Hans Rosling is at it again
Back in May I posted about the exploits of Detroit Mayor David Bing’s right-sizing of the motor city.
Mish has provided a comprehensive update including Bing’s latest plan: “to cutoff city services including road repairs, police patrols, street lights, and garbage collection in 20% of Detroit.”
As I’ve noted before, there are no good arguments for intellectual property.1 It’s really astonishing.
The folks at CoreLogic report that the number of homeowners who owe more on their homes than the homes are worth fell for the 3rd straight quarter.
In the 3rd quarter only 10.8 million homeowners were underwater as opposed to 11 million the previous quarter. In percentage terms 27.5% of American homeowners upside down or nearly so.
A friend sent me a circulating email (see below) that reads as a veiled promotion of neomercantalism. I accused my friend of promoting ideas opposed to liberty, as he had forwarded the email to many under his name. I replied, “Hmmm. So you are a neomercantalist – desiring closed borders as a means to promote war?”
He responded, “How do closed borders promote war? I thought you were the perennial isolationist.”
Economists and other pundits have been discussing the deal struck between Obama and the Republicans. It is an interesting topic because it showcases the enormous gulf between what makes good political sense and what policies are economically beneficial.
Precisely because value is subjective, voluntary trades are win-win situations. At the same time, market prices are objective measures of wealth, and these allow for rational economic calculation.
