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Category Archives: economics
Painful Balancing
The Arlington Central School District is treating this budget planning a bit differently than the past few, because of the severe fiscal pressures. This is a good thing, and long overdue. Too bad they didn’t do this during the fat … Continue reading
Tanzanian Millers
Why aren’t there more local millers in Tanzania? Or, why is international aid or investment required in order to process cassava, as this story on Marketplace seems to suggest? Sounds like there’s a missed opportunity there.
Increasing Employment
Do you know what provides lots of jobs? Inefficiency. While touring China, [a businessman] came upon a team of nearly 100 workers building an earthen dam with shovels. The businessman commented to a local official that, with an earth-moving machine, … Continue reading
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For All Debts, Public and Private
As a young man with few dollars, I used to spend some time admiring the engraving on those few I had. I’ve long been struck by the phrase printed on Federal Reserve Notes: “This note is legal tender for all … Continue reading
Economic Stimulus Package: No Taxes
The bank just sent a summary statement of the escrow account we use to pay the local and school property taxes. One achieves a certain distance from the taxation by letting someone else manage it for you. It was a … Continue reading
Marshalls’ View of Over-Production
The Marshalls department store has a great advertisement playing now, on the subject of over-production, which I would re-post here for your enjoyment, if it were easily found on-line. They call it a shopportunity. Designers can’t sell their clothes, and … Continue reading
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It All Averages Out in the End, Does It?
The law of large numbers does not invalidate garbage in, garbage out.
Deferred Consumption
I recently subscribed to a number of podcasts in an effort to drown out the unbearable background noise in the Fishkill office: Fox News. One of them was a program from WNYC and Public Radio International, The Takeaway. They’re running … Continue reading
Preview
The Poughkeepsie Journal accidentally delivered Sunday’s comics today. B.C. is so appropriate. Update: included link to the comic.
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
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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
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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
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
Ass u me
If I understand this [via Zimran] correctly, the Austrian theory is that consumption deferred is an increase in savings, which results in a lower interest rate, which stimulates investment, which results in growth. Meanwhile, the Keynesian theory holds that deferred … Continue reading
Four Years Too Many of College
Is a four-year college degree excessive for most? Charles Murray, writing at Cato Unbound, thinks a bachelor’s degree is unnecessary for most professions, has little bearing on success in a field, and suspects that college attendance rates are artificially high. … Continue reading
Two Parties to Every Sale
I would like to point out to the audience watching the roller coaster on Wall Street that for every seller, there is a buyer.
Backed by the Full Faith and Credit of the United States
The key word there is faith.
