The Red White and Blue Pill
Austerity. The best way to go from developed nation to emerging market.
A major fund manager has reclassified Greece from a developed to an emerging market, in an unprecedented move reflecting the “unfortunate economic tailspin” of the Greek economy, which has threatened the future of the euro.
Of course, the solution will be, More Austerity! It always is.
Not since OJ Simpson has there been this kind of useless extended coverage of a white vehicle in motion#PopeBenedict February 28, 2013
How to Make School Lunches Healthier
A better option was to replace these snacks with an array of fruits. This way, when students were waiting to check out, the impulse temptations were healthier options. Fruit sales increased, snack food sales decreased, and total revenue did not significantly decrease.
Oddly enough, the same sales techniques used to sell junk food work to sell fruits and veggies.
White House Grants Aaron Swartz’s Wish: Taxpayer-Funded Research Will Be Free
This is such a no-brainer that I am shocked it took 15 years from first suggestion to approval.
Economics 101 tells us to be very cautious about attempts to legislate market outcomes. Every textbook — mine included — lays out the unintended consequences that flow from policies like rent controls or agricultural price supports. And even most liberal economists would, I suspect, agree that setting a minimum wage of, say, $20 an hour… Continue reading Untitled
National Science Day is celebrated in India on February 28 every year
Can we replace one of the many national days of prayer with a single national day of science? Just one?
High Taxes Are Not a Prime Reason for Relocation
The Myth of the Rich Who Flee From Taxes
“It’s very clear that, over all, modest changes in top tax rates do not affect millionaire migration,” he told me this week. “Neither tax increases nor tax cuts on the rich have affected their migration rates.”
The idea that rich people are more concerned about money they pay in taxes rather than the money they make or the services they utilize seems counterintuitive to anyone looking at marginal utility of income at the high end.
No, Marco Rubio, government did not cause the housing crisis
For obvious reasons, this argument is very popular on the right, but there’s precious little to back it up. The core claim can be a bit slippery, but it tends to go something like this: the existence and affordability goals of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac (the GSEs) and the Community Reinvestment Act (CRA) were a major reason we had a subprime-driven housing bubble and then a crash. The only problem? Pretty much all the evidence on the housing crisis shows that that’s not true.
worth a read.
People on the right tend to use “Keynesian” to mean “liberal stuff I don’t like”, but aside from that definition, the 70s tell us nothing about the issues we’re discussing right now. You can argue that monetary policy was too loose, that the Fed was too expansionary in 1972 (when Arthur Burns was trying to reelect Richard Nixon) and that it failed to tighten in the face of oil-shock-driven inflation. But again, the idea that this experience has any relevance to expansionary fiscal policy in the face of a liquidity trap is totally bogus.
Worth a read.