This YouTube video helps explain why America is in trouble…
All posts by Jim Garven
Assorted Links (9/8/2013)
Here’s a list of articles that I have been reading and videos that I have been viewing lately:
How Government is Destroying the Medical Profession: Q&A with Dr. Jeffrey Singer
youtube.com
“Over the past 30 to 40 years, government involvement in medicine has resulted in a progressive regimentation of the industry,” says Dr. Jeffrey Singer, a general surgeon.” I also recommend Dr. Singer’s related (gated, but available if you register @reason.com) article by the same name @ http://reason.com/archives/2013/04/22/how-government-killed-the-medical-profes.
Why America Is Saying ‘No’: Peggy Noonan on Obama and Syria
online.wsj.com
“Syria and Obama: Wrong time, wrong place, wrong plan, wrong man, argues Peggy Noonan.”
Have More Sex, Make More Money
Wow – this is exhibit A for junk science. Repeat after me, correlation DOES NOT imply causation.
“Money can’t buy you love, but a new study suggests lovemaking can earn you money and not just if you’re employed in the red light district. Quentin Fottrell and couples psychotherapist Dr. Fran Walfish provide details.”
Economist Ronald Coase Was Chased Out of UVA in 1964 for Supporting Market Solutions
reason.com
“The Twitter feed of academic Siva Vaidhyanathan points to this story about how recently deceased economist Ronald Coase was chased out of the University of Virginia in the early 1960s. The heinous crime of Coase, who would go on to win the 1991 Nobel Prize in economics? He stood against the rising tide of belief in an economy managed by experts and regulators.”
Federal Homeownership Policy: Money for Nothing
www.cato.org
“Our current system of homeownership subsidies has not delivered long run gains in the homeownership rate.”
Why ‘Duck Dynasty’ Viewers Heed Its Call
online.wsj.com
“In The Wall Street Journal, Adam Chandler writes that hard work, solid values and a sense of humor have fueled the biggest show in cable-TV history.”
Baylor University National Commercial
From my employer, Baylor University “The mission of Baylor University – to educate men and women for worldwide leadership and service – is showcased in this 30 second national commercial…”
Capitalism, Government and the Good Society
econtalk.org
On April 10, 2013, Liberty Fund and Butler University sponsored a symposium entitled “Capitalism, Government, and the Good Society.” The symposium featured presentations by Michael Munger of Duke University, Robert Skidelsky of the University of Warwick, and Richard Epstein of New York University on the topic of role for government in the economy and in our lives. These presentations were followed by a lively panel discussion of this topic moderated by Russ Roberts of Stanford University.
More Evidence that Foreign Aid Throws Dollars Away for Nothing
www.cato.org
“Western states should reconsider policies which hinder developing countries from taking full advantage of the global marketplace.”
Mideast Strains Under Weight of Syrian Refugees
online.wsj.com
Amid the war debate concerning Syria, it is sobering to consider the magnitude of the humanitarian crisis of the Syrian refugees, as documented by this article from today’s Wall Street Journal…
www.cato.org
“Looking back on the magnificent, if often misunderstood, scholarly legacy of Ronald Coase (1910-2013).”
Online Class Aims to Earn Millions
online.wsj.com
“Two University of Texas at Austin professors, James Pennebaker and Samuel Gosling, this week launched their introductory psychology class from a makeshift studio, with a goal of eventually enrolling 10,000 students at $550 a pop and bringing home millions for the school.”
What Happens When a Man Takes on the Feds
online.wsj.com
“In The Wall Street Journal, Sohrab Ahmari interviews Craig Zucker, the creator of Buckyballs, which was the hottest office game on the market before the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission banned it.”
What Mr. A did on his summer vacation
austin360.com
I highly recommend the incredibly inspiring video (and accompanying article @ http://bit.ly/18v7Rqw) about an Austin legend, Anderson High School music teacher and local musician Phil Ajjarapu.
“Anderson High School music teacher and local musician Phil Ajjarapu fell from an overpass onto Mopac in a motorcycle accident in 2012. He has since recovered from his near death experience and is moving forward making his first solo studio album.”
LiveLeak.com – 1.8 gigapixel ARGUS-IS. World’s highest resolution video surveillance platform…
www.liveleak.com
Interesting and scary video of DARPA’s “Argus” project; which apparently will soon be used by the U.S. Army to survey and spy on Afghanistan from an altitude of 20,000 feet with the ability to scan 25 square miles of ground surface in extraordinarily high resolution…
There are better anti-poverty tools than the minimum wage
www.aei-ideas.org
“Politicians, usually those on the left, frequently propose big hikes in the federal minimum wage — or even a dramatically higher “living wage” — as a way to fight poverty and help low-skill workers… But raising the minimum wage may not be a policy idea deserving of the passion it generates. It’s not a well-targeted, poverty-fighting weapon.”
