Matt Simmons’s Failed ‘Peak Oil’ Price Wager (Julian Simon rides again!) — MasterResource
Monday, February 14, 2011
White House Cuts the Budget....by 2%
The White House's proposed budget for the 2012 fiscal year includes spending cuts of $1.1-trillion over 10 years (or $110B/yr). Two-thirds of this $1.1T (or $730B) are from spending cuts, the rest ($336B) is from projected revenue increases (which really isn't a spending cut at all is it?). Now for the easy math...
Current annual budget = $3.7T
(optimistically then, $37T over the next 10 years)
Proposed savings over these next 10 yrs = $730B
730,000,000,000 / 37,000,000,000,000 = .02 (or 2%)
Not really much to write home about....
See the article here.
Cowen on "The Great Stagnation"
"Cowen argues that in the last four decades, the growth in prosperity for the average family has slowed dramatically in the United States relative to earlier decades and time periods. Cowen argues that this is the result of a natural slowing in innovation and that we expect too much growth relative to what is possible. Cowen expects improvements in the rate of growth in the future when new areas of research yield high returns. The conversation includes a discussion of the implications of Cowen's thesis for politics and public policy."
EconTalk | Library of Economics and Liberty
Watson, the Jeopardy Challenger
"All of this is more than a game. Deep, natural-language analysis could mean big things for business, health and anything where massive amounts of data need to be scoured smartly."
I Stumped Watson: And 7 Other Essential Bits About The Jeopardy Challenger - Michael Humphrey - Techno-tainers - Forbes
The Worst Violators of Campus Rights
"These Red Alert institutions have displayed severe and ongoing disregard for the fundamental rights of their students or faculty members and are the "worst of the worst" when it comes to liberty on campus."
'U.S. News' Readers: FIRE's Red Alert List Exposes the Worst Violators of Campus Rights - FIRE
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Honduras's Experiment With Free-Market Cities
"What advocate of free markets hasn't, at one time or another, fantasized about running away to a desert island to start a country where economic liberty would be the law of the land? If things go according to plan, more than one such 'island' may soon pop up here."
O'Grady: Honduras's Experiment With Free-Market Cities - WSJ.com
What We Say And What We Mean
Animation of a talk by Stephen Pinker.
What We Say And What We Mean - The Daily Dish | By Andrew Sullivan
The "Green Energy" Myth
"The fundamental problem is that green-energy technologies are still very inefficient and expensive compared to fossil fuels. Deploying less efficient, more expensive alternative-energy sources will hurt businesses and consumers, not help them."
The "green energy" myth: More efficient energy won't create more jobs. - By Bjørn Lomborg - Slate Magazine
A Cloud in Every Silver Lining
"Ever since opening my own eyes by researching my book, I keep a watching brief for egregious examples of pessimistic bias in the media. Once your eyes adjust, the media's tendency to spot a cloud in every silver lining is very striking.
But just as striking is its ability to ignore anything that reaches optimistic conclusions."
Seeing a cloud in every siler lining | The Rational Optimist…
Defrosting the Obamalogic
"Progress is built into markets. Governments? Not so much."
Common Sense with Paul Jacob - Brought to You by Citizens in Charge Foundation » Archive » Defrosting the Obamalogic
'Chaffing' Under Easy Money
"QE2 is clearly not to blame for the burning of the Middle East, but it has a hand in driving up food and energy prices around the world. Unfortunately, rising food and energy prices act like a tax on the global consumer. You need to spend more of your paycheck to fill up your gas tank or to buy a loaf of bread."
Egypt, others are 'chaffing' under Fed easy money policy - NYPOST.com
The increasing cost of bread in particular has caused many riots in impoverished countries; Tunisia and Egypt are just the most recent examples."
Raise Taxes, Lose Jobs
"'We have the worst business tax climate in the country and the worst combined state and local tax burden in the country"
NY biz owners fed up with exorbitant taxes - NYPOST.com
The Great Crimes of the Great Leader
"However you slice it, Mao was a monster - and it's high time for China to tear down his remaining posters and replace them with monuments to his victims."
