Here’s a timely reminder of the folly of those mainstream economists — to a man, maths aficionados who perform all manner of abstruse, but largely meaningless, numerical manipulations with government data that they might try (and usually ignominiously fail) to predict where the price of beans will be tomorrow.
James Glassman interviews Milton Friedman with the transcript printed on Tech Central Station (thanks Norm Singleton). The upshot is that Friedman believes the US ought to prevent drug reimportation so that domestic drug manufacturers can continue to charge very prices to capture the costs associated with gaining FDA-drug approval. In the dynamics of interventionist logic, this is going exactly the wrong direction.
Trying to deflect criticism that the 2005 budget will be more than a half trillion dollars in deficit, the White House is accusing Congress of lying about the full costs of the prescription drug coverage Bush signed into law last December, according to the New York Times (free registration required). In response, “Democrats said Congress should investigate the discrepancy to find out when the administration first realized that the bill might cost [$140 billion] more than the $400 billion sum proposed by Mr.
The New York Times reports today (free registration required) on a popular $195 board game called Cashflow. “Many players say the game gives them tools to gain wealth, helping them figure out ways to pursue their dreams by earning income beyond their 9-to-5 jobs.”
Though I have never heard if it, Cashflow sounds like an improvement over Parker Brothers’ Monopoly, that Depression-era game that drives home the false message that success in business implies success in a zero-sum game.
Writes Chin Fang: Early last week, I had an opportunity to see Burt Blumert. During our conversation about your book Speaking of Liberty, I mentioned to him in passing our recent spam reduction experience and how our case really echos what you elaborated in your mises.org article “Why The State Is Different“.
This one is mind-boggling. The Los Angeles City Council members have decided that they want to ban Wal-Mart from operating within the city limits. (It’s the work of the labor unions, who have been lobbying in order to put an end to their non-union competition.) Here’s the LA Times:
As we are all, no doubt, already sick of hearing, in the press release which accompanied its decision to leave US interest rates unchanged at 40-year lows, the Federal Reserve did not, as it had done before, say this stance would be maintained for a ‘considerable’ period henceforth - but merely that the bank would be ‘patient’ before raising rates. Such is the cabbalistic nonsense with which we have to put up in what Alan Greenspan’s thinks is a world free of government interference that this small change was enough to send markets worldwide into a widespread tizzy.
FEE this morning links to an AP story on how the US has scrapped plans to privatize Iraq’s oil industry. Much more interesting, however, is the article linked on the same item: a wonderful short piece by Murray Rothbard called “Government in Business“ that ran in The Freeman in 1956.
Ahhh, be still this CPA’s heart.....4th quarter earnings have been rolling in, and the annual reports will be out shortly. Oh goody! There’s some notable stuff out there, but here’s a quickie slice-and-dice:
