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Daily Archive for April 16th, 2012

Happy News

Unless you want to find a justification for ending global capitalism of course. A few weeks ago I reported on how malaria deaths, the single greatest threat that we think will meet us from a warmer planet, are already on a rapid retreat – with a decrease by one-third in Africa over the last decade. […]

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Good Government, I Mean It!

Folks love to ask me if I think anything the government does now, or has ever done, is good. That’s a silly question for a lot of reasons. Without explaining why I think the question is silly, let me share with you my quick answer: Yes! Public Health Investments. Now, when I say this, I […]

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Bentham on Taxation

Each Monday I peruse the latest working papers in my profession. Here is this morning’s treat: A Theory of Optimal Capital Taxation by Thomas Piketty, Emmanuel Saez  –  #17989 (PE) Abstract: This paper develops a realistic, tractable theoretical model that can be used to investigate socially-optimal capital taxation.  We present a dynamic model of savings […]

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Religious worship of the multiplier can very quickly devolve into a way to justify dishonesty in the market. I wished Keynesians would recognize this. Think of how such reasoning might go (from the standpoint of a businessman, no friend you should note, of capitalism): Businessman: “Gee, I have a product that some people like. If […]

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