Mao's Great Famine and Depraved Indifference, Bryan Caplan | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty
Heretics in the Holy City
"To be a tea party enthusiast in the District means being treated as an oddity, both by other Washingtonians and by other tea party members."
For D.C.'s few tea party residents, home can at times feel like enemy territory
The Arab 1989?
"The uprisings sweeping across the Middle East portend a political transformation as significant as those of 1989. The economic stagnation of the region, the failures of corrupt and repressive autocratic regimes, conjoined with a disenchanted youthful population wired together as never before, have triggered a political struggle few anticipated. Yet 1989 is not an entirely clear point of reference - the emergence of peaceful mass movements of change is a parallel, but the pull of the West, so marked in 1989, is weaker and more complex. Accordingly, the path ahead for these brave, inspiring, challenging movements is more uncertain."
The Arab 1989? | openDemocracy
On Growth Through Planning
"One of the rather annoying memes running around is that certain of the East Asian tigers managed to grow their economies through the use of planning rather than markets: thus we too should have more planning and less markets."
On growth through planning
Nick Clegg's New Drive on Civil Liberties in the UK
"I need to say this - you shouldn't trust any government, actually including this one. You should not trust government - full stop. The natural inclination of government is to hoard power and information; to accrue power to itself in the name of the public good."
New Statesman - Nick Clegg's new drive on civil liberties
Pursuing Perfection, Finding Excellence
"That is the message that Vince Lombardi told the Packer players who previously went 1-10 as he took over the head coaching job in Green Bay"
Pursuing Perfection, Finding Excellence - Coordination Problem
Saturday, February 12, 2011
The Great Stagnation
"At $4 and the length of two New Yorker articles, Tyler Cowen's 15,000-word ebook 'The Great Stagnation' is well worth the time and money.
The basic thesis of the book is that advanced economies are slowing down because the pace of innovation is slowing down. It's because in the 20th century, we benefited from, in Cowen's words, a lot of 'low-hanging fruit' before, and that fruit is picked."
Worth A Look: Tyler Cowen's 'The Great Stagnation'
Can Monetary Policy Really Create Jobs?
"In summary, the Fed’s monetary policies tend to create temporary and unsustainable increases in employment while being the very engine of recession and depression that creates a much greater degree of job destruction and unemployment."
Can Monetary Policy Really Create Jobs?: Newsroom: The Independent Institute
Communist Tract of the Day
"H. Bruce Franklin is a man of many hats. A professor of English and American Studies at Rutgers, he has written respected books on Melville, menhaden, and the history of science fiction, among other subjects. He is also the author of one of the most bizarre exercises in historical interpretation that I've ever read: the introduction to a collection called The Essential Stalin. This essay isn't just an ode to Stalin. It's an ode to Stalin published in 1972, painting him as a People's Hero that the New Left could love. If you're an aficionado of revisionism gone wrong, this is your Holy Grail."
Communist Tract of the Day - Hit & Run : Reason Magazine
No, We Can't Just Have More Entrepreneurs
"We'd all like to have more entrepreneurs in the economy, of course. Those lighting rods of the business world who are able to see new ways of putting together extant resources to produce new, better, even cheaper, products for the rest of us to enjoy.
But it turns out that 'encouraging entrepreneurship' is more difficult that it seems. Telling people to go and do something new doesn't inspire all that many to do so."
No, we can't just have more entrepreneurs
Some Free Market Reflections
"(1) A “sustainable” energy system, as that term is commonly used, will likely not materialize in our lifetimes; (2) except for heavily-subsidized wind, solar, and biofuel energy, the current, largely fossil fuel-based energy system is already sustainable; and (3) the “sustainable energy” agenda imperils the improving state of the world and, therefore, is politically unsustainable."
‘Sustainability’: Some Free Market Reflections — MasterResource
The Heretic - a Review
"Book your tickets now, this play is a must-see comedy.
