Greg Mankiw on Fiscal Policy
Posted: March 31, 2010 Filed under: Budget Deficits, Health Care, Health Insurance, Uncategorized Leave a comment »“”Would you rather go back to 1950s medical care and 1950s prices?” If that option were offered at your place of work, my guess is that you would not take it. What that means is, in some real sense, healthcare is cheaper today if you adjust prices properly to account for quality improvements.”
http://econlog.econlib.org/archives/2010/03/greg_mankiw_on.html
Daniel J. Smith
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Unexpected Flight Delay => Hotel Stay => Criminal Prosecution for Gun Possession
Posted: March 31, 2010 Filed under: Firearms Leave a comment »Horwitz on Parenting
Posted: March 31, 2010 Filed under: Family Leave a comment »“1. Yes, you can be too paranoid when it comes to the safety of your children. If your fear for their safety prevents them from learning the benefits of self-reliance, you are being “too paranoid” and engaging in “Corner Solution Parenting.”
2. Your children are in FAR more danger of being kidnapped or sexually abused at the hands of husbands and “trusted” friends and relatives than they are from strangers, especially in public like the example Skenazy discusses. It is the same point made hilariously by South Park in “Child Abduction Is Not Funny.”
http://www.coordinationproblem.org/2010/03/time-to-play-spot-the-fallacies-parenting-edition.html
Broken Window
Posted: March 31, 2010 Filed under: Broken Window Fallacy Leave a comment »http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SQFhm4s_-Pk
Importance of Profits
Posted: March 31, 2010 Filed under: Prices, Profit Leave a comment »http://seanwmalone.blogspot.com/2010/02/importance-of-profits.html
Surprise: The Law of Demand Applies to Health Care
Posted: March 31, 2010 Filed under: Health Care, Health Insurance Leave a comment »http://www.john-goodman-blog.com/surprise-the-law-of-demand-applies-to-health-care/
Ten Rules for Dealing with Police
Posted: March 31, 2010 Filed under: Corruption, Police, Uncategorized Leave a comment »Sent to you via Google Reader
Ten Rules for Dealing with Police
Outstanding new film, premiered at the Cato Institute last week. Watch it here. Lots of useful advice for law-abiding citizens about how to properly exercise their rights to refuse searches that are not based on warrants or probable cause, and other efforts to trick citizens into waiving their rights.
http://www.cato.org/events/100212screening.html
Wall Street is driving up oil prices – Oil & energy
Posted: March 31, 2010 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment »Most economically ignorant sentence I’ve seen this morning: “The recent rise in [oil] prices seems to be driven by Wall Street investors — not market supply and demand.”
John W. Schoen would receive an F in my class for that…
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/36107405/ns/business-oil_and_energy/
Daniel J. Smith
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Fossil fuel subsidies dwarf clean energy subsidies; Obama wants to eliminate them
Posted: March 30, 2010 Filed under: Environment, Subsidies Leave a comment »Police Abuse of Asset Forfeiture
Posted: March 30, 2010 Filed under: Asset Forfeiture, Police Leave a comment »http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_hytkAaoF2k&feature=player_embedded
Will Taxes on The Rich Pay for ObamaCare?
Posted: March 30, 2010 Filed under: Health Care, Health Insurance, Laffer Curve, Taxes Leave a comment »“The president intends to squeeze an extra $1.2 trillion over 10 years from a tiny sliver of taxpayers who already pay more than half of all individual taxes. It won’t work… Punitive tax rates on high-income individuals do not increase revenue.
The maximum tax rate fell to 28% in 1988-90 from 50% in 1986, yet individual income tax receipts rose to 8.3% of GDP in 1989 from 7.9% in 1986. The top tax rate rose to 31% in 1991 and revenue fell to 7.6% of GDP in 1992. The top tax rate was increased to 39.6% in 1993, along with numerous major revenue enhancers such as raising the taxable portion of Social Security to 85% of benefits from 50% for seniors who saved or kept working. Yet individual tax revenues were only 7.8% of GDP in 1993, 8.1% in 1994, and did not get back to the 1989 level until 1995.”
http://www.john-goodman-blog.com/will-taxes-on-the-rich-pay-for-obamacare/
USDA
Posted: March 30, 2010 Filed under: Consumer Safety, Unintended Consequences, USDA Leave a comment »“In the mid-1990s, the USDA decided to require that all cereals and grains be fortified with folic acid in an effort to prevent spina bifida and anencephaly. Then a few years ago, the National Center for Health Statistics published a study showing the levels of folic acid in the population were far above the levels needed to prevent birth defects (though the instances of those two birth defects didn’t actually decline). Now a new study demonstrates that folates in overabundance could actually lead to a higher likelihood of asthma.”
http://www.john-goodman-blog.com/the-nanny-state/
David Friedman on Market Failure
Posted: March 30, 2010 Filed under: Market Failures Leave a comment »http://ksu-yal.ning.com/video/david-friedmans-speech-on
Will Republicans’ Prescription Drug Entitlement End Up Costing More than “ObamaCare?”
Posted: March 30, 2010 Filed under: Health Care, Health Insurance Leave a comment »http://www.taxfoundation.org/blog/show/26081.html
EPA Testing
Posted: March 30, 2010 Filed under: Consumer Safety, Corruption, EPA Leave a comment »“ But this week the Government Accountability Office reported on its test of the EPA’s testing.
GAO obtained Energy Star certifications for 15 bogus products, including a gas-powered alarm clock.
