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 You Can't Have it Both Ways on Dec 30th, 2011
When we grade our students each semester, inevitably there will be students who fall a very miniscule percentage point below some grade cutoff. For example, I award an A to students scoring a 94% or better, an A- to students scoring from 90% up to and not including 94% and so on. There is always [...]
Posted in Environment, You Can't Have it Both Ways on Dec 22nd, 2011
I’ve seen it asserted many times that humans are not disposed to taking care of the environment because we are not fine tuned to deal with prevention. Environmental protection is about preventing bad things from happening in the future, and we are consumed with instant gratification and easy fixes to our problems. Maybe. Maybe not. [...]
Posted in Classical Liberalism, Extended Order, You Can't Have it Both Ways on Dec 21st, 2011
We might as well make this an ongoing series as well. Let’s stop and think about why some of the Occupy Wall Streeters are upset. They are upset that working hard and getting an education has not produced a “fair” return for them, and that some folks in society are getting an “unfair” return. Fine, [...]
Posted in Environment, If I Really Hated the Poor ..., Special Privilege, You Can't Have it Both Ways on Dec 20th, 2011
Organic farming is not good for the environment. Even if one assumes that yields on organic farms are identical to the yields achieved on conventional farms, organic farms have a distinct biological disadvantage when compared to others – they need to get fertilizer from organic sources. The organic code rejects fixing nitrogen from the air [...]
Posted in Taxation, You Can't Have it Both Ways on Dec 11th, 2011
One might reasonably make a case for taxing higher education, particularly if one views the acquisition of bachelor’s degrees to be much like an arms race. Suppose I proposed to increases taxes on colleges and I come out publicly and say, “we are going to institute a 20% tuition tax on college attendence; however, students [...]
Posted in You Can't Have it Both Ways, labor markets on Dec 10th, 2011
Here’s a light weekend thought to chew on. I accept that many firms are thought to pay “excessive” amounts to compensate their top managers. Indeed, this is one reason the “99%-ers” are dismayed at the world. Under what model are we operating then that finds that firms are extremely benevolent toward one class of employees [...]
Posted in You Can't Have it Both Ways on Dec 9th, 2011
It may be, but I can’t help but shake this thought: Remember how after a tornado wipes out the midwest, or a storm wrecks the Gulf coast or a tsunami wrecks Japan, and eventhe 9-11 attacks some bozo would talk about the “silver lining” behind all of the destruction that is being wrought? How come [...]
Posted in Central Planning, You Can't Have it Both Ways on Dec 8th, 2011
We don’t need both bank reserve requirements and Federal Deposit Insurance. The reason to have either is to protect depositors in times of liquidity shocks to the banks they are members of. What kind of a signal does the existence of both send to us? Well, it tells us that the banking regulators do not [...]
Posted in Education, Immigration, You Can't Have it Both Ways on Dec 7th, 2011
I heard a new point made the other day from someone who was arguing with someone else about whether immigrants should be allowed in America. I first heard the argument that immigrants pay less in taxes than they use in social programs and therefore are a net drain on the US. I won’t address that [...]
Posted in Welfare State, You Can't Have it Both Ways on Dec 6th, 2011
I am doing my very best to limit my rants to sledding today. This sort of thing makes it hard, particularly when you combine it with my unwillingness to be charitable to people anymore. Obama dropped almost all pretenses and made the progressive case against an American free market system, which he called “a simple [...]
![[Most Recent Quotes from www.kitco.com]](http://www.kitconet.com/charts/metals/gold/t24_au_en_usoz_2.gif)
![[Most Recent Quotes from www.kitco.com]](http://www.kitconet.com/charts/metals/silver/t24_ag_en_usoz_2.gif)