Economics is often thought of as a quasi-hard science; a field where number crunching and rationality yield positive and true results. While Ph.D.s in the field acknowledge that it is often hard to account for all the variables, in the past they would argue that if it were possible to account for all factors, a mathematical […]
Archives
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Nudge, Nudge
25 Sep 2013
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During President Obama’s two campaigns, Republican critics suggested his signature health care law, the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) was socialism, since the government was trying to centrally plan 1/7 of the economy. Naturally Democrats reject that characterization, and accuse the Republicans of demonizing the president. Rather than focus on the question […]
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The Winds of Change?
13 Sep 2013
From today’s Wall Street Journal: Poll Finds Republicans Gain Favor on Key Issues.
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Capitalist Virtues: An Oxymoron?
12 Sep 2013
I am in the middle of reading a couple of really interesting and controversial books on capitalism. One is Deidre McCloskey’s The Bourgeois Virtues: Ethics for An Age of Commerce. University of Chicago Press, 2006. This is a big book on big subject, a grand sweep type of book with high ambition. McCloskey is currently a […]
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Looking for Microcosms in DC
28 Aug 2013
This is the first of what might be an ongoing series of posts based on our experience here in the District of Columbia (that’s Washington) this Fall. Today’s post was stimulated by both some visits to public buildings and an article today by Lee Habeeb, in the National Review entitled “Risk Mismanagement.” My own experience […]
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Crony Capitalism
23 Aug 2013
This summer I asked my colleagues at Bereans at the Gate a question – How might we define “crony capitalism”? The consensus was that “rent seeking” – the explicit and direct use of time and money for economic gain without productive wealth creation – was at the root of crony capitalism. When we think of […]
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A Moral Case for Markets?
20 Aug 2013
Some of you who read this blog and some who have read the recent works by Robert Sirico and Arthur Brooks know that the need of the hour seems to be to make a moral case for markets. Nearly everyone admits their efficiency and ability to create massive wealth. But the criticism on ethical […]
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So says a new book reviewed by Martin Wolf in the Financial Times, The Entrepreneurial State. The basic thesis is that Yes, innovation depends on bold entrepreneurship. But the entity that takes the boldest risks and achieves the biggest breakthroughs is not the private sector; it is the much-maligned state. Martin Wolf approves of this […]
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Nanny McPhee and the Nanny State
12 Jul 2013
Director Kirk Jones brought the award winning British actress Emma Thompson to American screens in a humorous and funky children’s tale entitled Nanny McPhee back in 2005. The context of the story is a widower with several untamed children who go through nannies like babies go through diapers. McPhee shows up announced. She is a […]
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Yesterday President Obama announced he is not going to be hindered by lack of congressional action on Global Warming; he’ll use Executive Orders to implement his vision, since Mr. Obama avers that “We don’t have time for a meeting of the Flat Earth Society.” The WSJ has a nice editorial on this today, noting that […]
Bert Wheeler
Jeff Haymond
Marc Clauson
Mark Caleb Smith
Tom Mach