Five U.S. States Where People Drink the Most Beer
online.wsj.com
The Wall Street Journal runs the numbers and finds that the five states with the highest per capita beer consumption are 1) North Dakota, 2) New Hampshire, 3) Montana, 4) South Dakota, and 5) Wisconsin…
The global financial crisis and American wealth accumulation: The Fed needs a bubble watch
www.aei.org
Interesting points raised in this article by AEI economist John Makin:
“• The 2008 housing bubble burst and the ensuing global financial crisis destroyed an unprecedented 22 percent of accumulated American wealth.
• This massive destruction of wealth has resulted in a tepid recovery marked by below-average recovery levels of saving, consumption, and investment.
• The Federal Reserve needs to create a “bubble watch” program to prevent speculative bubbles from destroying wealth accumulation in the future.”
The WSJ’s College Football Grid of Shame: rating how good all 125 teams are
online.wsj.com
Proud to point out that Baylor ranks highly in terms of its admirability/powerhouse composite score, outscoring all Big 12 conference teams except for TCU! 🙂
“As the season begins, we rate how good all 125 teams are—and how embarrassed their alums should be.”
The Good Book and the Not-So-Good Books
www.cato.org
“The Code of Federal Regulations is as long as 95 King James Bibles.”
8 Reasons Not to Go to War in Syria
reason.com
“Is the U.S. on the march to war in Syria? Over the past week, the stage has been set for yet another military intervention in the Middle East.”
Obama to Control the Price of Ivy?
www.cato.org
“Thanks in large part to federal aid, the price of college has risen astronomically, kneecapping students and taxpayers. Price controls will only mask the root problem while creating new pains of their own.”
Cats Are Actually Man’s Best Friend
online.wsj.com
This is a wonderful essay on the relative merits (from a male perspective) of cats versus dogs. It resonates with me since Casa de Garven may very well qualify as a “feline colony”. 🙂
“In The Wall Street Journal, children’s author Peter Mandel says that it’s long past time for a little mutual respect between felines and their two-legged rulers.”
Richard Vedder on the Real Reason College Costs So Much
online.wsj.com
This article does a great job of explaining why college is so damn expensive!
“In The Wall Street Journal, Allysia Finley interviews Richard Vedder on the economics of higher education. Vedder explains how subsidies fuel rising prices and why there’s a ‘bubble’ in college enrollment and student loans.”
U.S. Policies Deter Inward and Encourage Outward Business Investment
www.cato.org
“Inhospitable and incoherent U.S. policies are chasing investment to foreign shores.”
www.economist.com
“The Economist Magazine writes that “Using the social network seems to make people more miserable”.”
U.S. Gun Laws as a Scapegoat for Mexico’s Drug Violence
www.cato.org
The principal reason the drug gangs can obtain all the firepower they want is that they have vast financial resources at their disposal, not U.S. gun laws.
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Assorted Links (8/13/2013)
Here’s a list of articles that I have been reading (and podcasts and videos I have been listening to and viewing) lately:
BBC – Tim Harford: Pop-Up Ideas
www.bbc.co.uk
Economist Tim Harford tackles important problems (e.g., how to foster innovation, alleviate kidney shortages, avoid nuclear war, improve environmental quality, etc.) one theorem at a time!
Now Let’s Try Real Student Aid Reform
www.cato.org
“Federal student aid is largely self-defeating when it comes to prices, and likely hurts low-income people more than anyone else.”
This article does a nice job of explaining how subsidies end up hurting the very people that they are intended to help. In the case of higher ed financing, subsidies which are intended to benefit students end up getting captured instead by colleges and universities in the form of higher prices for higher education than would otherwise exist in the absence of such subsidies…
Americans Are Far More Compassionate than “Socially Conscious” Europeans
www.cato.org
“Turns out that “selfish and greedy” Americans are the most generous people in the developed world.”
Gene-Sequencing Transforming Cancer Treatment
online.wsj.com
“A growing number of cancer practices are sequencing the DNA of tumors to uncover their genetic abnormalities. The aim: to pair a drug with the specific mutation fueling a patients disease. UC San Francisco’s Dr. Trever Bivona discusses.”
www.econtalk.org
This is a remarkable podcast which manages to offer solutions for the world’s problems as well as provide a sweeping overview of world history over the past 300+ years; as viewed through the lens of political economy. After listening to this podcast, I felt as if I had missed my calling by pursuing a financial economics rather than a political science academic career!
Here’s the summary (from the EconTalk website) of Russ Roberts’ “Violence Trap” interview with Stanford Political Science professor Barry Weingast:
“Barry Weingast, the Ward C. Krebs Family Professor of Political Science at Stanford University and a Senior Fellow at Stanford’s Hoover Institution talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the role of violence and the threat of violence in maintaining destructive economic policies that reduce growth and development. Weingast argues that the threat of violence encourages leaders to create monopolies and other unproductive policies to pay off special interests that would otherwise threaten a coup or revolution. Weingast shows there is a surprising amount of violent regime change in modern times and discusses how this discourages growth-enhancing economic policies. The conversation closes with an analysis of similar ideas in Book III of Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations.”
www.economist.com
The Economist writes, “Businesspeople have become too influential in government”.
