Russell Roberts's Blog, page 1548

Arnold on mortgages

Much insight here. Two EconTalk episodes from now, Arnold will be discussing these issues in more detail. Who benefits from the current way that government subsidizes mortages? What would interest rates be? What would be the length of mortgages? It's a wonderful lesson in applied micro.

Open Letter to the Head of Boeing

Mr. W. James McNerney, Jr.

Chairman, President, and CEO

The Boeing Co.

Dear Mr. McNerney:

One of your company's radio ads proclaims that an advantage of Boeing's NewGen tanker over Airbus's rival product is that, being made in America, the NewGen tanker creates lots of jobs for Americans.  But your ad also boasts that the NewGen tanker costs less to own and operate than does Airbus's tanker.

If you honestly believe that using lots of labor to produce a product is a benefit bestowed on society...

Some Links

The best line of the day is from George Will's Washington Post column:

It is difficult, and perhaps unwise, to suppress this thought: [Gen. Stanley:] McChrystal's disrespectful flippancies, and the chorus of equally disdainful comments from the unpleasant subordinates he has chosen to have around him, emanate from the toxic conditions that result when the military's can-do culture collides with a cannot-be-done assignment. In this toxicity, Afghanistan is Vietnam redux.

At Forbes.com, Shikha...

Isner wins

70-68 in the fifth set. Unbelievable. What an epic match. Can't tweet it. Twitter is overloaded.

I love IJ

Kill It So that It No Longer Fears Death

Here's a letter to The Economist:

"R.A.," a correspondent at your blog "Free Exchange," discusses the tariff aimed at protecting 200 ironing-board-making jobs in the US ("Ironing trade out," June 23).  In doing so, R.A. mentions Matt Yglesias's (correct) understanding that any of these workers who lose their jobs today making ironing boards would have more difficulty than in non-recessionary times finding other employment.

From this fact, R.A. reasons as follows: "I understand why market...

The day in sports

The US scores the only goal of the day in extra time. The Mahut-Isner match at Wimbledon is 48-47 in the fifth set. That's games in the fifth set. Not the tie-breaker. The fifth set alone has gone more than five and a half hours. Maybe Strasburg will throw a perfect game this afternoon.

Who Is We?

Here's a letter to one of my favorite radio personalities:

Mr. Tony Kornheiser
The Tony Kornheiser Show

Dear Mr. Kornheiser:

Your show is great.  And while I realize that your chief goal is to be humorous, your monologue yesterday – lamenting that "we Americans don't make things any more" and filled with genuine worry about America being largely a service economy – demands a response.

First, it's untrue that Americans "don't make things any more."  If you go to

New Time for Stossel

Stossel on Fox Business is moving to 9:00pm eastern time (and to be re-aired at midnight eastern time).  Tune in!

And speaking of Fox, Tom Palmer will appear on this evening's Glenn Beck Show.

Hardly a Pressing Concern

Here's a letter to the Washington Post:

So the tariffs that Uncle Sam slaps on Americans who buy Chinese-made ironing boards save 200 jobs that pay about $15 per hour ("Indiana ironing-board factory faces stiff competition from Chinese companies," June 22).

Whatever the (questionable) merits of this tariff, its reality couldn't differ more from the rhetoric typically deployed to make protectionism sound appealing and sexy.  This rhetoric features much fine talk of encouraging strategic...