Few Keynesians command more respect than James Tobin, at least on the subject of monetary policy, so this article seems to offer a convenient point of reference for an analysis of the prevailing view on the efficiency of monetary policy in assisting the macroeconomic performance of an economic system.
Davd Gelernter’s post confuses me. I think it is because he is confused.
He says “capitalism strikes me as the spoiled brat of the political and philosophical universe... Everyone knows about capitalism’s successes; we need to spare a little attention for its failures too.”
And what is an example of the failure of capitalism? Why, the highly subsidized and regulated field of education:
Any insurance involves the pooling of individual risks. Under this arrangement, there are winners and losers. Some of the insured will receive more than they paid in premiums and some will pay more into the system than they ever get back. This is a form of income redistribution from the healthy to the sick, but the characteristic mark of insurance is that no one knows in advance who the winners and losers will be. They are distributed randomly or unpredictably, and the resulting income redistribution within a pool of insured people is unsystematic.
Brought to you, surprisingly enough, by the New York Times, in an article describing how the crackdown on legal pseudoephedrine-containing medications has changed the black market for methamphetamine. One of the government’s hapless drug war strategies has been attacking drugs from the supply side, trying to cut off the sources (when they’re not attacking the demand side with brilliant stuff like this).
From Jason Hollon comes an interesting quote on Sarbanes-Oxley that made it to the mainstream Business Week (pay only):
(BusinessWeek, January 23, 2006). Maria Bartiromo interviewing Steve Schwarzman of Blackstone Group:
Q: The buyout boom in the ‘80s was fueled by opportunistic buyers of broken companies. But today corporations are lean and flush with cash. Are the pickings getting slimmer?