The Budget Sequester Is a Success
online.wsj.com
“Good news–now that Obama’s spending blitz is over, the deficit is on the path to drop steadily, writes Stephen Moore.”
5 Myths About Libertarians
reason.com
“What you think you know is wrong.”
The Problem With Federal Food-Labeling Laws
reason.com
“Why markets are superior to government mandates when it comes to food labeling.”
online.wsj.com
“Modern pregnancy comes with a long list of strict rules, but does it have to? Economist Emily Oster examines the data and finds room for choice amid the familiar limits.”
Emily Oster is particularly skilled at using statistical methods in a way that enables her to differentiate between actual causation and mere correlation. As a case in point, Professor Oster’s explanation of the apparent correlation between coffee consumption and problem pregnancies is masterful; quoting from this article,
“We know that nausea is a sign of a healthy pregnancy, but … it also causes women to avoid coffee. This means that the pregnant women who drink a lot of coffee also are more likely to be the ones who aren’t experiencing nausea. So here we may well be mistaking a correlation for an underlying cause: The women who drink less coffee have fewer problems not because they limit their caffeine intake but because they tend to suffer from nausea, which inhibits coffee drinking.”
Got a great health plan? Get ready to kiss it goodbye
money.msn.com
“If your insurance comes from your employer, expect some painful changes related to Obamacare. Companies will pay a steep price for offering ‘Cadillac’ plans.”
Here’s a direct quote from the transcript of a speech that President Obama gave at an American Medical Association meeting on June 15, 2009 (source: http://blogs.wsj.com/washwire/2009/06/15/obama-if-you-like-your-doctor-you-can-keep-your-doctor/):
“I know that there are millions of Americans who are content with their health care coverage – they like their plan and they value their relationship with their doctor. And that means that no matter how we reform health care, we will keep this promise: If you like your doctor, you will be able to keep your doctor. Period. If you like your health care plan, you will be able to keep your health care plan. Period. No one will take it away. No matter what. My view is that health care reform should be guided by a simple principle: fix what’s broken and build on what works.”
Thomas Sowell – The Left’s Central Delusion
nationalreview.com
“Its devotion to central planning has endured from the French Revolution to Obamacare.”
www.econtalk.org
This is one of the best EconTalk episodes ever. Here’s the description of this podcast episode:
“Robert Pindyck of MIT talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the challenges of global warming for policy makers. Pindyck argues that while there is little doubt about the existence of human-caused global warming via carbon emissions, there is a great deal of doubt about the size of the effects on temperature and the size of the economic impact of warmer climate. This leads to a dilemma for policy-makers over how to proceed. Pindyck suggests that a tax or some form of carbon emission reduction is a good idea as a precautionary measure, despite the uncertainty.”
Pindyck also notes that other potential catastrophes such as bioterrorism, nuclear terrorism, and mega-viruses are more threatening than climate change, because they may happen sooner and could impose much larger costs upon society…
Don’t Mess with Taxes
www.thedailyshow.com
John Oliver’s 3 part (~10 minute) parody of the US tax code from Comedy Central’s “Daily Show” is not only highly entertaining but also quite informative…
The IRS Attack on Political Speech
online.wsj.com
“In The Wall Street Journal, former FEC commissioner Bradley Smith says that the targeting of conservative groups by the IRS is part of the long-time assault by campaign-finance scolds on the First Amendment.”
This (non-gated) WSJ article explains important subtleties associated with how non-profit organizations “qualify” under various sections of the Internal Revenue code (specifically, Sections 501(c)(3), 501(c)(4), and 527) and implications for First Amendment rights…
Obama’s False History of Public Investment
online.wsj.com
Quoting from this WSJ article,
“In all of these examples, building infrastructure was never the engine of growth, but rather a lagging indicator of growth that had already occurred in the private sector. And when the infrastructure was built, it was often best done privately, at least until the market grew so large as to demand a wider public role, as with the need for an interstate-highway system in the mid 1950s.”
 China–EU Solar Trade Agreement Shuffles Winners and Losers
www.cato.org
“The international solar panel market is a big fat mess, and this agreement merely shifts government-granted privilege from one group of special interests to another.”
Members Only
online.wsj.com
“How the White House is weaseling Congress out of ObamaCare.”
The Scientism of Steven Pinker
douthat.blogs.nytimes.com
“In which an attempted rehabilitation of the term “scientism” actually vindicates scientism’s critics.”
How to Help Fast-Food Workers
reason.com
“Raising the minimum wage will hurt, not help.”
Return of the Jesus Wars
www.nytimes.com
“Reza Aslan, Fox News and the Christianities that might have been.”
Assorted Links (8/1/2013)
Here’s a list of articles that I have been reading and videos that I have been viewing lately:
How ObamaCare Inflates the Cost of Cancer Treatment
online.wsj.com
American Enterprise Institute resident fellow Scott Gottleib on how ObamaCare hurts cancer patients. See http://bit.ly/1aYUFgN for a PDF copy of the Wall Street Journal article that this video interview is based upon.
online.wsj.com
Quoting from today’s WSJ op-ed by AEI President Art Brooks, “”Growing inequality isn’t just morally wrong,” Mr. Obama said on July 24 in Illinois. “It’s bad economics.” That is abundantly true, but not in the way he intended. He meant income inequality. But the real problem—and crisis—is declining opportunity.”