It has everything - more accurate climate science than a BBC documentary (ok, that's not exactly hard), brilliantly funny and wonderfully staged."
- Bishop Hill blog - The Heretic - a review
A 'Wingnut Argument' For The Gold Standard
"There's a few universal things. Sex, mathematics, music, gold — all these things are universal."
A 'Wingnut Argument' For The Gold Standard : Planet Money : NPR:
Unless You're Dating an Economist, Don't Mention This on Valentine's Day
"Economics and Valentine's Day go together like broccoli and chocolate. But we're a business site, so we can't help but see the news through supply and demand -- even when the news is candy hearts and flowers."
Valentine's Day: Just Another Liberal Stimulus? - Derek Thompson - Business - The Atlantic
Why We Need to Meet in Person
"Teleconferencing is a booming business, doubling in sales to $1.6 billion in the last five years. But we all know in our guts that even the fanciest high tech systems (some cost as much as $600,000) can’t replace getting together in the flesh."
Why We Need to Meet in Person - Susan Adams - Getting Ahead - Forbes
This is Not Your Father's Farm
"Precision agriculture is saving farmers across the country millions of dollars annually and dramatically reducing the impact of large-scale agriculture on the environment by avoiding unnecessary application of fertilizers and pesticides to crops."
American Agriculture’s ‘Sputnik Moment’ - William Pentland - Clean Beta - Forbes
Dunbar's Number
"Mr. Dunbar's eponymous number is 147.8, plus or minus a lot, and it is the size of the average human being's social network of friends, as predicted by the size of the average human brain."
Dunbar's number and individual differences | The Rational Optimist…
Friday, February 11, 2011
Cars and Drivers
After demonizing Toyota, the government has concluded that the problem is not the privately-produced car. It's the government-approved driver.
Unintended acceleration: How drivers can avoid it - Feb. 11, 2011
Opportunity or a Crisis?
"The more likely scenario is that the debt-ceiling “crisis” will be used for political grandstanding...Hopefully, responsible politicians will use this opportunity to strong-arm the irresponsible ones into accepting spending controls with serious teeth."
Raising the Debt Ceiling: An Opportunity or a Crisis? | Mercatus
'Madoff-style' Pensions Will Spark Crisis
"Britain's civil servants must be weaned off their gold-plated final salary pensions to avert a 'fiscal calamity', a new report into the looming pension crisis has warned."
Public sector's 'Madoff-style' pensions pyramid will spark crisis, warns Centre for Policy Studies - Telegraph
Thursday, February 10, 2011
The Hypocrisy of Michael Moore
"Mr. Moore is demanding $2.7 million in unpaid profits that he says are owed to him. He has already pocketed nearly $20 million in profits from the blockbuster documentary. In other words, he has reaped a huge financial windfall. But this is not enough for him.
Mr. Moore has built an entire career - a vast personal industry - upon denouncing capitalism, the profit motive and “greedy” corporations. He is exhibiting the very behavior he claims to abhor."
KUHNER: The hypocrisy of Michael Moore - Washington Times
God in the Marketplace
"Their mindset is captured by Dave Evans, co-founder of the videogame giant Electronic Arts and a design professor at Stanford. Mr. Evans talks more like a theologian than a former Apple engineer. He points out that Genesis says that humans were created in the image of God, so all of our work—not just church work—is holy. We are called to be co-creators, with God, of a flourishing life on Earth. 'It is really a profound act of engaging the kingdom of God,' says Mr. Evans."
Rob Moll: Doing God's Work—At the Office - WSJ.com
Who Lost His Job so You Could Get Yours?
"All subsidies to the electric power sector divert money that would otherwise be invested in higher value wealth and job-creating activities."
