All Posts

Archive for All Posts

Assuming a Can Opener?

Something is screwy in the health care debate. Advocates of “reform” keep repeating a point that doesn’t make sense to me. I’ll quote Krugman, but others are saying it too: As I said, the individual mandate probably should be stronger than it is in the Finance Committee’s bill. But there’s a reason the mandate was […]

Wow I Must Annoy Bryan Caplan

When it comes to his observations on children, I simply refuse to believe his two counterintuitive claims: (1) Parents don’t matter. (2) Children were never a good investment, even for families in traditional agricultural societies. As I say, Bryan must be incredibly frustrated with someone like me who basically says, “I don’t care what data […]

The Pot Calling the Kettle a Pot

Paul Krugman, Oct. 16, 2009: For a long time, there’s been an accepted way for commentators on politics and to some extent economics to distinguish themselves: by shocking the bourgeoisie, in ways that of course aren’t really dangerous… Clever snark like this can get you a long way in career terms — but the trick […]

Bullet Points

* On a recent trip in a Buddy Holly plane, Nature called so urgently that I actually had to go in the prop jet’s bathroom, which had roughly the volume of a basketball for the WNBA. I wasn’t particularly nervous about the talk I was going to give, so I concluded that it must have […]

Theists Don’t Get No Respect, I Tell Ya

I am responding to posts by secular Austrian fellow travelers, so this doesn’t violate my policy of only bringing up religion on Sundays. And I will keep this a broad issue of theism vs. atheism; no J-word. Example #1: Gene Callahan acts in his typical fashion of winning hearts and minds. (A choice quote: “Oh, […]

Potpourri

* My critique [.pdf] of William Nordhaus’ “DICE” model (arguing for a carbon tax) in The Independent Review is now online. Also of interest is Dan Shahar’s article (summary here) in the same issue on “Climate Change and Justice.” * Speaking of climate change, here’s an odd post where Joe Romm excoriates the Saudis for […]

Taking a Random Walk

Many experts will tell you to stop studying the economy and the markets, that the best thing to do is “buy and hold.” Apropos that advice: Congratulations investors. The Dow has hit 10,000 on October 14th, 2009. You now have made officially 0 percent return if you invested in this index when the Dow first […]

Free Free Advice

In response to numerous complaints, I have removed the one remaining Google ad from the left margin. Please tell me if that solves the problem of ads blocking the text. If that does the trick, I’m happy to leave things like this for a while. I will adopt the strategy of drug dealers on government-produced […]