Economics
Other People's Money
A short post. (The original entry had no body text beyond the title.)
Alfred Holzheu
Economics
This Guy Is Great — Carpe Diem
A pointer to Mark Perry's Carpe Diem economics blog. Carpe Diem
Climate
The AGW Debate
Why is this debate about beliefs? Anthropogenic global warming is either true or not, and science — not belief — should be the judge. What the public 'believes' is largely irrelevant to the underlying fact. Scale is routinely ignored in these debates: even if AGW is real, almost nothing we
Policy
Health Care
There are obviously many illnesses that must be treated in hospitals and are no fault of the individual. But nowhere in the national debate is there any mention of personal responsibility. The cheapest prescription for good health, as any physician will tell you, is to eat right, get plenty of
Economics
Tax the Rich?
Does anyone understand that, as individuals, we live to a degree in a zero-sum game? If the rich are rich because they own businesses (setting aside inherited wealth), and you tax them, what do you expect to happen? As a businessman, I'll try to compensate: raise prices, lay
Economics
Simple Question
I'm a small-business owner — an upscale supermarket in the Santa Ynez Valley — and I have a question no financial guru has cleared up for me. Why is the stock market considered an investment? When I spent $50,000 on a sushi bar in my store, I was banking
Economics
The John I Was Referring To
A link to John Mauldin's investment newsletter. Mauldin's site
Economics
The Primacy of the Businessman
Everyone in the economic debate seems to forget the most important element. Without the businessman — the butcher, baker, candlestick maker, farmer, miner — there is no economy. The forward development of mankind hinges on which structures best encourage people to risk time, money, and peace of mind to produce more than
Policy
It Is All So Obvious!
A ten-point list of reforms that seemed self-evident to me at the time: bring the military home rather than nation-build; legalize most drugs (the 'war' on them echoes Prohibition); adopt a flat or national sales tax; fix Social Security, which by its structure depends on new entrants to
Economics
Freedom & Prosperity
These folks have it right. The trouble is that all the logic in the world can't compete with a politician promising to override the rules of commerce by force of will. Without credit, how is anyone supposed to buy a car anyway? It's all insane, and
Policy
The Inevitable End for Socialized Health Care
A linked piece on rationing and the question of what a life is worth. What is a life worth
Science
Science and the Public
A book review on vaccines and autism raises a genuinely important societal question: how much weight should be given, in technical matters, to those without the background to evaluate the evidence? The review