- I just finished watching the John Adams mini-series (via Netflix) last night. Highly recommended!
- The economics of Star Trek.
- A disappearing heart stent: An absorbable coronary stent shows promise in early trials.
- The auto bailout? $684,000 per worker. What a bargain! With decision-making like that, our economy will be
cureddestroyed in no time. - Speaking of the auto industry, why did Obama force out Wagoner? I vote for theory 2!
- Does belief in the second coming of Christ lead to counter-cyclical spending patterns amongst evangelicals? Does this mean they are a providential economic stabilizer?
- New Math: "Freakonomics recently linked to a wonderful site called New Math, on which Craig Damrauer develops mathematical formulas to describe the world. Here’s my favorite thus far."
- Briink Lindsey talks with Russ Roberts about the interaction between culture, politics, and prosperity.
- 9 Montana backpacking trips that will blow your mind. Montana remains quite possibly the most beautiful place I've seen in the US.
- Charting the cherry blossom front... in Japan. I was blessed to see Sakura (cherry blossoms) once in Japan. Incredibly beautiful. And speaking of Japan, here's how to master using chopsticks in 90 seconds.
- Student loan default rate up by 50% in two years. Unfortunately, I expect this to continue to rise. Looks like I'm not the only one.
- The ultimate face-off: Snuggie vs. Slanket.
2 comments:
That article by by Russ Roberts at Cafe Hayek is rather amusing in both its tone and substance.
All one needs to know about the author's opinion is summed up in his classic line:
"Nations don't have responsibility."
I wonder where Russ Roberts was all these years while the housing / credit bubble was building up. I don't recall his warnings...he was probably cheer leading the wondrous markets creating all this (phony) wealth.
I bet if someone had suggested during the height of the bubble to tighten lending standards, by say, actually requiring income verification, or even regulating the leveraging on credit default swaps, he would have thrown a fit and proclaimed how govt was interfering with the prosperity of the markets.
All in all, folly exposed, but the folly is all from Russ Roberts.
One more observation: one can criticize the govt plans for the economy...fair enough. But I have yet to hear one constructive alternative. Either the critics have no alternative ideas, or else they are afraid to voice them, for fear that it would draw even greater criticism.
So what would Russ Roberts do? One can only make wise economic decisions by comparing alternatives and their respective costs. By offering no alternatives Russ Roberts exposes himself.
One more funny thing about that Russ Roberts' article: he ends with the obligatory Adam Smith quote. I bet Russ wears one of those Adam Smith ties.
The problem with invoking Adam Smith is this: Adam Smith properly read in context was not some doctrinaire lassez faire economist.
Smith was more nuanced and ambivalent in his view of market capitalism.
As Prof Gavin Kennedy wrote:
"He wrote a critique of the existing political economy of the British state and, by implication, of other European states. He did not dismiss all government actions and interventions; his critique focused on specific government policies, some in place since the 16th century, summarized as mercantile political economy, and which directly hindered the creation of wealth and thereby allowed poverty to continue for a segment of the population."
"In response to these inhibitions by government policies, Smith advocated a substantial role for government in funding the infrastructure investment across Britain in project to ‘facilitate commerce,’such as in a national road-building programme, the creation of safe harbours for trade and travel, canals between population centres, the paving of large towns, street lighting, sewage and waste disposal, and the proper administration of ‘police’ (a broader term than modern day usage, which included ensuring the appropriate supply and regular availability of subsistence for town populations."
"He also advocated national education facilities in ‘little schools’ in every parish to educate every child to ‘read, write, and do account’, preferably with some geometry in place of Latin because such skills would be more suitable for young adults looking for work. He also made a little noticed case for government palliative care for people suffering leprosy and ‘other loathsome diseases’ (a provision with large future cost implications)."
So first off, we shouldn't hold out Adam Smith as some sort of all knowing God; he was a human being of his time. But secondly, let's recognize that the true intellectual legacy of Adam Smith has been distorted by far right economists and a myth created: that of Adam Smith as god of lassez faire.
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