Monday, November 29, 2010

What Austrian Economics IS and What Austrian Economics Is NOT - Coordination Problem

What Austrian Economics IS and What Austrian Economics Is NOT - Coordination Problem

FT.com / Business education / Soapbox - The flawed maths of financial models

FT.com / Business education / Soapbox - The flawed maths of financial models

Obama Freeze Leaves Lots of Federal Workers Out of the Cold - Hit & Run : Reason Magazine

Obama Freeze Leaves Lots of Federal Workers Out of the Cold - Hit & Run : Reason Magazine

FT.com / UK - Corporate tax reform found lacking

FT.com / UK - Corporate tax reform found lacking

Slush Fund:Under Obama Freeze Proposal, Federal Pay Raises Would Continue - Janet Novack - Taxing Matters - Forbes

Slush Fund:Under Obama Freeze Proposal, Federal Pay Raises Would Continue - Janet Novack - Taxing Matters - Forbes

Price Controls and Black Markets in Canadian Health Care, David Henderson | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty

Price Controls and Black Markets in Canadian Health Care, David Henderson | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty

Sure Signs of the Apocalypse

First, the Chinese and the Russians lecture the US on fiscal and monetary responsibility.

Then a guy in Las Vegas (of all places!) does the same thing:

Mike Novogratz: A Hedge Fund's Perspective - Forbes.com

Mike Novogratz: A Hedge Fund's Perspective - Forbes.com

Ben Bernanke, the Fed, and quantitative easing : The New Yorker

Ben Bernanke, the Fed, and quantitative easing : The New Yorker

How Did We Get From Mao to Now? - Ray Kwong - ChinaTalk - Forbes

How Did We Get From Mao to Now? - Ray Kwong - ChinaTalk - Forbes

Sunday, November 28, 2010

With Unemployment Benefits, It’s the Invisible That Truly Matters - John Tamny - Political Economy - Forbes

With Unemployment Benefits, It’s the Invisible That Truly Matters - John Tamny - Political Economy - Forbes

Entrepreneurial Ability as a Latent Variable « Organizations and Markets

Entrepreneurial Ability as a Latent Variable « Organizations and Markets

Nation-Building at Home

Nation-builders want to use the power of the state to quickly accomplish what otherwise might take decades, perhaps even centuries. For these people, the pace of organic change is too slow.

Unfortunately, like an athlete on steroids, nation-building has unpleasant and unmanageable side effects.

By the way, business-builders face the same temptation: organic and unpredictable bottom-up growth, or technocratic and planned top-down growth.

Thomas L. Friedman: Nation-Building at Home Just as Crucial a Slogan Now as it Was 14 Columns Ago - Hit & Run : Reason Magazine

Who Could Object to Such Reasonable Words?

Saturday, November 27, 2010

Bastiat Gets Some Love...and Gets Dissed in Springfield

First, the love...

Lilly: Principles must be defended, liberty reclaimed | News-Leader.com | Springfield News-Leader

Then the dis...

Government needs to adapt to times | News-Leader.com | Springfield News-Leader

Now let me summarize the dis:

"Anything written before today is worthless. The Ethics of Aristotle, the poetry of Dante, the plays of Shakespeare, the novels of Dickens, and everything else that was written before some unspecified date in the modern world is as useless as an old loaf of bread. Only what is modern counts."

But, curiously, the writer reaches back to a dead white male for validation. Thomas Jefferson, nonetheless. And as you might suspect, the writer misses Jefferson's point.

Jefferson wrote his words at a time when freedom was the "new coat" and loyalty to state experts was the "old."

Reverting to rule by experts who know better is not "government adapting to the times." Rather, it is a throwback to the kind of world Jefferson and his peers attacked and successfully conquered in the American Revolution.

My Mama Told Me, "Life is Like a Game of Football"

Another lesson in intellectual humility for experts.

If we cannot successfully predict the outcome of a game where there are only 22 players and a clock, how in the world can we successfully predict the outcome of a game with 6.5 billion players and no clock?

Nevada Stuns No. 3 Boise State 34-31 - NYTimes.com

Don't Despair, Be Ambitious

Matt Ridley responds to Bill Gates' criticism of his views on Africa and climate change, and in so doing gives us a motto for the decades ahead. Not "Don't worry, be happy," but "Don't despair, be ambitious."

Matt Ridley on Where Progress Comes From - WSJ.com

Thursday, November 25, 2010

"China Inc." - Here We Go Again - Hit & Run : Reason Magazine

"China Inc." - Here We Go Again - Hit & Run : Reason Magazine

Raising Taxes Is Not Reducing Government Spending - George Reisman - Mises Daily

Raising Taxes Is Not Reducing Government Spending - George Reisman - Mises Daily

Blinder: Keynesianism is Right, Because Keynesians Are Really Smart « Organizations and Markets

Blinder: Keynesianism is Right, Because Keynesians Are Really Smart « Organizations and Markets

FT.com / FT Lexicon: Professor of the week - R. Edward Freeman, Darden School of Business

FT.com / FT Lexicon: Professor of the week - R. Edward Freeman, Darden School of Business