Inside the Phone-Plan Pricing Puzzle
online.wsj.com
Quoting from this article, “The four major carriers offer a total of nearly 700 combinations of smartphone plans—a family of five alone would have more than 250 options to choose from… “It is always a cumbersome, somewhat root canalish experience… I consider myself to be pretty educated but it makes me want to stick a fork in my eye,” said Erin Riordan, of Naperville, Ill., who has five children and manages an account with six lines from AT&T that produces a $495 monthly bill.”
Is Education Nationalization Falling Apart?
www.cato.org
“Education nationalizers must realize that Americans, largely, do not want overt federal control over what their schools teach and how their kids are tested.”
Obama’s Creeping Authoritarianism
online.wsj.com
“Daniel Henninger writes that President Obama is moving away from checks and balances toward a system of laws imposed by a national leader.”
A CEO’s-Eye View of ObamaCare
online.wsj.com
“In The Wall Street Journal, CKE Restaurants CEO Andrew Puzder says it’s no wonder the employer mandate for ObamaCare was delayed, because it’s hard to see how it will work.”
Morris Fiorina on Polarization, Stability, and the State of the Electorate
www.econtalk.org
This podcast provides a very compelling analysis of the ongoing polarization in US politics. Quoting from this podcast summary, “Morris Fiorina, the Wendt Family Professor of Political Science and Hoover Institution Senior Fellow at Stanford University, talks with EconTalk host Russ Roberts about the state of the American electorate and recent election results. Fiorina argues that while the Republican and Democratic parties are more extreme than they were in the past, there has been only modest change in the character of the American electorate. Fiorina discusses these differences in light of recent election results which show an inability of either party to sustain control of the Presidency or the Congress.”
Now That It’s in the Broadband Game, Google Flip-Flops on Network Neutrality
www.wired.com
“In a dramatic about-face on a key internet issue yesterday, Google told the FCC that the network neutrality rules Google once championed don’t give citizens the right to run servers on their home broadband connections, and that the Google Fiber network is perfectly within its rights to prohibit customers from attaching the legal devices of their choice to its network.”
www.cato.org
“The Detroit tax rates are generally twice as high as the U.S. averages.”
Overturning Bloomberg’s Big Beverage Ban, Appeals Court Notes That Mountain Dew Is Not Malaria
reason.com
“Today a state appeals court panel unanimously ruled that the New York Board of Health exceeded its regulatory authority when it enacted Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s big beverage ban.”
online.wsj.com
“(Economics Nobel Laureate) George Stigler said the important questions are rather (1) Does such minimum wage legislation diminish poverty? and (2) Are there efficient alternatives? The answers are no and yes respectfully.”
Francis S. Collins: By the Book
www.nytimes.com
“As an atheist evolving to agnosticism, and seeking answers to whether or not belief in God is potentially rational, my life was turned upside down 35 years ago by reading C. S. Lewis’s Mere Christianity.” —Francis Collins
North Carolina Ends Teacher Tenure, Teachers Will Now Have to Be Good at Their Jobs to Keep Them
reason.com
“Republican legislators in North Carolina have pushed through a proposal to revoke lifetime tenure for the state’s public school teachers.”
Maybe falling homeownership isn’t so bad
money.msn.com
“It’s now at an 18-year low, reversing President George W. Bush’s push to boost ‘the American Dream.’ Too bad it was a nightmare for millions.”
A Big, Tiny Deal on Student Loans
www.cato.org
“Taxpayer-backed loans that go to almost anyone have been a sweet-sounding disaster, encouraging people to consume education they aren’t willing or able to complete; prodding people who are college-ready to demand things that have little or nothing to do with education; and fueling rampant price inflation throughout the system.”
Aside From That, Mrs. Lincoln, How’s ObamaCare Implementation Going?
www.cato.org
“The Washington Post overlooks an iceberg-sized hole in ObamaCare’s hull.”
Narlikar on Fair Trade and Free Trade
www.econtalk.org
The podcast provides some very interesting (and somewhat counterintuitive) thought experiments concerning the economics of the fair trade movement. For any followers of my blog who might be interested in this topic (as well as the broader topic of development economics), let me also recommend another podcast featuring Duke University economist Mike Munger on this topic; he also outlines various unintended consequences of fair trade (see http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2007/12/munger_on_fair.html). Finally, there’s the monograph by an economist named Victor Claar entitled “Fair Trade? Its Prospects as a Poverty Solution” (see http://amzn.to/L9ihUb).
Feds Seize $841,883 from Used Car Dealer Accused of—Well, Nothing
reason.com
“Reza Ella, an Iranian-American who owns a car dealership in Albuquerque, New Mexico, may or may not be a criminal. Federal prosecutors don’t know or won’t say. But last September, they seized $841,883 from Ella anyway because the man deposited it in increments of less than $10,000.”
