economics
mikethemadbiologist | December 7, 2007There are two recent and very disheartening stories about energy technology. The first has to do with the new standards for automobile gas mileage in the U.S.:
The proposal, which would require automakers to achieve 35 miles per gallon on average, is similar to a measure that was passed in the summer by the Senate but was bitterly opposed by the auto companies, who argued they did not have the technology or the financial resources to reach that goal.
The auto companies gave up their long-held opposition to fuel- economy increases not long before the Senate version was passed, but proposed a…
mikethemadbiologist | November 19, 2007...Jay-Z has ditched the dollar in favor of the euro:
Pay attention as you watch the catchy new music video from the mega-star rapster Jay-Z, "Blue Magic", and see if you can't spot the product placement. It is not a fancy car that he is endorsing - although both his rides, a Rolls- Royce and soft-top Bentley, are plenty spiffy - but rather a currency - and it is not the dollar.
Like so many in the hip-hop genre, the song is a celebration of ostentatious wealth. But capturing the attention of commentators in this clip, shot in the glimmering, neon-lit canyons of New York City, are the…
mikethemadbiologist | November 13, 2007First of all, thank you to everyone who commented on my post about COBRA. One of the odd things about the situation was that I was screwed by the calendar: had I switched jobs during a calendar month, I wouldn't have to have picked up my own health insurance. This doesn't alleviate other inefficiencies, such as everyone wasting their time (and salary money) re-registering me for the exact same health insurance. Which brings me to a point that needs to be raised, even if it is obvious:
There is a difference between health insurance and healthcare.
Granted, even Yogi Berra probably wouldn't…
mikethemadbiologist | November 7, 2007Before I get to an excellent NY Times article by David Leonhardt about taxes, I want to say why taxes shouldmust matter to scientists.
Even so often, I get a link or a comment which decries my posts about politics*. But the lay of the political landscape is vital for scientists--and not just for the 'science' issues, such as global warming. Quite simply, taxes are what fund much of U.S. science, especially 'basic' research, which is not only the cornerstone of applied research, but also comprises a lot of the cool stuff we discuss at ScienceBlogs. In a low-tax environment (when combined…
mikethemadbiologist | October 29, 2007I've criticized Senator Obama before for his inaccurate views of the Social Security program. Paul Krugman has a very nice takedown--on the TV, no less:
What is Obama thinking? Is he trying to position himself as a liberal...Republican?
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mikethemadbiologist | October 28, 2007...doesn't invalidate the person making the prediction. Nouriel Roubini, who correctly predicted that the housing market would crater in 2007 has decided to make his critics eat crow (yes, there's some dense economics here, but wait until the end--there's a point to this madness):
Indeed a year ago when this scholar - and a few other experts such as Bob Shiller and others - argued that the biggest housing bubble in US history would end up in the worst housing bust and recession in 50 years and that home prices would fall by 20% those views were considered as coming from the moon. When…
mikethemadbiologist | October 22, 2007By now, there's little to add to the criticism of Donald Kennedy's absurd statement regarding Princeton economist Paul Krugman that:
And yet maybe Krugman is not really an economist -- at least not according to the definition offered more than a century ago by Francis Amasa Walker, the first president of the American Economic Association, who wrote that laissez-faire "was not made the test of economic orthodoxy, merely. It was used to decide whether a man were an economist at all."
Most modern economists continue to celebrate Walker's orthodoxy, and behind it, the classical doctrines of Adam…
purepedantry | October 22, 2007I just finished Bryan Caplan's The Myth of the Rational Voter. It was excellent, and I will review it when I get around to it. It uses the abysmal understanding of economics of the average American -- even on a non-quantitative, intuitive level -- to illustrate why voters choose bad policies. Anyway, the side issue of the poor economics understanding still exists, so I thought I would post these two economics lessons that I stumbled on the last couple days.
Lesson #1 is a video of Milton Friedman explaining the myriad things that go into the making of the common #2 pencil.
The explanation…
mikethemadbiologist | October 15, 2007In a great post, maha lays out what the consequences of an extraction-based economy--one that exploits humans--are for the U.S.:
And then there's the fatigue factor. Workers are worn out and stressed out. They've skipped vacations and worked way too much underpaid and unpaid overtime. They are not being rewarded. Their wages are stagnant, even as the cost of living rises. So workers subsidize their employer's profits by going deeper into personal debt, struggling to maintain a "normal" middle-class lifestyle.
