Monthly Archives: October 2008
Walks, quacks, votes like a socialist
Responding to McCain’s sole zinger line in the final debate, “If you wanted to run against George Bush, you should have run for president four years ago,” Obama compared McCain’s voting record with the White House position and pointed out that McCain voted with the Bush White House 90 percent of the time. Then [...]
The Horror of the Shrinking Economy!
The Drudge Report headline, all day, was: It Shrinks! The word “it” refers to the economy, and the headline went up shortly after the Bureau of Economic Analysis (BEA) announced that third quarter GDP declined. Yes, we’re in the fourth quarter, but that’s not the point. Naturally, the news cycle was filled with proclamations of [...]
Nagin Dundee
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin has announced he is going to “dissolve” his “recovery department.” This is the department that has spent almost three years coming up with plans to help New Orleans recover from hurricane Katrina. For some reason, though, Nagin also went out of his way to mention that he is trying to [...]
Where is the Rational Voter?
Andrew Napolitano has an article in the Wall Street Journal today titled: Most Presidents Ignore the Constitution. The article analyzes several of the constitutionally unfriendly actions of past presidents and notes “In virtually every generation and during virtually every presidency (Jefferson, Jackson and Cleveland are exceptions that come to mind) the popular branches of government [...]
Isn’t it ironic
In my recent post “What’s so bad about redistribution?” I showed how large amounts of funds available to deal with some crisis, such as the credit bailout, caused businesses and people to compete over getting someone else’s money rather than do something productive to make their own. And in another recent post, I mentioned that [...]
The Autobahn to Serfdom
In 1944, an Austrian economist, Frederick Hayek wrote the book, The Road to Serfdom. His book was later shortened and released by Reader’s Digest, and even came out in comic book format and distributed by General Motors. Hayek dedicated his book to socialists of all parties. The central idea of the book is that socialism [...]
What’s so bad about redistribution?
In the now-famous incident where “Joe the Plumber” questioned presidential candidate, Barack Obama, over his intentions to raise taxes on individuals earning more than $250,000 per year, Obama said “when you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody.” So, what is wrong with that, what is wrong with taking from some to give to [...]
Housing Market Mess – Labor Econ Style?
I’ve felt kind of left out discussing the bailout. Dr. Michel does research on fiscal policy – particularly taxes – and financial economics, and thus this is right up his alley. Dr. Coats does research on public choice – government spending, pork, attempting to get reelected – again, right up his alley. And I, at [...]
What Financial Crisis?
Many economists have been going back and forth, arguing whether there really was a severe financial crisis that required a massive Federal bailout. I put my initial two cents worth in here. Now, a new report from the Minnesota Federal Reserve has re-sparked a debate between Alex Tabarrok and Mark Thoma and Tyler Cowen (Joe [...]
More Barney Rubble Economics
So, I’m in the middle of researching for another post on the financial crisis when I come across a new Barney Frank story. At first, I thought I had simply stayed up too late. But Frank really does say this: “There should be a moratorium on bonuses.” “They have a negative incentive effect because they [...]