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Monthly Archives: November 2008
Who You Know
Malcolm Gladwell has a new book, Outliers, which, good for him, will likely end on the bestseller list and pay his mortgage for a few weeks. In it he seeks to answer the question of why some people succeed, while … Continue reading
Posted in General
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Dear Google Reader Team
I accidentally clicked “hide” for one of my friends. There’s no easy way to get that friend back in the list, but I’m still seeing his shared items. I want to put him back in the list. Help!
Pirate Gold
The Somali pirates who have been very active in recent months have been asking for dollars, not gold. Moneychangers offer wads of new US dollar notes, the only currency that matters in a country that has been in chaos for … Continue reading
Two Sets of Rules
I think my major problem with Mosler’s theories is that there are two sets of rules. The second set only applies to the the issuer of the fiat currency. It is not applicable to, for example, New York State, or … Continue reading
It’s Good to Be the King
I’ve been slowly reading Warren Mosler‘s theories since Zimran Ahmed pointed them out a few weeks ago. They are, to say the least, non-intuitive. From what I can discern so far, there are two sets of economic rules: Those for … Continue reading
Lemons
Regulation is offered up as a means to prevent a repeat of the present financial situation. From what I have been learning of the instruments of destruction, however, it seems that — aside from the simple fraud of selling things … Continue reading
Posted in economics
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The Cost of Failure
Over the past month or so I’ve noticed more frequent mention of the cost of failure: what will happen if we don’t do this to save that. Explicit, or more often implicit, in these discussions is that it is right … Continue reading
Posted in economics
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Lost Friends
I lost touch with my room-mate from Hampden-Sydney. He dropped out after my first semester there, and I ended up with a single for the next year. We did not keep in touch. I’ve often wondered what happened to him, … Continue reading
Posted in sadness
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Social Networking
I found out today from the Hampden-Sydney group on LinkedIn about a new social networking site for alumni: The Network of Hampden-Sydney College. I applied for an account. I’m already a member at the alumni site for St. John’s College. … Continue reading
Posted in General
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The $306 Trillion Bailout Plan
A couple of weeks ago, Zimran Ahmed tossed out the suggestion that the Federal government send $1 million to each person in the U.S. (Though he said “everyone,” I’m assuming that he means “everyone in the U.S.”) Current U.S. Census … Continue reading
WALL-E
After we left the theater, we discussed what they liked best about the movie. The Little Sister said of WALL-E (Wikipedia), I’m glad they learned to walk and could leave the hospital.
Christmas Card Preview
Most of the folks on our Christmas card list are off-line. Boy will they be surprised when they see this!
Public Works
I was listening to old shows on my TiVo while I repainted the sun room. NOW reminded me that the amount of money that governments spend on mass transit pales in comparison to the amount spent on roads. [links needed, … Continue reading
Posted in transportation
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Lies We Learned in High School
For such a smart fellow, you’d think that Matthew Yglesias would not regurgitate the standard economic history of the Great Depression drummed into all of us by five or six paragraphs in our high school history textbooks. The portrayal of … Continue reading
Who Stole the Cookie from the Cookie Jar?
I have Firefox set to prompt me to accept cookies, mainly because I don’t like the tracker cookies, and set most cookies to be session-only or denied, depending on how annoying the website is. You get a good sense of … Continue reading
Posted in General
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Caring
My daughters got into an interesting discussion on the way back from their religious education classes. The Little Sister was upset that one of her friends does not care about the President. The Big Sister suggested that maybe the friend … Continue reading
Posted in family, politics
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Someone Needs More Crayons
The graphic artists at The New York Times, CNN, and pretty much every other outlet providing maps of the election results need to be provided with more than a pair of red and blue crayons. Maybe they should use pastels … Continue reading
Posted in politics
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Haste Makes Waste
Sandy Levinson, who finds it a horror that our defective Constitution allows the out-going President to stay in office past the election, would not take comfort in this report from the Mercatus Center on Midnight Regulations. The paper shows that, … Continue reading
Store’s Open
I’m experimenting with Amazon’s aStore. After all these years of being an Amazon associate, I’ve yet to earn a nickel. I think that has something to do with my just linking to things, instead of promoting them. Anyway, I’m putting … Continue reading