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Does Economics Require Selfishness?

I am ready to be corrected, but I think Bryan Caplan (and the approving Gene Callahan) have seriously misconstrued economics, at least in the Austrian version. Bryan writes: applied economists habitually assume that people are selfish in the ordinary language sense of the word. Consider Yoram’s congestion example. Every applied economist says, “Raise the price!” […]

Freud in the News: Classic Projection by Secretary Clinton

From CNBC: The United States believes Iran may be heading toward a military dictatorship and that its Revolutionary Guard Corps is supplanting its government, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said on Monday.

Experience, logic, show government policy prolonging economic woes

That’s the title the Augusta Chronicle gave to my op ed, which ran on Feb. 13. I don’t think it’s available online, so here is the text they ran: ========== The U.S. economy shed another 85,000 jobs in December, when most analysts had expected no change or even slight job creation. Meanwhile, the Obama administration […]

Bursting Eugene Fama’s Bubble

More piling on the Efficient Markets Hypothesis today at Mises.org: In a recent interview in the New Yorker, Eugene Fama, Chicago School economist and father of the efficient-markets hypothesis (EMH), defended his theory in light of the housing boom and crash. Fama’s views on asset bubbles and business cycles stand in sharp contrast to the […]

Jon Stewart Makes Republicans Look Ridiculous

I don’t see how anybody can vote for Republicans if they watch Jon Stewart. (And I don’t see how anybody can vote for Democrats if they read this blog.) The 2nd half of this clip is so-so (the Hawaii special report), but the first half made me laugh out loud. Star Wars fans get a […]

Faith and Reason Are Not Enemies

I can remember when I was an atheist in college that I thought faith was diametrically opposed to reason. In particular, I could not STAND it when I or my atheist friends would level some crushing argument against a Christian who was (really) not nearly as intelligent as we were, and then the Christian would […]

Angus vs. Glenn Beck

I heard this “live” (i.e. I’m not sure if there is a tape delay but I heard it on the radio the day of) and I found it hilarious, but not for the obvious reasons. (HT2LRC) Pay close attention starting around 1:45. After Angus points out Beck’s hypocrisy vis-a-vis the bailout, Beck says something like, […]

Jim Chanos on China

Von Pepe sends this interview with hedge fund manager Jim Chanos, saying that he makes some interesting remarks about GDP accounting. Start the video at 4:30. Note that I am not endorsing Chanos’ overall opinion of the Chinese economy; I haven’t studied it enough. I know they have been inflating their money and credit, but […]