...Back in the days of the Cold War we patriotic Americans were told, over and over…
kcontreary | October 15, 2007Sigh, the weak dollar is killing me over here in London. But if Marty Feldstein says it's a good thing, I guess I'm in no position to contradict him.
purepedantry | October 15, 2007I am not smart or qualified enough to explain the work of the winners of the Nobel in economics, but they have a great explanation at Marginal Revolution.
mikethemadbiologist | October 4, 2007...and you listen. maha writes why the U.S. won't do anything to aid the saffron revolution in Burma (italics mine):
...the West flaps about, issuing statements and maybe sending an envoy or two. Please note I don't believe an armed invasion is the only option or even the most desirable option. But I believe the West is too compromised to exercise any option.
One of those compromises: the $420 billion of U.S. debt held by China. Don't the Chinese know that Republican Vice President Dick Cheney declared "Reagan proved deficits don't matter"? Maybe decifits do matter after all....
(and, boy…
mikethemadbiologist | October 4, 2007Salon.com has a really interesting article about the hidden and expensive costs of parking. There's lots of interesting stuff in the article, but this bit really stood out (italics mine):
Americans don't object, because they aren't aware of the myriad costs of parking, which remain hidden. In large part, it's business owners, including commercial and residential landlords, who pay to provide parking places. They then pass on those costs to us in slightly higher prices for rent and every hamburger sold.
"Parking appears free because its cost is widely dispersed in slightly higher prices for…
kcontreary | September 28, 2007Socrates gave us the foundation of modern philosophy when he claimed that his only wisdom was in knowing his own ignorance. By implication, of course, everyone else was even stupider than he and just didn't know it, believing they were thinking/acting with all the information available and all the mental faculties necessary to put that information to good use, when in fact they were hopelessly crippled by their unrecognized obtuseness. Admit it, you'd have made him drink hemlock too.
According to an article by Chugh and Bazerman, entitled "Bounded Awareness: what you fail to see can hurt…
mikethemadbiologist | September 19, 2007Or maybe not? Should doctors be salaried workers? From Political Animal:
UNKIND CUTS?....Last month Blue Cross put physician reimbursement cuts into effect in California and doctors were predictably outraged. "I don't know how anybody can afford to stay in practice and accept Blue Cross rates," Dr. Charles Fishman, a San Luis Obispo dermatologist told the Los Angeles Times. "Boo hoo" was undoubtedly the response from many readers. It's hard for the average American to feel much sympathy for a profession where the median income is $215,000 a year. Soon, Medicare will be making its own cuts,…
kcontreary | September 12, 2007The Fraser Institute has put out its annual report on Economic Freedom of the World -- a score and rank measuring "the degree to which the policies and institutions of countries support economic freedom". It's basically a rundown of countries based on how much (or little) they embrace free trade, both domestically and abroad. The index is based on scores in five areas:
1) Size of government (taxes=bad)
2) Legal structure and security of property rights (secure=good)
3) Access to sound money (access=good)
4) Freedom to trade internationally (trade=good)
5) Regulation of credit, labor, and…
mikethemadbiologist | September 5, 2007...then please take this survey (it's anonymous). The survey designers are trying to understand more about about the concerns of people affected by MRSA. The survey should take about 25 minutes to complete. You can take the survey here. If you know someone who has had a MRSA infection, please forward this link to him or her. Also, if your blog can handle it, please think about posting the link.
mikethemadbiologist | September 4, 2007Over at Shifting Baselines, there's an interesting discussion of a question that economist Steven Levitt asks: why are we eating so much shrimp? Unfortunately, the way the question is phrased--is it supply or demand--ignores the history of another crustacean craze. Lobster.
It's hard to believe, in an era where lobster is a gourmet delicacy, that it was once viewed as equivalent to eating vermin (think 'sea cockroach'). In seventeenth and eighteenth century Maine, enlightened legislators passed laws prohibiting the provision of lobster to slaves, servants, and wards. Consequently,…
mikethemadbiologist | September 3, 2007...or too much of anyway. One of the most eloquent speeches that I have ever heard was by Martin Luther King to striking sanitation workers. What's sad is that, while the particulars have changed somewhat, the overall picture remains the same. From a speech he gave to striking sanitation workers in Memphis on March 18, 1968 (italics mine):
My dear friends, my dear friend James Lawson, and all of these dedicated and distinguished ministers of the Gospel assembled here tonight, to all of the sanitation workers and their families, and to all of my brothers and sisters, I need not pause to say…
mikethemadbiologist | September 3, 2007...but they don't need no stinkin' healthcare. From the Boston Globe:
American workers stay longer in the office, at the factory, or on the farm than their counterparts in Europe and most other rich nations, and they produce more per person over the year.
They also get more done per hour than everyone but the Norwegians, according to a UN report that said the United States "leads the world in labor productivity." The report was released in Geneva today, which is Labor Day in the United States.
The average US worker produces $63,885 of wealth per year, more than their counterparts in all…