All Posts

Archive for All Posts

Potpourri

* Steve Landsburg blows up Robert Gibbs on wind power. Now Landsburg accuses Krugman of being asleep at the wheel, but I hadn’t heard Gibbs’ comment, and I work for an energy think tank. So let’s give Krugman a pass; he was too busy not apologizing to Jim Manzi. * A nice compilation of Roderick […]

Jon Stewart Busts Paulson and Geithner on the Bailouts

This is really top-notch commentary. In contrast, somebody like George Carlin was hilarious, but his condemnations of capitalism were often absurd. But Stewart is speaking common sense here: The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c Clusterf#@k to the Poor House – Wall Street Bonuses www.thedailyshow.com Daily Show Full Episodes Political […]

Megan McArdle Coming Around to the Austrian View?

Bill R. writes to me: I thought you’d appreciate this example of McArdle “growing” into her new perspective (h/t Instapundit): [Megan McArdle:] The best explanation for the calamity that has overtaken us may simply be that cheap money makes us all stupid. The massive inflows of international capital, which Ben Bernanke has called the “global […]

Me, Inflation, and Crazy Pills

[UPDATE below.] One of my favorite Will Ferrell lines is from Zoolander when his character is exasperated that others can’t see that supermodel Dereck Zoolander’s “looks” are all the same. He screams, “Doesn’t anyone notice this? I feel like I’m taking crazy pills!” It is with such an attitude that I read this piece from […]

In Defense of Harry Reid and Jonathan Gruber

C’mon kids, what Harry Reid said was not only not racist, but it was arguably true. If using that particular word makes him a racist, someone needs to tell these people to hurry up and change their name before getting booted out of polite society. It’s also absurd for radio talk show hosts to say […]

Jim Manzi’s Share of My Esteem Has Grown, While Econogeeks’ Has Fallen

It’s Jim Manzi vs. the geeconosphere! (For new readers, geeconosphere is my term for the geek economics blogosphere.) As you know if you have seen my over-the-top blog posts (which it occurred to me may freak Manzi out if he doesn’t get my “blog humor”), I am a big fan of Jim Manzi. He is […]

Never Forget?

So for my junior high project I’m explaining how fascism and communism were actually both forms of socialism, in the sense that both Nazi Germany and Soviet Russia subordinated individual property rights to the demands of the supreme leader. I just wanted to double check that people referred to Hitler as a fascist (as opposed […]

Taylor Rules Bernanke

I actually don’t know how I feel about the Taylor Rule. One economist (maybe Roger Garrison but I’m not sure) observed once that the so-called Taylor Rule was descriptive, not prescriptive; it simply codified a rule of thumb between price inflation and slack in output, in order to roughly explain the Fed’s actual interest rate […]