The college-athletics business: Basket cases
www.economist.com
“Student athletes seek a cut of their sports’ profits.”
Retirement benefits: Who pays the bill?
www.economist.com
“DETROIT may be an extreme case of fiscal incontinence. But its bankruptcy highlights a long-term problem faced by many American cities and states; how to fund generous pension and health-care promises that are no longer affordable.”
youtube.com
“Both cancer and HIV are two of the deadliest diseases that afflict humanity. But what if there was a way you could turn them against each other? These incredible scientists engineered the HIV virus to seek and destroy cancer cells.”
Have prisoners learned not to snitch?
timharford.com
“They finally tested the ‘prisoner’s dilemma’ on actual prisoners – and the results were not what you would expect”
Assorted Links (7/27/2013)
Here’s a list of articles that I have been reading lately:
Damage Control at Fortress IRS – WSJ
online.wsj.com
Peggy Noonan writes, “The agency crisis could permanently harm Americans’ faith in government.”
Children With Parents on Government Assistance More Likely to Become Dependent
online.wsj.com
“Does dependence on government assistance in one generation cause dependency in the next? A new economics paper suggests it does.”
Obama to Congress: Only I Can Amend ObamaCare
www.cato.org
“I’d wager lots of congressional Democrats are pretty angry at President Obama today.”
Unworkable ObamaCare
online.wsj.com
“In The Wall Street Journal, Bobby Jindal and Scott Walker report that the chaos—opaque rules, delays and inconsistent guidance from Washington—is mounting.”
State and Local Pension Liabilities
www.cato.org
“To fund these pensions fully within 30 years, states would need to raise taxes by $1,385 per household, per year, over that period.”
www.cato.org
“It is doubtful that people pushing the latest fad, such as a carbon tax, have any clue the degree to which global warming is being manufactured (rightly or wrongly) by systematic adjustments to weather…”
Examining the High Dropout Rate of MOOCs (Massive Open Online Classes)
www.brighthub.com
“Recently, MOOCs have achieved high popularity. It’s no wonder – these college-level classes are free and open to anyone with an internet connection. Although the free college courses have high enrollment rates, they also have high dropout rates.”
Facing Up to America’s Pension Woes
online.wsj.com
“From the opinion section of today’s WSJ, University of Pennsylvania law professor David Skeel writes “Public retirees everywhere insist that Chapter 9 does not permit any benefit changes. Their legal case is weak.””
Information, the Entrepreneur, and George Gilder’s New Economic Thinking
american.com
“George Gilder’s vision of data-driven capitalism has much to recommend it, but caution is warranted.”
Moderate Democrats are quitting on Obamacare
www.washingtonpost.com
“Democratic support softens as Obama administration prepares insurance exchange roll out.”
If Paul Krugman Didn’t Exist, Republicans Would Have To Invent Him
www.forbes.com
Paul Krugman is famous for routinely ignoring or (in some cases) even contradicting his own academic work when he writes for the New York Times. At times, it seems that he may have a split personality – as an economist, Krugman channels Dr. Jekyll, but as a columnist he channels the malevolent Mr. Hyde. For example, consider Krugman’s reaction in March 2010 (located at http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/05/opinion/05krugman.html) to then Kentucky Senator Jim Bunning’s attempt to block a one-month extension of unemployment benefits on the grounds (as explained by Bunning’s Senate colleague, Jon Kyl of Arizona) that “…continuing to pay people unemployment compensation is a disincentive for them to seek new work”. In the NYT article cited above, Krugman says that it is “bizarre” to worry that unemployment benefits reduce people’s incentives to find jobs — indeed, that this concern is even at odds with “textbook economics”. Apparently Prof. Krugman must count himself and his wife, Robin Wells, among those who hold bizarre ideas – or who, when writing economics textbooks, misrepresent economists’ views. Here’s what Krugman and Wells wrote on page 210 of their jointly authored textbook entitled “Macroeconomics (2nd ed.)” (see http://bit.ly/ee8Mb6), published in 2009:
“Side Effects of Public Policy. In addition, public policy designed to help workers who lose their jobs can lead to structural unemployment as an unintended side effect. Most economically advanced countries provide benefits to laid-off workers as a way to tide them over until they find a new job. In the United States, these benefits typically replace only a small fraction of a worker’s income and expire after 26 weeks. In other countries, particularly in Europe, benefits are more generous and last longer. The drawback to this generosity is that it reduces a worker’s incentive to quickly find a new job. Generous unemployment benefits in some European countries are widely believed to be one of the main causes of “Eurosclerosis,” the persistent high unemployment that afflicts a number of European economies.”
In closing, my recommendation is to only read Krugman if you want or need to know what the progressive left’s political narrative du jour happens to be.
www.businessinsider.com
“Prisoners were more cooperative than students.”
Obamacare Is an Expensive Failure
reason.com
“Where’s the affordable part of the Affordable Care Act?”
