Category: Uncategorized
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Are Progressive States More or Less Prosperous? Not Really
I posted recently about how profoundly regressive state and local taxes are, with my home state of Washington being the very worst. A new initiative proposal by Bill Gates Sr. to institute a state income tax on high earners (while reducing business and property taxes) prompted me to revisit the issue. My question: are states…
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For those of you who were beginning to wonder…
“As debate over the dimensions of Obama’s package snaked through the House…” Source. Related posts: Gaming McCain’s Game Economist Readers: Obama Landslide This Time Mankiw’s Just Plain Lying. And He Knows It. Why Did Edwards Quit? Red-State Teat-Sucking Rendered Invisible. Conservatives Howl Tyranny.
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The Brain-Dead 29%
What do you think, is this the same 29% that were still Bush-boosters in 2008? AFTER HEARING THE ARGUMENTS FOR AND AGAINST THE PROPOSED [FINANCIAL] REFORMS, VOTER SUPPORT FOR LEGISLATION INCREASED At the start of the survey, 29% opposed reform, and 40% supported it. After details were explained and arguments for and against reform described,…
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Is Honesty a Conservative Moral Value?
I mean cap-C Conservative. Do Conservatives and Republicans value honesty? I ask in the context of Jonathan Haidt’s research into moral spheres, and which spheres are important to different political groups. (Blogged here and here.) In response to Haidt’s $1,000 challenge for people to come up with additions to his five spheres, Tim Dean proposes…
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Recessions Make Americans Lazy!
People are obviously unemployed because they want to be. The Big Picture » Blog Archive » An Epidemic of Laziness?. Update: More data here. Related posts: Getting In and Out of Unemployment: 1967 to 2011 Meritocratic Opportunity: On the Decline Do You See a Pattern Here? Tea Partiers and OWSers: Who Needs to Get a…
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Can Rich People Provide all the Necessary Demand?
If an increasing number of people in America are not capable of doing economically viable work (because they don’t have the “knowledge skills” or the wherewithal to acquire them)–and as a result can’t contribute to the log-rolling exercise that is our economy by spending and providing demand for producers–is it a problem? Can rich people…
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Do Parents Matter? Does it Matter?
I can’t believe I’ve never posted about Judith Rich Harris, who undoubtedly ranks as at least a significant demigod in my personal pantheon. Judy–a largely uncredentialed indy in her house in suburban New Jersey–pretty much single-handedly obliterated the notion that parenting is what causes us to be fxxxed up, and that parents in fact have…
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Robin Hanson’s Reply to the Luddites
Update: I am an idiot. (You could have found that out by asking my daughters.) Curt Gardner is nice enough to point out in the comments that “the book you link to is not Robin Hansen’s, but that of his GMU colleague Tyler Cowen.” I do get the two confused at times, this being a…
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Are Machines Replacing Humans? Or: Am I a Luddite?
Update: You can find a followup post including some brief answers from Robin Hanson (and my commentary on same) here. My gentle readers will undoubtedly remember a question I’ve asked repeatedly: as technology steadily increases productivity, will we (have we) come to a point where a large portion of workers can’t do “valuable” enough work…
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Where Did the Deficit Come From? From “Conservatives,” of Course
While poking around for info on the previous post, I came across this graphic: Which comes from this especially great WikiPedia page. Which just re-emphasizes what we’ve seen since WWII, and especially since 1980: Related posts: Largest Oil Spills Talking About Food Trends in Intergenerational Mobility: Declining Opportunity Since 1980 Galbraith Translates “Trickle Down”: Eat…
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Okay, “Conservatives,” What Spending SHALL We Cut?
Not surprisingly, somebody went out and asked them. Here are the results: Source. I think this pretty much speaks for itself, though it’s worth noting the commonly misunderstood fact that foreign aid accounts for less than 1% of Federal spending. Related posts: It’s Unanimous: Cut Spending! (As long as you don’t cut spending!) What’s Wrong…
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Yeah, Right, The Recession’s Over
We’ve been hearing more about “jobless recoveries” over the years, but it’s pretty profound how rapidly the trend is increasing. Calculated Risk: Months to Return to Full Employment 1981: 28 1990: 31 2001: 47 2007: ?? This multi-decade trend suggests to me that there’s something secular and structural at play. I suggest this. Related posts:…
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The Sky Is Falling! Business Lending Down 1.2 Percent!
All hands on deck! Run for the exits! The Economist has just reported that lending to businesses in the euro area contracted by 1.2% from October of last year to October of this year. With that kind of catastrophic free-fall in lending, it’s not hard to understand why unemployment has gone up by 28% in…
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GDP and Corporate Profits: Smoke and Mirrors?
Justin Fox has pointed out tellingly that not only was Q3 GDP growth overstated–it’s already been revised from 3.5% (annualized) down to 2.8%, and is likely to be re-revised again some more (downward, of course)–it also includes some profound anomalies regarding corporate profits. In short–surprise!–it’s the financials that are doing all the moving and “improving.”…
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Religious “Indoctrination”?
I am really confused by Charles Blow’s confusion in the opening paragraph of his latest column: …most children raised unaffiliated with a religion later chose to join one. Indoctrination be damned. By contrast, only 14 percent of those raised Catholic and 13 percent of those raised Protestant later became unaffiliated. So kids raised unaffiliated feel…
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Stunningly Bad Health Science Reporting
Jane Brody reaffirms my astonishment at how bad science reporters are at their jobs. In the NYT Personal Health section, she tells us: The study found that, other things being equal, the men and women who consumed the most red and processed meat were likely to die sooner Which would be a very interesting finding…
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Politicians Should Resist Equality and Prosperity!
Alberto Alesina and Paola Giuliano give us what strikes me as the most boneheaded argument I’ve read in a very long time (hat tip Mark Thoma): The thirty years after the Second World War were the period of the “Great Compression†– a sharp reduction in income inequality (Piketty and Saez 2003). A few months…
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Best Line of the Week
From the inside, ideology usually looks like common sense. From The ideology that dare not speak its name — Crooked Timber. Related posts: Innovation and Market Constraints: The Case for Artificial Selection Line of the Week Age, Wisdom, Sagacity, Common Sense, and Republicanism Controlling What You Say: Who’s Worse? Cutting Taxes Creates Growth: Yeah, Right
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Why To Have Kids
Bryan Caplan posts part of the preface from a book he’s writing (which I’m much looking forward to reading), titled Selfish Reasons to Have More Kids. My thoughts on the subject: Genetic inclinations toward having children aside (as Daniel Dennett explains quite clearly in Freedom Evolves, we’re at at totally different level of “design” here,…
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This Time Mankiw’s Just Plain Lying. And He Knows It.
He shares this with us today: Federal outlays and revenues as a percentage of GDP What he doesn’t say, but knows very well: the “baseline” is Bush-era shucking and jiving–hiding hundreds of billions of dollars off the budget. The Obama budget that’s being compared includes everything in full daylight–even though Obama knew that Mankiw et.…
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The Economics of Netflix
Tyler Cowen points to a calculator to see if you’re saving money using Netflix. But as he says, the per-DVD cost isn’t really the issue. Personally, I’ve canceled my Netflix subscription three times. But never again. Reason for canceling: the movie I have is never the movie I want to watch. They sometimes end up…