Homines libenter quod volunt credunt
Posted in Extended Order on Dec 14th, 2016
As seasonal as the first snowfall of the year, or the smell of the crackling wood fires coming from a neighbor’s chimney, the myriad articles telling us how wasteful the Christmas season and holiday season is are an essential and memorable part of each and every December. Here is the (seemingly innocuous) latest from our […]
Posted in Economic Illiteracy, Environment, Flotsam and Jetsam on Dec 10th, 2016
I would love to run a series of posts that simply ask readers to guess whether or not the information is from the Onion. Maybe this one is too obvious, but here goes. Suggestions for Eliminating Food “Waste” “Avoid impulse buying by only going to the grocery store for one ingredient at a time. Hire […]
Posted in Competition, Economic Illiteracy, Market Failures, You Can't Have it Both Ways on Dec 2nd, 2016
DD sends me the following article which suggests that Uber is losing quite a bit of money, is not going to turn profitable, and presumably is the worst thing to ever happen to America. Two quick points, should you care to read through the article. The author argues (and I am not sure I disagree […]
Posted in Economic Illiteracy, Health Care, Tribalism on Sep 26th, 2016
I suspect that what is being taught in enlightened public health classes is that things like expensive and high hospital and health insurance administrator salaries are the reason that health costs are so high. Now, there is actually a body of research on this question, done by capable health care economists, and some of those […]
Posted in Flotsam and Jetsam on May 23rd, 2016
Just because something is popular … you know, over 58% of my students favor eliminating studying as a requirement to do well in college; over 58% of the children in my kids’ school think Reeses Pieces are an essential part of a quality diet; over 58% of Catholics want the rest of the world to […]
Posted in Disingenuous on May 22nd, 2016
Arnold Kling has it, and yes, I am close to just tuning out the rest of the world and decaying quietly into my old age … Everything written by, for, or against Krugman over the past 15 years is a waste of time. That includes this post as well as Adler’s. It includes various attempts […]
Posted in Economists on May 7th, 2016
As with all of Bob Frank’s books, I highly recommend you read his Success and Luck: Good Fortune and the Myth of Meritocracy. Bob taught me in grad school. I model some of my teaching after his. Nonetheless I part ways with him from time to time. But even though there are indeed bridges to nowhere and […]
Posted in Economic Illiteracy, Education, If I Really Hated the Poor ..., We're Doomed, Welfare State, You Can't Have it Both Ways on Apr 19th, 2016
Today marks the pinnacle of pathetic pandering in NYS as “we” head to the polls to annoint the latest power-mad, megalomaniacal people with our blessings of awesomeness. In that spirit, check out these 10 core principles from the “Bern’s” website: AS PRESIDENT, SENATOR BERNIE SANDERS WILL REDUCE INCOME AND WEALTH INEQUALITY BY: Increasing the […]
Posted in Disingenuous, labor markets on Apr 9th, 2016
Now long time readers of TUW understand how I feel about symbolism. I do not view it as harmless. And long time readers are probably familiar with the change in campus culture that has happened over the past decade or so. As such, you understand that nothing in this “discussion” from the student or even […]
Posted in Disingenuous, Health Care on Mar 14th, 2016
In another dog bites man finding: Detecting Potential Overbilling in Medicare Reimbursement via Hours Worked by Hanming Fang, Qing Gong Medicare overbilling refers to the phenomenon that providers report more and/or higher-intensity service codes than actually delivered to receive higher Medicare reimbursement. We propose a novel and easy-to-implement approach to detect potential overbilling based on the hours worked implied by […]