Who lost his job so you could get your 'green job'? | Timothy P. Carney | Beltway Confidential | San Francisco Examiner
Diversity, Ends, and Rules
"Hayek emphasized that one of the great advantages of the liberal market order is that by requiring agreement on only a small number of things, the scope for peaceful coexistence and collaboration is widened among people who disagree on many other things. "
Diversity, Ends, and Rules | The Freeman | Ideas On Liberty
Pricing the World in Gold: 4 Charts
"WHAT WOULD the world look like if, as a handful of economists, investors and politicians hope, gold really was money again?
In a word, cheap…ish. Cheaper, at least, than much of it was a decade ago."
Pricing the World in Gold: 4 Charts » The Cobden Centre
Exorbitant Privilege
"For Eichengreen, the threat to the dollar comes not from the Chinese but from America itself, and particular “eye popping” US deficits. He blames the ballooning of the deficit during the good times of the Bush era, the cost of tackling the financial crisis and the ticking time-bomb as the baby boomers reach retirement."
The Enlightened Economist :: Exorbitant Privilege - a guest review
Wednesday, February 9, 2011
Reaganomics: What We Learned
"For 16 years prior to Ronald Reagan's presidency, the U.S. economy was in a tailspin—a result of bipartisan ignorance that resulted in tax increases, dollar devaluations, wage and price controls, minimum-wage hikes, misguided spending, pandering to unions, protectionist measures and other policy mistakes."
Arthur B. Laffer: Reaganomics: What We Learned - WSJ.com
What Makes an Entrepreneur Great
"It's not about analytical skills. It's about stubborn self-confidence and determination with a pinch of luck, according to Leigh Buchanan at Inc"
What Makes an Entrepreneur Great - Derek Thompson - Business - The Atlantic
Climate Change Fueled by Pursuit of Economic Growth
"The Prince of Wales warned today against the pursuit of economic growth at the expense of the environment - and condemned climate change sceptics for their ''corrosive'' impact on public opinion."
Climate change fuelled by pursuit of economic growth, says Prince of Wales - Telegraph
Fastest! Tallest! Marxist!
"The one voice that wasn't heard was that of teachers of Marxism-Leninism in East Germany. Where did they go? There must have been a lot of them: it was a compulsory subject.'"
Fastest! Tallest! Marxist! The visual art of Phil Collins | Art and design | The Guardian
Spontaneous Order
"The grand schemes of the politicians fail and fail again.
By contrast, the private sector, despite harassment from government, gives us better stuff for less money -- without central planning. It's called a spontaneous order."
RealClearPolitics - Spontaneous Order
Regulation Without Representation
"Regulatory agencies enact more than 3,500 new regulations in an average year. A new federal rule hits the books roughly every two hours, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
Compare that with Congress, which passes fewer than 200 pieces of legislation per year. Only Congress has the power to legislate in the American system of government, but Congress never actually votes on most regulations.
This is regulation without representation, and it is a major problem."
Regulation Without Representation - Investors.com
Don't Die in New Jersey
"Here's some free financial advice: Don't die in New Jersey any time soon. If you have more than $675,000 to your name and you die in the Garden State, about 54% may go to the IRS and the tax collectors in Trenton."
The Tax Foundation - Wall Street Journal Encourages Readers Not to Die in New Jersey
Inflation Worries Spread as China Raises Interest Rates
"Inflation jitters spread through emerging markets on Tuesday, prompting China's central bank to raise interest rates for the third time in four months amid worries that a drought threatening the country's wheat crop will put further pressure on global food prices."
Inflation Worries Spread as China Raises Interest Rates - WSJ.com
The 4 'Metaforces' Driving the Next Economy
"Washington likes to play guessing games with the economy, placing bets on certain industries by supplying them with luxurious tax giveaways or no-fault loans. But the jobs of the future are at the mercy of giant, global forces that are largely out of our control."
The 4 'Metaforces' Driving the Next Economy - Derek Thompson - Business - The Atlantic
Why Should I Hate Bernie Madoff?
"As it happens, I am being forced to participate in a Ponzi scheme, one that dwarfs Madoff's: Social Security."
