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 Politics, You Can't Have it Both Ways on Mar 7th, 2010
The candidates for Mayor in last year’s election in North Adams, MA spent a record amount to secure their position. Here are some questions and thoughts for y’all.
The report indicates that the two candidates, combined, spent $133,468 on the election. This is just the direct money cost. Just think of all the time that each [...]
Posted in You Can't Have it Both Ways on Mar 4th, 2010
During a series of conversations I have had with an acquaintance, I have heard the following two arguments.
The pressures that an increased population is (supposedly) putting on the environment is justification for the government to take measures to reduce population size.
Government has an interest in protecting its citizens on the roads. As a result, there [...]
Posted in You Can't Have it Both Ways on Mar 3rd, 2010
… or if we just had better regulation, the world would be perfect!
Oops, try again. The FAA runs air traffic in the U.S.
Posted in You Can't Have it Both Ways on Feb 26th, 2010
My wife and I have thought of this as a retirement strategy.
The life of a work-camper, volunteering in places like Falcon State Park in deep South Texas in return for free rent, is not without its bumps. But as Ms. Smith also quickly discovered, the rewards can be deep as well — like making cinnamon [...]
Posted in Institutions, You Can't Have it Both Ways on Feb 24th, 2010
Well, I guess 6,000 divided by 40,000 now exceeds 50%. After all, when kids spend all their time gardening instead of learning math, should we be surprised that when they become adults, they don’t know what a majority is?
Here is a short video on the forced unionization of daycare providers in Michigan.
This naked theft has [...]
Posted in Economics Problems, Macroeconomics, You Can't Have it Both Ways on Jan 28th, 2010
It is well known that Paul Krugman has morphed from Nobel Prize winning columnist into something else. Nonetheless, it is still fun to analyze what he is saying when he pretends to be wearing his economist hat. Take for example the issue of whether or not we should be worrying about having a debt to [...]
Posted in You Can't Have it Both Ways on Jan 27th, 2010
Can you worry that the world is running out of oil and at the same time worry that oil and other fossil fuels are bad for the (external) environment? I remember filling up my tank in Massachusetts a year or so ago when gas hit $4.00 when I overheard someone arguing to the effect of, [...]
Posted in Health Care, Institutions, You Can't Have it Both Ways on Jan 21st, 2010
Yesterday the New York Times ran a piece describing Professor Bill Baumol’s “cost disease” problem in economics. Very simply, the theory says that some sectors that are labor intensive would be expected to have its costs increase faster than less labor intensive sectors because productivity improvements are harder to come by when lots of human [...]
Posted in Price Controls, Price System, You Can't Have it Both Ways on Dec 4th, 2009
Here’s another twisty pretzel anti-market zealots get themselves caught in. Many “progressives” are ardent supporters of anti-trust policy. One part of anti-trust policy is that firms can be doing a “bad thing” by offering prices to the consumers that are “too low.” You read that correctly. So not only (as we have explored in earlier [...]
Posted in Institutions, You Can't Have it Both Ways on Nov 16th, 2009
The President is calling on all citizens to participate in our nation’s recovery and renewal by serving in our communities. Well, everyone but the Boy Scouts:
In pursuit of an Eagle Scout badge, Kevin Anderson, 17, has toiled for more than 200 hours hours over several weeks to clear a walking path in an east Allentown [...]
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