Russell Roberts's Blog, page 1583

Annotated version of Fear the Boom and Bust

VA Classical Liberal annotates Fear the Boom and Bust at the Daily Kos. Superb. As we approach 1,000,000 views at YouTube, now is an excellent time to watch it again.

Ritholtz on bailouts

The latest EconTalk is Barry Ritholtz of the Big Picture talking about his book, Bailout Nation and the history of bailouts. Particularly interesting is his history of how the Fed under Greenspan tried to keep asset markets going strong. Very important and very depressing.

Rtiholtz on bailouts

The lastest EconTalk is Barry Ritholtz of the Big Picture talking about his book, Bailout Nation and the history of bailouts. Particularly interesting is his history of how the Fed under Greenspan tried to keep asset markets going strong. Very important and very depressing.

He Disobeyed Authorities

Mary O'Grady's account of the brave life and death of Orlando Zapata is inspiring.  She also reveals the cruelty of Cuba's thugs-in-chief and the complete want of decent principles of many other Latin American 'leaders' – including Mexican President Felipe Calderón.

Open Letter to Two NPR Reporters

Ms. Chana Joffe-Walt and Mr. David Kestenbaum

All Things Considered

National Public Radio

Dear Ms. Joffe-Walt and Mr. Kestenbaum:



Your excellent February 26, 2010, report on the history of how government officials chose the different methods that Medicare has used over the years to determine doctors' pay is frightening because…

… in your report, Joe Califano, a chief architect of Medicare, admits that the first method of determining doctors' pay was chosen for political reasons, namely, to...

Pretense of Knowledge

Russ this excellent essay in today's Wall Street Journal.  Here are the final three paragraphs:

If economics is a science, it is more like biology than physics. Biologists try to understand the relationships in a complex system. That's hard enough. But they can't tell you what will happen with any precision to the population of a particular species of frog if rainfall goes up this year in a particular rain forest. They might not even be able to count the number of frogs right now with any...

Maybe Even Give Such Authority to Each Congressional District!

Rep. Gene Taylor wants to make it more difficult for Americans to trade with Canadians and Mexicans.  (HT Andy Roth)  Here's one of two letters that I sent to the Hon. Mr. Taylor earlier today:

Rep. Gene Taylor (D-Mississippi)

Dear Rep. Taylor:

You propose to remove the U.S. from NAFTA.  Your stated reason is that the freer trade made possible by NAFTA destroys jobs in your state.

If you're correct – that is, if it's true that preventing people in one political...

Will to Power

George Will writes wisely on today's debate over the Senate filibuster.

Populism and Jurisdictional Competition

My friend and sometimes-co-author Adam Pritchard finds evidence of the unfortunate potency of populism.  Here's the abstract of one of Adam's recent papers:

This essay compares the current effort to reform financial services regulation with the regulatory initiatives that come out of the Great Depression. Unlike the 1930s, policymakers today must account for the impact of regulatory competition in crafting responses to the financial crisis. The available evidence suggests that jurisdictional...

Let's Hope that Joe Biden's Prayers are Answered…. Ooops, Too Late

Here's a must-see clip, from 2005, showing prominent Democratic senators courageously defending the filibuster against the naked power-grabbing of the then-majority-party Republicans.

(HT Reuvain Borchardt)