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 Regulation, You Can't Have it Both Ways on May 24th, 2012
I was thinking about getting my kids onto a plane for the first time in my life and two things bugged me. First is what lesson I wanted to teach my children about the role of government as we get strip searched in an airport just because we want to fly to see our cousins. [...]
Posted in Classical Liberalism, You Can't Have it Both Ways on May 23rd, 2012
Dogs are the mother of all externalities producers. Most of the costs they impose on “society” are not in fact borne by the owners of the dogs but by the rest of us. All along the Erie Canal towpath where I like to bike, walk and jog there are more piles of poop than there [...]
Posted in Methodology, Welfare State, You Can't Have it Both Ways, labor markets on May 18th, 2012
We had a senior honors student do a paper on the Social Security Disability program that highlighted the trend in Disability takeup rates over the past 30 years and its impact on the federal budget and long-term budget outlook for the entire Social Security program. Today 1 in 5 social security dollars are paid out [...]
Posted in You Can't Have it Both Ways on May 15th, 2012
I promised yesterday that we would discuss fracking a little more this week. Do you remember a few years ago when Hugo Chavez (yes, THAT Hugo Chavez) came to the rescue of Americans by sending something like 40 million gallons of free-home heating oil to needy Americans during the Winter of 2008? The United States [...]
Posted in Behavior, Environment, Methodology, You Can't Have it Both Ways on May 14th, 2012
Caveat Emptor: I believe the Precautionary Principle is bunk. What is the Precautionary Principle? It’s a doctrine that turns the tables on where the burden of proof in a policy ought to fall (it’s not just an argument, it’s a policy response). I’d suggest that in “typical” discourse and policy, the burden of proof falls [...]
Posted in Behavior, Paternalism, You Can't Have it Both Ways on May 9th, 2012
Another idea that seems to engender bipartisan approval is the passing of legislation to stop addictive behaviors from destroying our lives. The idea here being that even rational decision-makers are incapable now, at the time of choosing to consume something like heroin, of understanding what its current consumption will do to our future selves. Now [...]
Posted in You Can't Have it Both Ways on May 7th, 2012
My job gets more interesting when folks elect Socialists to influential positions. Here is Hollande on the battle awaiting him: “My true adversary in this battle has no name, no face, no party … it is the world of finance.” So I suppose it would be natural to expect the French to retire all of [...]
Posted in You Can't Have it Both Ways on May 2nd, 2012
Anyone from Western, NY can sing the little ditty and I am sure all of you have your own ambulance chasers in your towns. But this is Happy News week, isn’t it? Aren’t these jingles really neat? I cannot stop thinking about ‘em. I still have this one totally stuck in my head from when [...]
Posted in Constitution, You Can't Have it Both Ways on Apr 28th, 2012
Last month the Obama Administration pushed to impose tariffs on solar panels that come from China. So apparently the folks in this Administration actually do think that some other things are more important than Global Warming. Solving the greatest crisis humanity has ever seen is only important if Americans do it, I suppose. Let’s go [...]
Posted in Economic Illiteracy, You Can't Have it Both Ways on Apr 26th, 2012
Recently I was listening to a conversation about unions. As expected very quickly into the conversation someone mentioned that “unionization rates were really high in the mid-20th century” and that this was also a time of unprecedented US economic growth. Well, it certainly was a time of robust economic growth. But why must we regularly [...]
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