Russell Roberts's Blog, page 1585

Beware of Recreating Bubblicious Patterns of Employment and Resource Use

Brad Cornell's assessment of our current economic problems — and of some possible ill-effects of 'stimulus' spending — is very well worth a read.  And a reread.  (HT Arnold Kling)

To Badly Go

This morning I heard on a local DC radio station an interview with a tourist who complained that Washington's "scripted" inhabitants "have no real understanding" of the economic situation of ordinary Americans.

I agree with the tourist's assessment, but unlike her I'm not disappointed.  You see, to visit DC expecting to find people engaged in serious discussions of economics is like visiting a Star Trek convention expecting to find people engaged in serious discussions of astrophysics. ...

Psychiatry isn't a science either

Fascinating article by Louis Menand on the lack of consensus on what is depression and how to help those who suffer from it, if it exists.

Theft as Economic Policy

Here's a letter of mine to the Wall Street Journal:

Praising higher inflation, your reporter writes that "Governments in the U.S. and elsewhere, and many U.S. households, are sitting on mountains of debt.  A little more inflation could in theory reduce the burden of servicing and paying that off, because while debt payments are often fixed, the revenue and income that households and governments generate to pay it off would rise with inflation" ("Low-Inflation Doctrine Gets a Rethink, but...

Crowding out

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Cartoon by Gary Varvel. (HT: The New Seditionists)

Sure Enough

The New York Times reports that "President Obama will propose on Monday giving the federal government new power to block excessive rate increases by health insurance companies."

How fun!  Those of us who remember the 1970s recall the frolics sparked by America's last great experiment with widespread price caps – namely, those on oil and natural gas.  The resulting short supplies gave us the thrill of waiting in long lines – and sometimes even getting into fistfights – for the privilege of...

No Longer Slaves to Petty 18th-century Notions of Individual Rights

Here's a letter that I sent to the Washington Post:

Robert Samuelson observes that "Every advanced society, including the United States, has a welfare state.  Though details differ, their purposes are similar: to support the unemployed, poor, disabled and aged" ("Greece and the welfare state in ruins," Feb. 22).  True, but incomplete.

The founder of the modern welfare state, German Chancellor Otto von Bismarck, wanted, as he said, "to bribe the working classes" into devotion to the German...

Scrub these 'Laws'

Dan "Bulldog" Mitchell explains how money-laundering 'laws' intrude on our privacy and threaten our freedoms – all in return for no benefits to us.

Carry On

Atlas's and Cato's Tom Palmer is fighting for his — and your — Second-amendment rights.

If he wins, wanna bet that rates of violent criminal activity in Washington, DC, fall?

What we say vs. do vs. believe

One of the advantages of studying economics (at least the way it was taught to me) was to pay attention to what people do rather than what they say. What is interesting to me is how hard it is to internalize this idea even when your head says it's true. When the car salesman says it's a great car, we discount his claim because we understand he's self-interested. But with non-commercial claims, we often have trouble noting the self-interest. We know politicians dissemble but we often feel...