Nocera on the Crisis and All the Devils Are Here | EconTalk | Library of Economics and Liberty
Monday, December 20, 2010
Austerity: Word of the Year
Function:noun
Inflected Form:plural -ties
Date:14th century
1 : the quality or state of being austere
2 a : an austere act, manner, or attitude b : an ascetic practice
3 : enforced or extreme economy
Let's hope that our leaders actually read the definition...
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Sunday, December 19, 2010
Wealth and Cruelty
"Wealth in pagan Rome was necessarily something cruel; it's not any more."
Evelyn Waugh, Brideshead Revisited
College Shopping Guide
Here's a statistically proven college strategy that will deliver more ROT (Return On Tuition) for parents and high school seniors: get accepted to an elite college, then go to a cheap one.
Going to an Elite College Won't Get You More Money; Being Good Enough to Get Accepted at One Will - Hit & Run : Reason Magazine
Friday, December 17, 2010
Thursday, December 16, 2010
Tuesday, December 14, 2010
Monday, December 13, 2010
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Saturday, December 11, 2010
Thursday, December 9, 2010
Monday, December 6, 2010
Sunday, December 5, 2010
Friday, December 3, 2010
Thursday, December 2, 2010
Wednesday, December 1, 2010
Where Americans Earn The Most
There's gold in that there swamp!
Where Americans Earn The Most - Forbes.com
Tuesday, November 30, 2010
Governments Behaving Badly
And these are the people who think themselves our betters?
Assange Says Document Dump Targets 'Lying, Corrupt and Murderous Leadership' - ABC News
Monday, November 29, 2010
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:
Sunday, November 28, 2010
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
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
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