2. Raghu is a credit snob.
3. Mankiw explains the unholy trinity.
4. Mark Thoma takes leave of his senses.
5. Angus' song of the year so far.
6. Hayek hearts Singapore (nice post by Will W.)
Sunday, July 11, 2010
Saturday, July 10, 2010
The Grand Game
Time for the Grand Game!
That's where we propose an article, and readers point out their favorite passage.
This one is a little more titillating ... or I should say salacious, then the usual fare.
I'll go first, and go easy:
"The teachers were cited... for drinking an undetermined amount."
Wow! I drink an undetermined amount pretty often. Sometimes it's a positive amount, sometimes zero, but rarely is it determined. That's a pretty vague charge, don't you think?
(Nod to Angry Alex)
That's where we propose an article, and readers point out their favorite passage.
This one is a little more titillating ... or I should say salacious, then the usual fare.
I'll go first, and go easy:
"The teachers were cited... for drinking an undetermined amount."
Wow! I drink an undetermined amount pretty often. Sometimes it's a positive amount, sometimes zero, but rarely is it determined. That's a pretty vague charge, don't you think?
(Nod to Angry Alex)
Friday, July 09, 2010
Buy me a ticket for an air-o-plane
or, LeBron's decision gets instant validation.
or, Alex Chilton in reverse.
"lonely days are gone, I'm a heading out, my owner, he wrote me a letter"
The full text of Danny Gilbert's Lebron letter is here. Seldom has such vituperation been written in such an inappropriate for the occasion font!
People, LeBron has every right to go wherever he wants. He was drafted by Cleveland and they had his services for 7 years, during which time, the management totally failed to build a cohesive or reasonable team around him.
LeBron to Miami is a lot of things but it IN NO WAY is a "cowardly betrayal". Gilbert is now pushing into Don Sterling and Dan Snider territory as the worst franchise owner in sports.
The mistake by the lake
Wow. LBJ wanted out of Cleveland so bad that he left over $30 million on the table to join Wade and Bosh in Miami.
I give a lot of credit to Pat Riley and Wade for making this happen. Riley for the dealing and salesmanship and Wade for unselfishness, pushing for guys that are going to lower his own stats.
At least with this move, I think LeBron has improved his chances to get to the conference finals!
It remains to be seen who else will come to Miami and play for peanuts to try and win with the new "big 3".
Thursday, July 08, 2010
Graphic
This is how computer graphics should be used. Interesting, concise, memorable, instructive.
(Nod to Russ Roberts)
(Nod to Russ Roberts)
Letter to the Editor
A letter to the Editor, shared by KPC friend Douglas Coate:
The roots of Rand Paul's opposition to the 1964 Civil Rights Act as applied to private employers run deep. In English history, back to the Anglos and the Saxons, the Magna Carta, and the common law. In Western civilization the roots run longer, through Roman law, the Babylonian codes, and to the early traders in Mesopotamia. There has always been tension between citizen traders on the one hand and the
state on the other. Merchants have tried to enhance and preserve their wealth by gaining rights to property, contract, and trade, while states have too often tried to expropriate it by denying these rights. The great accomplishments of Western civilization, and now Eastern civilization, have resulted from the spread of these rights and the flowering of trade, cooperation, and specialization.
Fair employment laws or anti discrimination laws are the latest attempt by the state to take wealth from those that create it. By changing the hiring, firing, pay, and promotion decisions of private firms from their profit maximizing levels the state can redistribute wealth to favored groups. But not without consequences. Targeted
firms will have higher costs, some will be driven from business, and all will try to sell their goods at higher prices. Trade, cooperation, specialization, and wages and living standards will suffer.
Private firms if left alone do not discriminate. They hire the best workers they can at prevailing wages. Not to do so would increase their costs, lower their profits, and threaten their existence. Workers themselves become the ultimate arbiters of employer fairness in a market economy, for they can leave one employer for another without notice.
So, what did Rand Paul do wrong? He caved! If he had stuck to his position, he would have at least made people think.
The roots of Rand Paul's opposition to the 1964 Civil Rights Act as applied to private employers run deep. In English history, back to the Anglos and the Saxons, the Magna Carta, and the common law. In Western civilization the roots run longer, through Roman law, the Babylonian codes, and to the early traders in Mesopotamia. There has always been tension between citizen traders on the one hand and the
state on the other. Merchants have tried to enhance and preserve their wealth by gaining rights to property, contract, and trade, while states have too often tried to expropriate it by denying these rights. The great accomplishments of Western civilization, and now Eastern civilization, have resulted from the spread of these rights and the flowering of trade, cooperation, and specialization.
Fair employment laws or anti discrimination laws are the latest attempt by the state to take wealth from those that create it. By changing the hiring, firing, pay, and promotion decisions of private firms from their profit maximizing levels the state can redistribute wealth to favored groups. But not without consequences. Targeted
firms will have higher costs, some will be driven from business, and all will try to sell their goods at higher prices. Trade, cooperation, specialization, and wages and living standards will suffer.
Private firms if left alone do not discriminate. They hire the best workers they can at prevailing wages. Not to do so would increase their costs, lower their profits, and threaten their existence. Workers themselves become the ultimate arbiters of employer fairness in a market economy, for they can leave one employer for another without notice.
So, what did Rand Paul do wrong? He caved! If he had stuck to his position, he would have at least made people think.
The Onion Has to Stop Publishing
This story is hilarious satire, until it turns out not to be satire at all.
The NYTimes Story
Hold out for a "corporate job", instead of a "dead-end job"?
Angus worked as a welder! I laid sod, worked as a night manager at a Burger Chef (like a Hardees, but not so upscale and fancy) (!) and unloaded boxcars of lumber by hand, in Florida, in the summer. GET OVER YOURSELF, BOY, and get a FREAKIN' JOB!
(Nod to Anonyman)
UPDATE: Les Cargill rightly suggests that I was about 3 seconds from the Four Yorkshiremen skit. And here it is...
The NYTimes Story
Hold out for a "corporate job", instead of a "dead-end job"?
Angus worked as a welder! I laid sod, worked as a night manager at a Burger Chef (like a Hardees, but not so upscale and fancy) (!) and unloaded boxcars of lumber by hand, in Florida, in the summer. GET OVER YOURSELF, BOY, and get a FREAKIN' JOB!
(Nod to Anonyman)
UPDATE: Les Cargill rightly suggests that I was about 3 seconds from the Four Yorkshiremen skit. And here it is...
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