The Costs of Climate Change and Extreme Weather Are Passing the High-Water Mark
science.time.com
Quoting from this Time Magazine article, “”More than 5.5 million homes are protected via the National Flood Insurance Program and a little less than 20 percent of those homes – usually those who live in the most dangerous areas – receive flood insurance at heavily subsidized rates. The result is a perverse incentive for homeowners to continue to live in areas that are likely to be hit by storms and floods, knowing that the cost of rebuilding will be effectively socialized by the rest of us. At a time when we should be seriously thinking about retreating from the most high-risk coastal areas, government policy inadvertently supports living on top of the sea.”
Rise of the Warrior Cop
online.wsj.com
“SWAT teams were once rare, but they now operate at every level of government, from small towns to federal agencies. Is it time to reconsider the militarization of American policing?”
Assorted Links (7/20/2013)
Here’s a list of articles that I have been reading lately:
After Autism Scare, Measles Plague Erupts
online.wsj.com
“An outbreak of measles in southwest Wales presents a cautionary tale about the limits of disease control. Measles can quickly cross oceans, setting back progress elsewhere in stopping it.”
www.imdb.com
“Directed by Morgan Neville. With Merry Clayton, Lisa Fischer, Judith Hill, Darlene Love. Backup singers live in a world that lies just beyond the spotlight. Their voices bring harmony to the biggest bands in popular music, but we’ve had no idea who these singers are or what lives they lead, until now.” I highly recommend this movie. Among other things, the movie chronicles the very deep impact that gospel music has had upon popular music over the course of the past 40-50 years…
A Bombshell in the IRS Scandal
online.wsj.com
“A higher office is implicated, Peggy Noonan writes.” Evidence of a “smoking gun”, presented in sworn testimony which apparently points to the IRS chief counsel…
Trying to attract the young? Churches should change carefully and wisely
www.faithandleadership.com
“When I came back to church after a faith crisis in my early 20s, the first one I attended regularly was a place called Praxis. It was the kind of church where the young, hip pastor hoisted an infant into his arms and said with sincerity, “Dude, I baptize you in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Spirit.””
Civil Liberties and Security in an Age of Terrorism
www.independent.org
I highly recommend watching this recorded program, which asks (and provides answers to) the following questions: 1) Could the eye-opening reports on the government’s accessing all phone and electronic communications along with the reaction to the Boston Bombing be setting into motion a chain of events of ominous significance? 2) What should Americans be most concerned about?
Magazine’s Startlingly Provocative Cover
www.huffingtonpost.com
Business Week Magazine routinely sexualizes its cover photo, but this week they really went over the top with what HuffPo calls “Bloomberg Businessweek’s Extremely Phallic Cover”…
Milton Friedman Quotes at BrainyQuote.com
www.brainyquote.com
“So that the record of history is absolutely crystal clear. That there is no alternative way, so far discovered, of improving the lot of the ordinary people that can hold a candle to the productive activities that are unleashed by a free enterprise system.”
U.S. Seen Losing to China as World Leader
online.wsj.com
“A poll shows more people say China will eclipse the U.S. as a world power.”
Should Colleges Charge Engineering Students More?
blogs.wsj.com
“Why does a student majoring in English have to pay the same tuition as an engineering student who has much higher future earning potential?”
youtube.com
Hayek’s famous tract entitled “The Road to Serfdom” in cartoon form; cartoons shown were originally published in Look Magazine, and were reproduced for this video from a booklet published by the General Motors Corporation in their ‘Thought Starter’ series (no. 118). Soundtrack by Samuel Barber (Adagio for Strings, Opus 11)…
A Jobless Recovery Is a Phony Recovery
online.wsj.com
“In The Wall Street Journal, Mortimer Zuckerman says that more people have left the workforce than got a new job during the recovery—by a factor of nearly three.” Mr. Zuckerman, who is the chairman and editor in chief of U.S. News & World Report, parses the data for us and finds some very alarming and disturbing facts about the “jobless” recovery…
Race, Politics and the Zimmerman Trial: The left wants to blame black criminality…
online.wsj.com
“In The Wall Street Journal, Jason Riley writes that the left wants to blame black criminality on racial animus and ‘the system,’ but blacks have long been part of running that system.”
Union Letter: Obamacare Will ‘Destroy The Very Health and Wellbeing’ of Workers
blogs.wsj.com
“The leaders of three major U.S. unions say that unless changes are made, the Affordable Care Act will harm “the backbone of the American middle class”.”
The 2016 Disability Insurance Time Bomb
online.wsj.com
“In June, 11 million Americans collected benefits, up from 2.7 million in 1970. The 75-year unfunded liability: $40 trillion.”
Why the President’s ObamaCare Maneuver May Backfire
online.wsj.com
“David B. Rivkin Jr. and Lee A. Casey write that by postponing the employer mandate, President Obama has given millions of Americans the legal standing to sue.”
