Cronyism and Sports Sometimes I feel as if I am just trying to “stir the pot” as it were and make my sports-loving friends angry. So let me say before I continue that I love sports of many kinds—college football and basketball, cross country, track, bicycling, and a few others to a lesser extent. But […]
Archives
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The “Cronies” versus the “Smithians”
14 Aug 2014
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Libertarianism: Is It Viable?
27 Jun 2014
I just finished reading the classic book by Jan Narveson, The Libertarian Idea, published in 1986. Now this book was no walk in the park. Narveson is a philosopher (and a pretty good one at that) and he writes in that very logical style–which I think we need more of at times. But whether you […]
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Piketty’s Predicament
24 Jun 2014
For those who don’t want to read the book, there is nice article by Jonah Goldberg in the June 24, 2014 issue of National Review Online. If you just woke up from a long, long nap or just returned form an isolated vactaion spot, you will remember that in April of this year, the book […]
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A Very Long Review of a Very Intellectually Deficient, but Very Big, Book by Thomas Piketty
09 Jun 2014
Before I begin this blog, I beg the reader’s indulgence for such a long book review. However I considered this book worthy of such a detailed examination, due to its popularity and influence, barely three months after its appearance. I do hope the length will be justified by the service it may provide. I promise […]
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Inequality, CEO Compensation and Thomas Piketty
27 May 2014
What do the three phrases in the title of this blog have in common? This is not a trick question, although some may be tricked by the rhetoric that has come from these. OK, you have had enough time to think about it. The answer is: Inequality is the “new” social justice term, median CEO […]
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Let the beating commence until morale improves! Senator Levin says close the tax loopholes!
08 May 2014
Sen Levin has a new target in the war against our large budget deficits–corporations that legally flee the U.S. to avoid paying taxes: It’s become increasingly clear that a loophole in our tax laws allowing these inversions threatens to devastate federal tax receipts. We have to close that loophole,” said Levin in a statement. This […]
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Don’t tax me, Don’t tax thee, Tax the fellow behind the tree! Latest obfuscation on taxes by Krugman within
27 Mar 2014
Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman delights in stirring the pot, and he is not only a brilliant economist (legitimately so in the specialized area of international trade), but he is also very clever. He doesn’t out-and-out lie, but he gives tidbits of truth while deliberately ignoring other facts to lead a reader to his own biased […]
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The Tax Man Cometh
07 Mar 2014
The monster that never sleeps—the Internal Revenue Service. I am reminded of the phrase in Thomas Hobbes’ Leviathan, written in 1651, which speaks of government as being “that mortal God.” Its purpose for Hobbes was to “overawe” everyone and bring order. Well, it looks as if we have a different kind of “mortal God,” one […]
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A Threat to the Rule of Law
01 Nov 2013
Well, as many know by now, Lois Lerner has been identified as the high-ranking IRS official who illegally sent information about donors associated with Tea Party-related organizations to the Federal Election Commission. In addition we heard yesterday that someone in the IRS did leak confidential tax information to the liberal Human Rights Campaign, which immediately […]
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Nudge, Nudge
25 Sep 2013
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 […]
Bert Wheeler
Jeff Haymond
Marc Clauson
Mark Caleb Smith
Tom Mach