticky. Simplifying greatly, if you adhere to a classical view of the world where all agents have perfect information (no good economist assumes this of course, but it makes a nice straw man [...]
Posted in Price System on Mar 7th, 2012
For reposting this (I suppose). I think some people are coming for your head (or your other appendages) people on Facebook are talking of printing fliers? just thought i would lets that fly out there. In other news (for which I am sure they’ll come after me for): GreenSpace works in conjunction with University Facilities and [...]
Posted in Health Care, Price System, You Can't Have it Both Ways on Mar 5th, 2012
When you hear that the “US” spends approximately 18% of her GDP on health care, and that this figure has doubled in the past 30 years, and that the US experience is special insofar as expenditure increases here are larger than just about anywhere on earth, particularly when you learn that US health outcomes are [...]
Posted in Environment, Price System on Jan 27th, 2012
That’s my name for the theory that proponents of natural capital accounting use about how economics works. In a recent paper discussing the value of natural environmental amenities and how free-markets are totally predisposed to reducing these stocks to zero over time, the following argument come up twice. It is that when market priced goods [...]
Posted in Price System on Jan 13th, 2012
Here is a piece from today’s journal on the Death of Kodak: The population of Rochester, N.Y., peaked in 1950 at 330,000 … in a small city like Rochester, whose population is now at 210,000 plus. … If Kodak’s looming bankruptcy closes the book on this storied company, much will be written about the company’s [...]
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