There’s a small issue that continues to annoy me and I thought I would write about it. Whenever the efficacy of a third party in presidential elections is challenged, people always point to Ralph Nader in 2000. This is, of course, very selective on the liberals’ parts. The reason why this case is always selected […]
Archive for May, 2008
Third Parties in Presidential Elections
Published by May 26th, 2008 in Fluff and Democracy. 1 CommentIn UES, we have a board that we use to attract new members at informational events for business students. Historically, we put names of famous people with economics degrees. If, someday, we should return to that, let us put another name on there: Steve Fossett, adventurer, aviator, explorer, and namesake for a WhiteKnightTwo-class suborbital ship […]
Is this one of Slade’s transcripts for a UES meeting or is it really the Libertarian Party debate? Well, the LP gets a few issues wrong (UES is more pro-intervention in terms of the military), but by and large…
Why math is useful in economics; or, the value of precision
Published by May 24th, 2008 in Economics. 0 CommentsThis summer I have been reading a little bit of Becker’s 1971 textbook, Economic Theory. I love this book because it is relatively short and has much interesting commentary which is omitted from other micro theory textbooks. The book’s strength is also its weakness—math often appears as an after thought.
Last night I read a section […]
We must keep an eye on these misfits, the Anti-Advertising Agency. It seems that their entire mission is to destroy both culture and living standards. That being said, I am still going to *try* the Add-Art application, despite the fact that if everyone does, we are doomed to advertisements in much worse places. (h/t Hunter)
According to The Everyday Economist, a PhD student at Wayne State University, Keynes gets a bad rap as far as his so-called General Theory is concerned. It sounds quite alluring:
Each businessman has his own subjective expectations of future profitability and other business conditions. If these expectations are pessimistic, businesses will invest less and therefore […]
Yes, I like to take a few moments every day and recall Margaret Thatcher, Ronald Reagan, and Douglas MacArthur. Today, Drudge Report handed my Thatcher moment to me so that I did not have to search long. From my favorite writer, Peggy Noonan, an excerpt in the Wall Street Journal:
And there is Margaret Hilda Roberts. […]
Well, we have our answer about whether the upgrade from version 2.0.4 to 2.0.11 works. It doesn’t. Back to the drawing board.
The Threat to Economics, Part II
Published by May 22nd, 2008 in Economics, Technology & Innovation and Policy. 2 CommentsThe best of economics concerns itself with answering what, how, and why questions. Here are some examples: why does the quantity demanded of Wild Cherry Pepsi increase when the price goes down? How are people’s investments affected by raising the capital gains tax rate? What does this person prefer to produce? Answering questions such as […]
On Awkward Utopia, we have recently discussed how robust the results have been from the so-called science of monetarism. I think that as far as it goes, the jury may still be out, though some authors on this blog would concur with the Austrians that the science of monetarism will only be whole once the […]
This photo courteous Carpe Diem, via The Club for Growth.
The Politics of (Monetary Policy) Science, Part II
Published by May 15th, 2008 in Economics, International Affairs and Policy. 2 CommentsNo sooner do I publish a post about the politics of monetary policy than does Joseph Stiglitz make waves with a post that directly contradicts substantial portions of my post. It is therefore worth a cursory survey of his claims. Stiglitz is going for shock value at the outset of this column, where he writes:
The […]
New subsidies for salmon farmers! Aquanomics properly says Congress has acted “in its infinite stupidity.“
The Politics of (Monetary Policy) Science, Part I
Published by May 14th, 2008 in Economics, Technology & Innovation and Policy. 2 CommentsEconomics is widely considered a science, up to a point. What kind of a science is an issue still up for debate. Some believe it merely a “social” science, and it is, though it is much more than any of the other social sciences. In particular, it seems that microeconomics forms the basis for the […]
Breaking up Teachers unions is apparently the main reason behind success in New Orleans’ public education resurgence.
