Russell Roberts's Blog, page 1525

The Years of the Locusts

In today's Atlanta Journal-Constitution, George Selgin draws important lessons from the recession of the 1870s.  This essay is a must-read.

Prescient Tocqueville

Here's a letter to the New York Times:

Many of your readers are mystified that scores of ordinary Americans are so vocally opposed to Obama's, Reid's, and Pelosi's "Progressive" agenda (Letters, Sept. 23).

I am among these opponents.  A chief reason for my opposition was expressed by Alexis de Tocqueville in his book The Old Regime and the French Revolution.  Discussing the years leading up to 1789, Tocqueville wrote of the French state in words that have an eerily contemporary American ring...

Some Links

Carpe Diem's Mark Perry gives us some perspective on the 'unaffordability' of health insurance.  Phone it home.

Reason.tv's Ted Balaker takes on – in this 95-second video – Hollywood and greed.

Shannon Love, at the ChicagoBoyz, explains that "Elitism isn't defined by who benefits, elitism is defined by who decides."  True dat.  (HT Dan Kennedy)

EconLog's David Henderson's highlights one of the unintended (Or is it?!) consequences of Obamacare.  Sigh.

McKinnon, Meyerson, & Money

Here's another letter to the Washington Post on Harold Meyerson's China-bashing:

Harold Meyerson, like many pundits, continues to write as if there is no question that the Chinese renminbi is undervalued ("The real un-Americans," Sept. 24).

But there is question – plenty of it – and from some of the world's most respected and non-partisan international-economics scholars.  In today's Wall Street Journal, for example, the eminent Stanford economist Ronald McKinnon applauds Beijing for pegging...

Antediluvian Mercantilist

Here's a letter to the Washington Post:

Harold Meyerson notes that "a large number of American businesses, in a campaign coordinated by the U.S.-China Business Council, oppose" legislation to 'punish' China for its allegedly undervalued currency ("The real un-Americans," Sept. 24).  He continues: "The question here is whether the 220 corporations that belong to the council – household names such as Coca-Cola, Bank of America, Ford, GM, Wal-Mart, Intel, Microsoft, Hewlett-Packard, J.P. Morgan...

A Magic Show Without a Rabbit in the Hat

Here's a letter to the Washington Post:

Dana Milbank thinks the Democrats aren't sufficiently boastful ("Do-nothing Democrats," Sept. 22).  He writes that "Over the past 20 months, Democrats have done a lot – too much, the opposition says.  But they don't want to talk about the achievements.  The stimulus bill is unpopular; they're not getting credit for health-care legislation, financial reforms and many other accomplishments."

Enacting legislation is neither an "achievement" nor an...

Mary O'Grady on Manuel Ayau

Monday's Wall Street Journal featured this wonderful tribute by Mary Anastasia O'Grady to the late – and, truly, the great – Manuel "Muso" Ayau.  Here's part of that tribute:

Americans who are discouraged by the erosion of individual rights in the U.S. could learn a lot from Ayau's courageous journey. Rarely has one life contributed so much to the cause of overcoming tyranny simply by making a commitment to the promotion of free thought—and he did it in an environment that was exceedingly...

Stossel on the Future

Who will win the battle for the future?  I'm eager to see John Stossel's Fox News show on this question.  And so, too, should you be eager.  It airs this Saturday evening at 9:00pm EDT.

Some Links

Aid Watch's Bill Easterly champions trade as the best method of aid.

My colleague Dan Klein discusses the statist bias in academia.

Here's my follow-up contribution to the current issue of Cato Unbound.

My colleague – and GMU Econ chairman – Dan Houser is co-author of this very nice experimental-economics paper entitled "Fairness and Cheating."

Mark Perry, over at Carpe Diem, on the anti-growth consequences of taxes.

How it sounds vs. How it really works, Part II

In this earlier post, I referenced an AP story that the "cash for caulker" weatherizing program that was part of the stimulus wasn't working quite the way it sounds. Today comes a story from the WSJ that digs deeper into why the program has taken so long to be effective:

The Motor City has lots of drafty houses and tens of thousands of unemployed people. So when Congress proposed spending $5 billion to insulate homes as part of the stimulus bill, Detroit got excited. The director of the city...