Why is so much oil carried by train?
www.economist.com
“A DEVASTATING explosion flattened dozens of buildings in Lac-MĂ©gantic, a small town in Quebec, on July 6th. Fifty people are feared to have died when a runaway train carrying crude oil derailed and exploded, creating a fireball that left the town centre looking like a “war zone”.
Pursuing Further Legal Action Against Zimmerman Would Be Tough
online.wsj.com
“The acquittal of George Zimmerman in the shooting death of black teenager Trayvon Martin has prompted some calls for further legal action, but there are significant obstacles to pursing the case in the federal or civil courts.”
Assorted Links (7/14/2013)
Here’s a list of articles that I have been reading lately:
Why we shouldn’t raise the minimum wage
www.aei.org
Here’s today’s ECON 101 lesson on the economics of the minimum wage… “Raising the wage will make it more expensive to hire younger and low-skill workers. There are better ways to help the poor.”
www.aei.org
Current US national debt is now $17 trillion – in excess of 100% of US GDP (estimated annual rate as of Q1 2013 for US GDP is $15.98 trillion (source: http://www.wolframalpha.com/input/?i=US+Gdp), and also $800 billion higher than it was just 7 months ago (source: http://blog.garven.com/2012/11/07/on-the-current-state-of-americas-public-finances/). Furthermore, quoting from the article cited below,
“In 2012 dollars, household net worth in 2007 was $240,790 per person. Even then, we were looking ahead to high deficits, and the present value of the implicit tax liability facing every American just to cover those deficits was $70,143, with the net of the two values coming to $170,647. At the end of 2012, per capita wealth had climbed back almost to its 2007 value, but the present value of future tax liabilities associated with deficits had climbed all the way to $152,216. So, accounting for federal debt, net wealth had dropped all the way to $62,322 per person.”
Tribal Politics in the 21st Century
www.american.com
I highly recommend this article; for an expanded podcast version, see http://www.econtalk.org/archives/2013/06/kling_on_the_th.html. “Progressives, conservatives, and libertarians each have a mythology in which they are the heroes and the other tribes are villains. Partisans of these three ideologies even speak different languages.”
The President’s Broken Window Fallacy: Carbon Policies and Jobs
american.com
Here’s a shoutout to FrĂ©dĂ©ric Bastiat, the 19th century French political economist who is famous for having penned the influential “Parable of the Broken Window” (cf. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Parable_of_the_broken_window)… “It is time to expose the flawed jobs reasoning behind President Obama’s new carbon plan.”
The $4.3 Million Bunch At Thunderbird
poetsandquants.com
“Pay for just ten Thunderbird profs totals $4.3 million a year” This is impressive considering that according to a recent WSJ article (cf. http://on.wsj.com/132S1nQ), the Thunderbird Global School of Management “… is selling its campus to a for-profit college operator as part of a last-ditch effort to bolster its finances as more people question the value of an M.B.A.” Another article (cf. http://poetsandquants.com/2013/04/06/b-schools-that-graduate-jobless-mbas/) notes that the Thunderbird Global School of Management also has one of the worst full-time MBA placement records of 2012 with 76.1% of the graduating class without jobs at graduation…
Big Government Implodes—and ObamaCare’s Failures Aren’t the Only Sign
online.wsj.com
“Mark July 3, 2013, as the day Big Government finally imploded… In The Wall Street Journal, Wonder Land columnist Daniel Henninger writes that ObamaCare’s failures are not the only sign of a great public crack-up.”
Replace the IRS with the Honor System
www.americanthinker.com
Since there already is an Obamacare honor system in place, in that the administration has announced to take enrollees at their word in self-reporting their income and insurance status (see “Obamacare honor system: Admin will take enrollees’ word on income, insurance status” @ http://bit.ly/18IPSSk and “Health insurance marketplaces will not be required to verify consumer claims” at http://wapo.st/17YorEI), why stop there?
What Austerity Looks Like in 2013: Taxes Up 14%, Spending Down 4%
reason.com
“The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has run the numbers for the first nine months of fiscal year 2013, which started on October 1, 2012. The results?”
Walmart Threatens To Pull Out Of D.C. Over ‘Living Wage’
jobs.aol.com
“City council forced to decide: are no jobs better than bad jobs?”
Assorted Links (6/16/2013)
Here’s a list of articles that I have been reading and videos that I have been viewing lately:
NSA Snooping and the Conservative Precautionary Principle
www.libertarianism.org
“Conservatives use the precautionary principle to justify domestic spying just as the left uses it to justify environmentalism. Neither is convincing.”
Noonan: Privacy Isn’t All We’re Losing
online.wsj.com
“The surveillance state threatens Americans’ love of country, Peggy Noonan argues.”
IRS taxing of tanning beds and other Obamacare absurdities
www.washingtonpost.com
“The White House has scuttled the idea of individual conscience.”
Pop Stars And The Rise Of Inequality In America, In 2 Graphs
www.npr.org
“What ticket sales tell us about what’s driving the gap between the 1 percent and everybody else.”
