Kudlow’s Cuckoo for Clunkers
Today’s ostensibly “free-market” economists basically look at the economy in the same way as Krugman. They just have a technical disagreement over the best way to prod people to spend money.
Ludwig von Mises and the Paradigm for Our Age
[Composed for the occasion of Ludwig von Mises’s 90th birthday.]
Tech-support hold music
For those who feel compelled to document progress in our times, here is a point to add. The music played when you are on hold for tech support has generally improved in recent years. It’s not perfect by a long stretch but it is getting there.
For those too young to remember the bad old days, I have one word for you: trumpets. It was a cool jazz with trumpet doing the melody line, and then it would be followed by a spontaneous improvisation, which is fine the first time around.
Obama and the Economy
Travel with me back to yesteryear, the early days of the Reagan administration, when taxes were being cut and spending increases were being curbed (actual spending cuts were few), and when journalists were losing their heads about the supposedly catastrophic state of the economy.
Krugman on Bad Actors
In a recent New York Times column, Paul Krugman lamented our society’s lavish rewards for bad actors. No, he wasn’t criticizing the original cast of Star Trek. Rather, Krugman was bemoaning the hefty earnings that accrue to financial executives. Unfortunately, Krugman’s critique is riddled with irrelevant paper citations and internal contradictions.
It Started with Plato
Plato was the first of the “planners” and the true founder of socialism. In his Republic the Athenian philosopher set out a blueprint for the evolution of what has come to be called the “Welfare State.”
Inhumanity of the Minimum Wage
Except for such differences in detail, fixing a minimum wage by law has come to be a bipartisan project. That may indicate good politics — but it is no assurance that a minimum wage law will accomplish what is claimed for it.
Democracy in the Schoolroom
John Dewey thought he had found a short cut to a system that would train students to think. It has not worked. Our generation is uncritical of easy panaceas and a ready prey to the demagogue.
Bubble Economics: The Illusion of Wealth
The economic position that the United States is now in is the result of a series of economic bubbles. To explain the nature of bubbles, I’m going to start by talking about their history
Time Preference and Marshmallows
Jonah Lehrer’s article DON’T: The secret of self control in a recent issue of the New Yorker describes some fascinating research by on the importance of time preference by Stanford psychologist Walter Mischel.