Even worse: The GAO attached a feather duster to a space heater, sent the photo to the EPA, and got approval in just 11 days.”
“I can’t wait until they tell me which heart drug to take”
http://stossel.blogs.foxbusiness.com/2010/03/27/brilliant-government-testing/#ixzz0jfLDEExC
Cutting Saturday Mail Delivery: Delaying the Inevitable
Posted: March 30, 2010 Filed under: Uncategorized Leave a comment »Sent to you via Google Reader
Cutting Saturday Mail Delivery: Delaying the Inevitable
A majority of Americans support ending Saturday mail deliveries to help the U.S. Postal Service solve its financial problems, but most oppose shuttering local branches, according to a new Washington Post poll.
The public support for moving to five-day deliveries may bolster a new proposal to end six-day deliveries to help the mail agency trim hundreds of billions of dollars in losses by 2020.
The elimination of Saturday delivery is at best a stop-gap measure. Competition from private carriers, both paper and electronic, will almost certainly doom the Post Office to bigger and bigger losses, regardless of Saturday service.
What’s the answer? On the one hand, end the Post office monopoly on delivery of first-class mail. This will hurt the Post Office but help customers by allowing competition.
On the other hand, unshackle the Post Office. Eliminate the Congressional requirement that it serve low-density rural areas. Allow it to fire its unionized workforce.
That is, make the Post Office a truly private company. If it survives under those conditions, fine. If not, that’s fine too.
Daniel J. SmithSent Via Mobile Phone
How Many Global Deaths from Arms?
Posted: March 29, 2010 Filed under: Firearms Leave a comment »“
Currently, the United Nations is drafting an Arms Trade Treaty to impose strict controls on firearms and other weapons. In support of hasty adoption of the Treaty, a UN-related organization of Treaty supporters is has produced a report claiming that armed violence is responsible for 740,000 deaths annually. This Article carefully examines the claim. We find that the claim is based on dubious assumptions, cherry-picking data, and mathematical legerdemain which is inexplicably being withheld from the public. The refusal to disclose the mathematical calculations used to create the 740,000 factoid is itself cause for serious suspicion; our own calculations indicate that the 740,000 figure is far too high.
Further, while the report claims that 60% of homicides are perpetrated with firearms, our review of the data on which report claimed to rely yields a 22% rate. The persons responsible for the report have refused to release their homicide calculations, or any other calculations.
This Article also shows how a narrow focus on restricting firearms ownership continues to distract international attention from life-saving, viable solutions. We propose some practical alternatives which have already saved lives in war-ravaged areas.”
http://volokh.com/2010/03/29/how-many-global-deaths-from-arms/
ObamaCare Slams Employers, Retirees
Posted: March 29, 2010 Filed under: Health Care, Health Insurance Leave a comment »http://www.john-goodman-blog.com/obamacare-slams-employers-retirees/
Don’t Do Unto Me as I Do Unto You
Posted: March 29, 2010 Filed under: Democracy, Politics Leave a comment »“He says “I understand people are going to criticize my decisions – I’m an elected official – but my wife, my kids, my neighbors are out of bounds.”
As my friend Mark LeBar points out to me in a private e-mail (quoted here with Mark’s permission): “Interesting that Rep. Driehaus himself doesn’t take my wife, my kids, my body, or anything else about me, to be ‘out of bounds’ when he legislates. It’s all up for grabs in the legislative process; there are no bounds to what he is entitled to impose on me through force. Probably he should not be surprised that people become less inclined to respect those ‘bounds’ – which are, indeed, bounds of decency – when the political class has so far rejected and replaced common decency with its officious and intrusive will.” “
http://cafehayek.com/2010/03/dont-do-unto-me-as-i-do-unto-you.html
Don Boudreaux Debates Thea Lee on Free Trade
Posted: March 29, 2010 Filed under: Fair Trade, Free Trade, Uncategorized Leave a comment »Sent to you via Google Reader
Don Boudreaux Debates Thea Lee on Free Trade
The video is roughly 93 minutes and well worth the time: http://www.isi.org/lectures/flvplayer/lectureplayer.aspx?file=v000128_cicero_110206.flv&dir=flv/lectures
Daniel J. SmithSent Via Mobile Phone
EPA vs. older homes
Posted: March 29, 2010 Filed under: Consumer Safety, EPA, Regulation, Uncategorized Leave a comment »Sent to you via Google Reader
EPA vs. older homes
Milton Friedman – Health Care in a Free Market
Posted: March 29, 2010 Filed under: Consumer Safety, FDA, Health Care, Health Insurance, Licensing Leave a comment »http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-6t-R3pWrRw&feature=related
Responsibility to the Poor
Posted: March 29, 2010 Filed under: Free markets, Income Gap, Inequality, Poverty Leave a comment »http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rls8H6MktrA&feature=related
Milton Friedman – Rising Cost of Health Care
Posted: March 29, 2010 Filed under: Health Care, Health Insurance Leave a comment »http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F092cdUYec0&feature=related
Student-loan reform slid into health care law
Posted: March 29, 2010 Filed under: Health Care, Health Insurance, Politics, Uncategorized Leave a comment »http://m.washingtontimes.com/news/2010/mar/29/student-loan-takeover-slips-through-with-health-ca/
Daniel J. Smith
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AT&T, Deere CEOs Called by Waxman to Back Up Health-Bill Costs – BusinessWeek
Posted: March 29, 2010 Filed under: Government, Health Care, Health Insurance, Intervention, Slippery Slope, Uncategorized Leave a comment »Daniel J. Smith
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