Wait A Minute--Why Should I Hate Bernie Madoff? Page 1 of 2 - Forbes.com
Tuesday, February 8, 2011
The Poor Are Getting … Richer
"It's easy to assume, faced with images of continuing destitution in rural Africa and South Asia, that things have just kept getting worse. But they haven't. In fact, over the last two decades the pattern has reversed. The world has got a lot less poor -- and the nature of the poverty that remains has changed in important ways."
The Poor Are Getting … Richer - By Charles Kenny | Foreign Policy
5 Reasons the U.S. Won't Face a Lost Decade
"Worried about a Japanese-style lost decade? Don't be, says the Goldman Sachs January 2011 Outlook, offering five reasons we aren't doomed to ten years of weak growth and deflation."
5 Reasons the U.S. Won't Face a Lost Decade - Derek Thompson - Business - The Atlantic
Racism, Greed or Bad Regulation?
"Maybe some American bankers are racists. But many more American legislators are just destructively short-sighted."
Racism, greed or bad regulation?
Why Dictatorial Regimes Are Brittle
"Dictatorships, as we are seeing in the Middle East today, and as we saw in Iran in 1979 and in the communist nations in 1989—not to mention France in 1789—have a way of imploding unexpectedly, the unexpectedness lying in the fact that no external event seems to have precipitated the collapse."
Why Dictatorial Regimes Are Brittle—Posner - The Becker-Posner Blog
The War on the Poor
"The gigantic sums of credit created out of nothing, causing a doubling and in some cases tripling of the money supplies of Western Governments, over the two-decade boom that we have just experienced, have consequences. Unless you were living at the bottom of the ocean, or on planet Zog for the last three years, the most obvious consequence is that this boom was unsustainable, as they all are. The bust has wreaked havoc across the developed world. The poorest members of society will be forced to pay for the errors of their political masters, and the richest members of society will benefit."
The War on the Poor » The Cobden Centre
Can Government Manage the Economy?
"A doctor says he can cure illness by waving birch wands over the patient. We are skeptical, but being open-minded, we agree to give him a chance with ailing Uncle George. He waves a red wand and chants something. The patient shows no improvement."
Can Government Manage the Economy? | The Freeman | Ideas On Liberty
IMF Chief Twists Adam Smith's View of Inequality
"Modern liberals used reflexively to condemn Adam Smith as the 'father of capitalism' (although he had never heard the word). More recently, however, they have been trying to recruit him, switching their emphasis from misunderstanding what he wrote in The Wealth of Nations to misquoting what he said in The Theory of Moral Sentiments."
IMF chief twists Adam Smith's view of inequality
Now They Love Him
"The only good conservative is a dead conservative.
That, in a nutshell, de scribes the age-old tradition of liberals suddenly discovering that once-reviled conservatives were OK after all. It's just we-the-living who are hateful ogres and troglodytes."
Now they love him - NYPOST.com
Stop Trying to Balance Liberty With Security
"What the state too often portrays as a balancing act between two separate and opposing things, freedom and security, really boils down to one single thing: the suspicion of the autonomous individual."
Stop trying to balance liberty with security | spiked
A G-Zero World
"In the wake of the financial crisis, the United States is no longer the leader of the global economy, and no other nation has the political and economic leverage to replace it. Rather than a forum for compromise, the G-20 is likely to be an arena of conflict."
A G-Zero World | Foreign Affairs
When Irish Eyes Are Crying
"Not knowing why they were so suddenly so successful, the Irish can perhaps be forgiven for not knowing exactly how successful they were meant to be. They had gone from being abnormally poor to being abnormally rich, without pausing to experience normality."
When Irish Eyes Are Crying | Business | Vanity Fair
The Trouble with "Green Jobs" Approach
"The problem is that Obama thinks that green jobs are the answer to the anemic economy recovery. And he clings to that belief in the face of contrary evidence."
