It’s refreshing to find reasoned an cogent analysis of politically-charged issues. On Chicago’s new minimum wage law, you can’t do much better than Gary Becker and Richard Posner. Becker here, and Posner’s response here.
The New York Times has nothing constructive to add to the debate, just the usual platitudes. Why do social reformers insist upon using ineffective and likely counterproductive tools such as the minimum wage and rent control? Here’s an idea: just give the poor money. Or better yet, give them an education.
A much better piece argues [...]
In hopes of a wider readership, I’m hereby “claim” my blog on Technorati:
Technorati Profile
This is the most absurd immigration reform proposal that I have ever heard. The proposal:
If we are really serious about turning back the tide of illegal immigration, we should start by raising the minimum wage from $5.15 per hour to something closer to $8.
The Reasoning:
But if we want to reduce illegal immigration, it makes sense [...]
An excerpt from Alex Ross’s article on Mozart for the New Yorker:
One wonders what Mozart would have made of today’s musical scene, when “American Idol” contestants cover Elvis hits and university composers write super-complex, mathematically recondite works, and the happy medium seems, on most days, deserted.
The whole article is a bit long at almost 30,000 words, but [...]
Read an enlightening debate over human gender differences here, and a very nice piece on rent-seeking here.
For anyone who argues that more government regulation will solve all of society’s ills, I offer this stunning example of regulatory incompetence.
Well, not quite, but a new study suggests that intelligent people are more likely to have an economist’s world-view, after controlling for factors such as education.
brocen wurde.
Het þa hyssa hwæne hors forlætan,
feor afysan, and forð gangan,
hicgan to handum and to hige godum.
þa þæt Offan mæg ærest onfunde,
þæt se eorl nolde yrhðo geþolian,
he let him þa of handon [...]
