Futures Market Right on New Pope

“Lots of ordinary people putting their heads together do better than small groups of experts,” writes the BBC’s Stephen Evans:
If you had wanted to know who was the most likely Cardinal to be promoted to Pope you shouldn’t have relied on the pundits. Nor should you have taken any notice of the Vatican watchers who studied the arcane politics of the Catholic Church. Your best bet would have been, well, a bet - or, rather, an investment in an online futures market. They got it spot on.

This “culty” site

If Google’s spiders are right, the American Prospect seems to be running an article in defense of goverment (what a radical idea!) that refers to the “culty Web sites dedicated to Friedrich Hayek and Ludwig von Mises...” Not being a subscriber, I can’t see the whole thing. Can someone paste the relevant contents as a comment here?

A Whiff of Stupidity

In his column today, “A Whiff of Stagflation,” Paul Krugman correctly notes that we may be in for a rise in stagflation. Unfortunately, he then goes on to demonstrate why his John Bates Clark award should be revoked. (I often have fantasized of holding a “defrocking” ceremeony for people like Krugman in which we rip the stripes from his gown, cut his hood, and rip up his diploma.) The cause of inflation in Krugmanland? Why it is HIGHER PRICES.

The Mouse and the Market

As the history of the computer mouse shows, the problem is not a lack of technology. The problem is making it economically viable. Consider the history of the computer mouse, which was invented long ago but sat in the laboratory waiting for someone to improve it and make it accessible to consumers via that crucial ingredient: capital investment. Contrary to the usual claims, the accumulation and investment of capital is far more important to the progress of civilization than R&D alone.

Is Bush privatization voluntary?

A fellow keeps writing me with the claim that Social Security will not be mandatory under the Bush plan, on grounds that: “The employer or employee who doesn’t wish to participate in the portion for private accounts is absolutely free to stay with the old--and, I might say, antiquated--plan. We must change with the times.” Maybe it is definition issue, and it turns out that he is on the Executive Committee of the RNC (no surprise) but here is what I wrote him:

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