RealClearPolitics - The Trouble with "Green Jobs" Approach
Obama Does Not Understand Business
"As a teacher of comparative economics and textbook author on the subject, I cannot refrain from commenting on President Obama’s unfortunate lack of understanding of business."
What Paul Gregory is Writing About: Obama Does Not Understand Business
Profit Sharing?
"Nothing wrong with profit sharing - as long as it's a private transaction either between an employee and the company or the union and the industry."
American Thinker Blog: Obama: Corporate profits must be 'shared with workers':
Are Health-Care Waivers Unconstitutional?
"The president cannot simply decide who does and does not have to follow the law."
Are Health-Care Waivers Unconstitutional? - Philip Hamburger - National Review Online
The Quest for a 'Charter City' - WSJ.com
The Quest for a 'Charter City' - WSJ.com: "CAPITALFEBRUARY 3, 2011, 6:22 P.M. ET
The Quest for a 'Charter City'"
Boomers are Driving a New Entrepreneurship Boom
"Some people are calling entrepreneurship the ‘new mid-life crisis’ for the 76 million-strong demographic once thought to be over the hill."
Boomers are Driving a New Entrepreneurship Boom - Martin Zwilling - Startup Professionals Musings - Forbes
Monday, February 7, 2011
Articles & Commentary
"Generally speaking, federal workers do receive higher salaries than similar private employees; individuals changing jobs receive bigger pay increases when their new job is with the federal government; federal employees quit less than private workers; and private workers line up to get federal jobs."
Articles & Commentary
Peter Pomerantsev · Diary
"The word ‘bribe’ was never used. The officials would look at the fake books, which they knew perfectly well to be fake, and extract fines in line with legislation they knew Ivan did not need to comply with. So everything would be settled, and every role, pose, and line of dialogue would reproduce the ritual of legality. It was a ritual played out every day in every medium-sized business, every furniture company, restaurant, modelling agency and PR firm across the country."
LRB · Peter Pomerantsev · Diary
Rethinking the Great Recession
"Chances are that the United States and the other prosperous nations of the developed world will, over time, get wealthier as a result of technological changes that are now barely glimpsed. But the widespread faith—and the sense of security it imparted—that economic management would forever spare us devastating disruptions has been shattered. Just as there has never been a war to end all wars, there has yet to be an economic theory that can end all serious instability."
The Wilson Quarterly: Rethinking the Great Recession by Robert J. Samuelson
Leviathan
"How many Americans work in government? That’s a difficult question to answer. Officially, as of 2009, the federal government employed 2.8 million individuals out of a total U.S. workforce of 236 million — just over 1 percent of the workforce. But it’s not quite as simple as that."
Leviathan - Iain Murray - National Review Online
Egypt's Economic Apartheid
"Leaders and governments may change and more democracy might come to Egypt. But unless its existing legal institutions are reformed to allow economic growth from the bottom up, the aspirations for a better life that are motivating so many demonstrating in the streets will remain unfulfilled."
Hernando de Soto: Egypt's Economic Apartheid - WSJ.com
Crony Capitalism Or Raw Corruption?
"It's good to have friends in high places. Last month, the White House issued tough new rules on CO2 emissions. This month, its biggest corporate supporter wins an exemption. Something smells here."
Crony Capitalism Or Raw Corruption? - Investors.com
Book Chat: A Conversation With Tyler Cowen
"Ask yourself a simple question: how many famous scientists are there? Not so many. Or try this one: how many men or women dream of marrying or dating a scientist? Not so many. These changes have to happen at the individual and family level. I’m not against science prizes or higher pay, but those ideas alone are not going to do the trick, as they are top down solutions."
Book Chat: A Conversation With Tyler Cowen - NYTimes.com
Why Wal-Mart Is the Embodiment of Economic Stimulus
"If Wal-Mart were allowed to open stores in New York City, the average buyer of a diverse basket of groceries – from hamburger buns to cereal to butter – would save 33%."
