Russell Roberts's Blog, page 1435

No sense waiting

The National Education Association has endorsed President Obama for re-election before he even has an opponent. Tells you all you need to know about the NEA.

Unemployment and education

Here is a very interesting graphic (from Catherine Rampell at Economix) taken from the Federal Reserve of Cleveland:

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Generally, the more education, the lower the unemployment rate. But as the picture shows, the unemployment rate for high school dropouts instead of being four or five percentage points higher than that of people who have at least a college degree–it's now more like TEN percentage points higher.

Every level of education has a higher unemployment rate than before. But it seems that the least educated have the worst time and that the effect is much greater than in the recession of 2001 (although it may be similar to the recession of 1991–hard to tell from this picture.)

My speculation is that the narrowing of unemployment rates between 1992 and 2001 and the great increase in the gap post-2007 has a lot to do with the expansion and expansion in construction employment over this period. It's just a guess, though. It would be nice to have data on construction employment by educational level.

Kung Fu Panda 2

Took my kids to see Kung Fu Panda 2. I saw the first one–thought it was fair. The sequel is much better. The story is sweet and Jack Black (the voice of the main character) is funny. But the imagery is just gorgeous. Obviously animated films like this have improved over time. But it isn't just the animation but the ability to visually tell the story as a director, that makes a film like this so entertaining and beautiful. And it's just going to get better.

UPDATE: BTW, I saw it in 2D. Might go see it again in 3D.

A Sports Analogy that Works

At lunch today with my brilliant younger colleague Bryan Caplan I mentioned that I'm now reading Titan, Ron Chernow's 1999 biography of John D. Rockefeller, Sr.  (It's a pretty good read so far, but I'm only a quarter of the way through the book so my opinion of it might still rise or fall.)

I commented to Bryan that one notably irritating aspect of the book is Chernow's frequent expression of surprise that Rockefeller was such a good and giving man to his family, friends, and community (even before he was hugely rich) yet so doggedly effective at running his business in ways that made life very difficult for his competitors and many of his suppliers.  Chernow unquestioningly assumes that a good, deeply Christian, and generous human being would not so vigorously and unrelentingly outdo rivals, even to the point of – and without regrets – running those rivals into bankruptcy, as did Rockefeller.

Upon hearing the above, Bryan said "I wonder if Chernow would write a biography of a great sports star and, finding that star to be an upstanding and generous soul at home, express surprise that that star was unapologetically aggressive and competitive while on the playing field."

Skeel on bankruptcy

Bankruptcy isn't a very glamorous topic. But I think you will find this EconTalk episode with David Skeel of interest. He argues that bankruptcy would have been a much better way to take care of GM and Chrysler's woes and that the costs of the bailout were substantially higher than is generally discussed. Very clear and very informative.

Ye Olde Question for Mister Brooks

In his column in today's New York Times, David Brooks lists as among America's "problems" (his word) the fact that

[m]anufacturing employment is cratering even as output rises.

I wonder if Brooks writes his columns, essays, and books using only a quill, parchment, and snailmail.  If he doesn't use these inefficient means of production – that is, if he in fact uses computers, word-processing software, ink-jet printers, e-mail, and other modern techniques that increase his productivity (and, thus, that cause the amount of time that he and others spend producing punditicities to crater even as their output rises) – why does he bemoan increasing worker productivity in the manufacturing sector?

A True American Hero

Ever hear of George Ballas?

I hadn't, until 30 minutes ago.  I googled him and came up with a whopping 51,000 hits.  Sad, actually, as Mr. Ballas, whose death at age 85 is reported in today's Washington Post, was one of the countless people throughout history whose creativity and entrepreneurship help to make our lives better.

In 1971 he invented the weed-wacker.  He added welcome volume to our prosperity pool.

'Small achievement,' you say, with more than a whiff of contempt for such a bourgeois effort.

I respond, 'compared to what'?  Small, no doubt, compared to the polio vaccine, the assembly line, and (one of my favorites, given that, like Mr. Ballas, I'm from Louisiana) air-conditioning.  But large – huge – compared to the creativity of the political class.

Question: who has done more good for humanity?  George Ballas and his weed-wacker, or [name any one of the many the politicians who 'creatively' figured out a new way to spend person A's money to help (or 'help') person B]?

The weed-wacker reduces the time we spend trimming our lawns and gardens.  ("MyGod!" I hear the contemptuous mutter as they roll their eyes at such a trivial achievement.  "How many stirring speeches has Mr. Ballas delivered?" [None, as far as I know.]  "Was he a great general who led troops into glorious battle?"  [No.]  "Was he ever elected to public office?"  [Not as far as I can tell.]  "So he invents a machine to slice weeds and, in the process, makes a small fortune.  He was no FDR or even Gerald Ford or John McCain.  Get real.")

RIP, Mr. Ballas – bourgeois hero.  While no monuments will adorn the National Mall to celebrate your life, you did much more good than history will remember – and vastly more good than was done by any of the many butchers, frauds, and silver-tongued devils who do have their images recorded in marble or bronze in capital cities around the world.

An Empirical Question

I pose an empirical question, namely -

How many people today – especially professional pundits, professors, and politicians – believe simultaneously in both of the following propositions: (1) raising taxes on imports reduces the amount of importing activity significantly enough to cause noticeable increases in activities that are substitutes for importing (such as producing more of the high-tariffed goods domestically); and (2) raising taxes on incomes does not reduce the amount of income-earning activity significantly enough to cause noticeable increases in activities that are substitutes for income-earning activity (such as taking more leisure)?

George Will on the Morgenson and Rosner Book

George Will writes on the dark and despicable political maneuverings that inflated the now-burst housing bubble.

Happy 4th-of-July everyone.  Can we again declare independence from predators, today with names such as Barney Frank, James A. Johnson, and Chris Dodd?

Quotation of the Day…

… is from page 14 of James M. Buchanan's 2005 book, Why I, Too, Am Not a Conservative: The Normative Vision of Classical Liberalism:

But the classical liberal edifice would fall quickly if persons are independent in the sense that they fail to recognize themselves in an interdependent nexus of social interaction – a nexus that involves other persons to be reciprocating, acting and choosing human beings like themselves.

Indeed.  No one person knows, has ever known, or can possibly know all that must be known to make a pencil.  Vast social cooperation is required for the production of something even so mundane (to us lucky moderns!) as an ordinary commercial-grade pencil.  We are all, each and every one of us, hugely and mightily dependent upon the creativity, knowledge, efforts, choices, and willingness to take risks of hundreds of millions – in some cases, of billions – of our fellow human beings.

(I review this book here.)