Monthly Archives: February 2011
Driving and Drinking: What is Moving the Prices of Gasoline and Wine?
Unless you have been laid up in bed, you are sure to have noticed that the price for gasoline has skyrocketed in the last few days, rising by about $0.25 a gallon here in south Louisiana, or about 8%. For extra credit only to the first of my students to correctly post the right answer, [...]
White House Proclaims Mission Accomplished for Stimulus Package
The new White House spokesman, Jay Carney, tells reporters in this video that the White House’s goals for the stimulus package have been met. If that is the case, then the White House’s goal must have been to bankrupt the federal government, to leave many states in fiscal crisis, and to wreck the dollar, while [...]
The government budget constraint and problems of deficit spending
Economists recognize a limit on government spending due to the sources for the spending for those dollars to be spent. Economists call this limitation the “government budget constraint.” We recognize that there is a tax to be paid one way or the other, different ways of raising the funds implies different taxes. Some of these [...]
Taxes vs. Fees
Two days ago I posted an article, “College Tuition is NOT a tax.” http://www.nicholls.edu/bastiatsbastions/2011/02/08/college-tuition-is-not-a-tax/. The idea is that a tax is a compulsary payment to the government that is not a direct exchange of a good or service. If you do not want to pay tuition, you can choose not to go to college. However, when [...]
Louisiana returning to the open primary for congressional races
Marsha Shuler reports for The Advocate in this story, “Feds OK open congressional primary,” that Louisiana will once again have open primaries for our congressional races. In open primaries, all candidates, regardless of party affiliation, run in the same race and the top two vote getters make the runoff, unless the race is decided in [...]
College tuition is NOT a tax
The Houma Courier ran a story yesterday with the headline, “Is a tuition hike a tax increase?” That is a question I will take. The answer is a resounding NO! In the article, Rep. Dee Richard, as a sitting member of the Louisiana House Ways and Means Committee, the committee charged with reviewing taxes in [...]
The Pentagon Papers, Wikileaks and game theory
As anyone who pays attention to the news realizes that in recent months, Julian Assange, the genius behind WikiLeaks , has released thousands of secret documents on the internet, and has been the subject of an international manhunt. His release of documents is often compared to the release of the Pentagon Papers by Daniel Ellsberg [...]
The case of the disappearing oysters
Oysters being overfished After having some delightful appetizers of char-broiled oysters at a local restaurant here in Thibodaux, I was especially disheartened when I saw this story about the plight of oyster production and habitat worldwide appeared on the influential Breitbart.com blog. It references an article that recently appeared in the biological science journal, BioScience. According [...]
Bernanke: stock market prices proof policies working. Oh, really?
Ben Bernanke, the Chairman of the Board of Governors of Federal Reserve, states in this article that the “…stock market rally that began last summer was fueled by the Fed’s efforts which improved U.S. economic activity.” The question is why has the stock market gone up in response to Fed monetary policies of increasing [...]
Another reason to study economics
On course syllabi, I have a quote from the early 20th century economist, Joan Robinson, “the point of studying economics was so as not to be fooled by economists.” I like to add “or by politicians.” Here is another reason to study economics: “so as not to say really dumb sh!# (stuff) to reporters.” Here [...]