Why Wal-Mart Is the Embodiment of Economic Stimulus - John Tamny - Political Economy - Forbes
Oh Great…A European Ruling On Competitiveness
"...competitiveness is not a gift of the state, it is a genetic trait of the market."
Oh Great…A European Ruling On Competitiveness - Stephen Pope - Market Mind - Forbes
The (Non) Producers: Obama’s Bialystock and Bloom
"Frederic Bastiat noted in the 19th century that this precise language – “Besides, it is a way of creating jobs for the workers” – is offered to justify every political scheme when the merits don’t persuade. Everything can be said to ‘create jobs’, but at what cost? Just this past Friday night PJ O’Rourke noted, in a dinner speech in Brussels, that everything ‘creates jobs’ including violent crime. But what else happens, as the cost?"
» The (Non) Producers: Obama’s Bialystock and Bloom - Big Government
Let There Be Light… Bulb Choice
"The attack on individual liberty may seem small to some, but it has larger implications for our economy. French economist Frederic Bastiat believed freedom of choice was closely connected to competition.
In his book Economic Harmonies, Bastiat said, “In things that concern me, I want to make my own choice, and I do not want another to make it for me without regard for my wishes; that is all. And if someone proposes to substitute his judgment for mine in matters that concern me, I shall demand to substitute my judgment for his in matters that concern him. What guarantee is there that this will make things go any better? It is evident that competition is freedom.”"
Let There Be Light… Bulb Choice - HUMAN EVENTS
How About Tax Reparations For The Rich?
"Considering how much we benefit from the great producers, it would seem that good manners–to say nothing of fairness and justice–requires a clarion “thank you.” Instead, in the political and public arenas wealth creators are increasingly smeared, spit on, and punished. This is un-American. A nation built on a foundation of individual rights and the pursuit of happiness should celebrate success, not punish it."
How About Tax Reparations For The Rich? - The Objectivist - - Forbes
A Hollywood Ending
"Now, studio executives -- like every other known species of rent-seekers -- argue that transferring wealth from average-income taxpayers to wealthy producers, directors, and actors somehow increases jobs on balance. But critics reply with the point -- so trenchantly expressed by Frederic Bastiat over a century and a half ago in his classic essay 'That Which is Seen, and That Which is Not Seen' -- that subsidizing employment in one sector of the economy lowers employment in other sectors. After all, to get the funds that subsidize whatever industries the politicians favor, the politicians must confiscate money from taxpayers, who then have less money to employ others (either directly or else indirectly through their purchases). Subsidies don't create more jobs overall -- they just shift them from one sector of the economy to another."
American Thinker: A Hollywood Ending
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Announcing The Bastiat Revival Movement
The Bastiat Society encourages our members and supporters to visit the Bastiat Revival Movement and their blog.
This blog helps you and your friends empower yourselves by sharing your ideas, comments, and stories on liberty and free markets with other Bastiat bloggers via Bastiat’s essays on political economy as featured in Micheal Reber's new free market economics activity book, "What Is Seen and What Is NOT Seen: Fun Systems Thinking Activities with Frédéric Bastiat" (release date early 2011).
About the organization:
Dr. Michael F. Reber, coordinator for the Bastiat Revival Movement, has a new blog located at http://bastiat2010revival.wordpress.com/. He is also a featured guest on Republicans Abroad Radio for the new "Breakfast with Bastiat" morning talk show which is aired every third Thursday of the month at 10am at http://www.republicansabroadradio.com. Each show will be a discussion on one of Bastiat’s essays in What Is Seen and What Is Not Seen. Shows will be archived once a month on his blog and can be accessed by clicking a “show link." To listen to the Prelude Show, which was aired on October 28th, 2010, regarding Dr. Reber's new book on Bastiat as well as the free market movement in Japan go to: http://www.republicansabroadradio.com/october-28-2010.
Please take a moment to visit the blog and join the discussion!
Also, if any of our members would like contribute their own essays to the blog please contact Micheal Reber directly at: bastiatrevival@gmail.com.
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