How the NSA Spies on Americans
www.cato.org
“A leaked (and secret) court order and other documents reveal that the National Security Agency has been collecting phone records on millions of Americans for months at a time, spying on e-mail communications with the knowledge of large Internet providers and collecting a vast catalog of Americans’ credit card transactions. Jim Harper, director of information policy studies at the Cato Institute, discusses the revelations.”
Germans accuse U.S. of Stasi tactics before Obama visit
www.reuters.com
“German outrage over a U.S. Internet spying program has broken out ahead of a visit by Barack Obama, with ministers demanding the president provide a full explanation…”
Assorted Links (4/14/2013)
The Grumpy Economist: Energy Idiocy
johnhcochrane.blogspot.com
University of Chicago finance professor John Cochrane asks, “What is it about energy that send all sides of the political spectrum into spasms of babbling idiocy?”
The Free Market Is a Beautiful Thing
reason.com
Trade and cooperation are superior to force and command.
www.economist.com
“Margaret Thatcher, Britain’s prime minister from 1979 to 1990, died on April 8th at the age of 87. We assess her legacy to Britain and the world.” I was fascinated to learn, among other things, that the “Iron Lady” was a fan of the following Abraham Lincoln quote, “You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot help the wage-earner by pulling down the wage-payer.”
www.economist.com
Fascinating article from the Economist about the economics of the PhD degree… Here’s an excerpt, “In a recent book, Andrew Hacker and Claudia Dreifus, an academic and a journalist, report that America produced more than 100,000 doctoral degrees between 2005 and 2009. In the same period there were just 16,000 new professorships.”
online.wsj.com
The Wall Street Journal reports that under the new White House budget public debt in 2014 will hit 78.2% of the economy. This reported 78.2% number represents more than a doubling since 2007 in the size of federal debt held by the public as a percent of GDP.
Google Lets Users Plan ‘Digital Afterlife’ By Naming Heirs
blogs.wsj.com
Google on Wednesday became one of the first major Internet companies to put control of data after death directly into the hands of its users.
Is Obamacare ‘the bullet to the temple’?
money.msn.com
Bernie Marcus, who co-founded Home Depot in 1979, says the massive health care insurance overhaul will ‘kill off small business.’
When the Government Plays Favorites
reason.com
Government continues to threaten our future while claiming to help us.
Obama’s Budget: Spending Too High, But Bush Was Worse
www.cato.org
The sooner people understand that overspending it is a deep and chronic disease with bipartisan roots, the sooner we can start finding a lasting cure.
How Much Does Your Name Matter? A New Freakonomics Radio Podcast
www.freakonomics.com
“The gist: a kid’s name can tell us something about his parents — their race, social standing, even their politics. But is your name really your destiny?” (spoiler alert: the “best” social scientific response to this question is “probably not”, although filmmaker Morgan Spurlock leans in favor of the affirmative…)…
MSNBC Host Melissa Harris-Perry » All Your Kids Belong To Us
MSNBC’s Melissa Harris-Perry considers the unborn child a “thing” which takes a “lot of money” to “turn into a human,” costing thousands of dollars to care for each year of his/her life. Now it appears that Harris-Perry thinks that, after they’re born, children fundamentally belong to the state. Narrating a new MSNBC “Lean Forward” spot, the Tulane professor laments that we in America “haven’t had a very collective notion that these are our children.” “[W]e have to break through our kind of private idea that kids belong to their parents or kids belong to their families, and recognize that kids belong to their communities,” Harris-Perry argued.
capitalistpig.com
Expected to be released this week, President Obama’s budget will limit how much individuals can keep in 401(k)s, IRAs and other retirement accounts.
The Sequester: Absolutely everything you could possibly need to know, in one FAQ
washingtonpost.com
I heard an interesting sequestration story over lunch today. According to the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office, half of the $85.4 billion in “cuts” for 2013 (i.e., $42.7 billion) apparently comes out of what had been budgeted for the Department of Defense for the current fiscal year. In percentage terms, this $42.7 billion cut represents a 7.9% cut in DOD’s 2013 budget (source: http://wapo.st/15vLbrI). Anyway, a colleague mentioned that at one of the service academies, the salaries of virtually ALL civilian faculty have been cut by 20%, whereas the salaries of military faculty at the same institution have remained untouched… I can’t help but wonder how that decision (i.e., sparing faculty with military appointments while really putting it to the civilian faculty) was made – probably NOT by a civilian administrator…
It Isn’t A Question Of If Obamacare “Collapses”
www.firstthings.com
“I don’t think there is a danger that Obamacare will collapse. It is a certainty. The question is what Obamacare collapses into.”
A Slick Marketing Campaign Won’t Save ObamaCare
news.investors.com
The White House recently released details about how it plans to market ObamaCare to the uninsured. It reveals most don’t want what they’re being forced to buy.
To Sign Up For Obamacare, Start Filling Out The Forms Now (And Hire A Good Accountant)
www.forbes.com
Want to apply for Obamacare this fall? Start the paperwork now. The Obama Administration quietly released a draft copy of its “single streamlined application” for Obamacare. This is the form that the government will use to certify eligibility for the program’s subsidies. The on-line version of that…