You and Your Neighbor's Pork | Brandon Arnold | Cato Institute: Commentary

You and Your Neighbor's Pork | Brandon Arnold | Cato Institute: Commentary

Raising the Stakes, David Henderson | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty

Raising the Stakes, David Henderson | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty

Awaiting the Savior

Awaiting the Savior

Prop. 19 Goes up in Smoke – Tenth Amendment Center

Prop. 19 Goes up in Smoke – Tenth Amendment Center

House Dem dares GOP on healthcare repeal - The Hill's Healthwatch

House Dem dares GOP on healthcare repeal - The Hill's Healthwatch

Bastiat Was Right...Again

Bastiat Was Right...Again

Gov't Planners Leave Misery In Their Wake - Investors.com

Gov't Planners Leave Misery In Their Wake - Investors.com

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Con Air

Using the Internet to Protect Your Crotch - Hit & Run : Reason Magazine

Using the Internet to Protect Your Crotch - Hit & Run : Reason Magazine

FDA Not Powerful Enough: Needs to Regulate Economy and Environment Too - Hit & Run : Reason Magazine

FDA Not Powerful Enough: Needs to Regulate Economy and Environment Too - Hit & Run : Reason Magazine

Atlas Shrugged Movie | Ayn Rand, Objectivism, and Individualism | The Atlas Society

Atlas Shrugged Movie | Ayn Rand, Objectivism, and Individualism | The Atlas Society

Postal Service in Germany to Deliver Mail...Electronically! - Hit & Run : Reason Magazine

Postal Service in Germany to Deliver Mail...Electronically! - Hit & Run : Reason Magazine

Fact And Comment - Forbes.com

Fact And Comment - Forbes.com

Bruce Springsteen on motivation and politics

Bruce Springsteen on motivation and politics

Denationalize Money

Denationalize Money

Frank Rich Mishandles the Money - Dean Zarras - On Civil Society - Forbes

Frank Rich Mishandles the Money - Dean Zarras - On Civil Society - Forbes

Sunday, November 14, 2010

Reason.tv: Peter Thiel on Facebook, Technology, and the Higher Education Bubble - Hit & Run : Reason Magazine

Betting On The Gold Standard? Odds Are Still Long : NPR

Betting On The Gold Standard? Odds Are Still Long : NPR

Health Care and Socialist Calculation, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty

Health Care and Socialist Calculation, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty

O.K., You Fix the Budget - NYTimes.com

O.K., You Fix the Budget - NYTimes.com

The Last Boom Town in America


Imperial Athens. Imperial Rome. Imperial Washington. Centers of power and, therefore, money. Power is Washington's product, and the more power it has, the more money it attracts.

As Washington gains power and wealth, it grows as an obstacle to production and innovation in the rest of the nation. Silicon Valley is just outside of San Francisco. LA produces world-class entertainment. What does Washington produce? Very little that does not depend on spending other people's money and telling them how to live.

As my hero Bastiat might have said, Washington is no longer a town that uses law to protect men and their property, it uses law to plunder both.

Why is Washington now home to 7 of the 10 richest counties in the United States? Because it is better to be the plunderer than the plundered.

Monday, November 8, 2010

World Bank Chief Riles Up Economists By Talking Gold Standard

Standard? What's a standard?

World Bank Chief Riles Up Economists By Talking Gold Standard - Agustino Fontevecchia - Moral Hazard - Forbes

Science? Politics? Both?

"This group feels strongly that science and politics can't be divorced and that we need to take bold measures to not only communicate science but also to aggressively engage the denialists and politicians who attack climate science and its scientists," said Scott Mandia, professor of physical sciences at Suffolk County Community College in New York.

"We are taking the fight to them because we are … tired of taking the hits. The notion that truth will prevail is not working. The truth has been out there for the past two decades, and nothing has changed."

Read more.

Saturday, November 6, 2010

Progress Q & A

"China has also pulled off a breathtaking economic transformation which will soon see it become the mightiest economic power in the world. It will challenge American hegemony as never before in modern times."

Read more: John Humphrys, in the Daily Mail

Question: How did China pull off its breathtaking economic transformation?

Answer: By encouraging markets more and using government less.

Question: How might a country pull off a breathtaking economic decline?

Answer: By doing the exact opposite.

Thursday, November 4, 2010

Wednesday, November 3, 2010

Politics: That Which Is Seen

Why do we spend so much time talking about politics and elections?

The vast majority of the really important decisions that we make as try to improve our lives have nothing to do with who wins and who loses elections. The technological innovations that will change our lives don't, either.

In fact, the work that makes the world better doesn't occur in legislatures. It occurs in homes, offices, factories, and all the other places where individuals trade what they know with each other.

Unfortunately, all that trade is too small to matter. It's not big enough, splashy enough, or noisy enough to get attention.

Politics is everything that trade is not. Politics is big, splashy, and noisy. We can see politics, whether we like it or not. In an election year, we can't avoid it.

Trade is almost invisible.

It's easy to overestimate the importance of something that is all about overstating its importance.

Monday, November 1, 2010

Attack Ads, Circa 1800



Via Reason.tv