Russell Roberts's Blog, page 1584

Desires Inchoate?

In a letter in today's New York Times, Joel Secundy – Deputy Assistant Secretary for Services at the International Trade Administration – tries to justify his job as dispenser of corporate welfare.  But try as he might, he fails.

First, Dep. Asst. Sec. Secundy asserts that "many American companies, especially smaller ones, don't have the political or business contacts to break into foreign markets."  Then, amidst some huffing and puffing about the promise of the National Export Initiative, he ...

Retirees Living Longer

Check out this graph from The Economist.  Forty years ago the typical American male retiree could expect nine more years of life.  Today's typical American male retiree can expect between seventeen and eighteen years – nearly double that of that not-so-long-ago generation.

More evidence that, in fact, ordinary Americans have become significantly wealthier since the early 1970s.

At Least One Industry is Doing Alright

The Mercatus Center's Vero de Rugy shares some data on the employment effects of 'stimulus' spending.  Bottom line: priming the private-market's pump with all that fiscal stimulus doesn't appear to have done much for the private-market's dynamism.

Kumbaya

Here's a letter that I sent to the Gray Lady:

Roger Cohen accuses persons who oppose further government involvement in health-care of being atomized, shallow, and "solipsistic screen-gazing" individuals who callously disregard their obligations to the community ("The Narcissus Society," Feb. 23).  Obamacare, Mr. Cohen waxes, "would involve 300 million people linking arms."  Rejection of it, however, means that we "turn away from each other and, like Narcissus, perish in the contemplation of...

Fools on the Hill

John Stossel recognizes parasites when he sees them.

We Won't Run Out of Oil

Here's my latest column in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review.

Cato University

This year's Cato University will be excellent.

My Case Against the Stimulus

The Atlantic's Derek Thompson – who's wonderfully fair-minded – interviewed me on the 'stimulus' and related matters.

UPDATE: As of August 2009, I am no longer Chairman of GMU Econ; eight years in that role was quite sufficient.  That honor is now boasted by my wonderful colleague Dan Houser.  I'm not sure why I'm still described in this interview as Chairman, but I assure all that there's no intention to mislead.

Frankly Lazy Fare

Here's a letter to the Wall Street Journal:

I wince when fellow advocates of free markets suggest that Uncle Sam is now akin to Hitler's Nazis.

Yes, like Nazis, many officials in the U.S. government today yearn to impose strict gun-control, see no problem with the indiscriminate confiscation of private property for allegedly 'public' uses, and advocate the aggressive prosecution of 'speculators.'  But for all of its hostility to individualism – for all of its overreaching and haughtiness – the...

Into the Maze

A tale of warning from John Stossel.