I’m reading Gordon Tullock’s On Voting. It’s an odd little book, but very entertaining. Tullock comes across as the kind of old curmudgeon you see on TV sitcoms, albeit one who practically invented an important sub-field of economics. I discovered today that someone interviewed him before the 2008 election and put together [...]
Thursday, August 13, 2009
I don’t feel like providing a wealth of citations, but the press is awash lately in talk of how economists were wrong to believe in market efficiency and rationality, and how they remain unwilling to change their opinions in light of recent events. Unfortunately, most of the commentators don’t know what they’re talking about.
Many [...]
The latest poll shows the race tightening:
Challenger Ned Lamont … held a lead of 51 percent to 45 percent over Lieberman among likely Democratic voters. The sampling error margin was plus or minus 3.5 percentage points.
The race has tightened in recent days, with Lamont’s lead cut from 13 points.
The prediction markets tell a very different [...]
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I noticed some subtle differences between the New York Times and ABC News in their respective reporting on today’s protests in Iraq.
One version:
Waving Lebanese flags and posters of Hezbollah’s leader, Hassan Nasrallah, the protesters chanted, “No, no, no, Israel, no, no, no, America,’’ challenged Americans to fight them in their neighborhoods, and called on Hezbollah to [...]
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Protectionists never cease to amuse me. Take this article on the European Commission’s attempt make permanent their “emergency” import duties on foreign shoes for example:
The temporary system was introduced following allegations that shoes were being “dumped” – or sold for less than it cost to make them – by manufacturers eager to gain a share of [...]
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 [...]
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 [...]
It seems that every day now the media uncover new evidence of corruption by our elected officials, making a new study by economists Peter Leeson and Russel Sobel especially timely. Their explanation: corruption can be blamed on the weather. Before you start screaming “spurious regression!” I should clarify; the researchers don’t assert that bad weather causes corruption, rather that it makes corruption easier. Who would have [...]
A recent Gallup Poll suggests that Republicans may have some trouble hanging on the the majority this fall. Only 31% of those surveyed plan to vote for a Republican candidate in the coming elections versus 51% who plan to vote for a Democratic candidate
Sure, but what do the markets think? The online betting market Tradesports.com [...]
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