Meet the Anti-Apple Coalition. Remember when everyone was terrified that Apple and Google were going to collude to take over the world? Surely Uncle Sam should step in, they claimed. Uncles Sam responded with “we’re watching you”. This was the next great anti-trust target…. or… ...
exploring the worlds of economics and philosophy with passionate skepticism.
…about opposite day at the NY Times?
Paul Krugman, whose mind appears to be permanently clouded by puerile partisan political punditry, attempted to refute the idea of libertarian limited (or eliminated) government philosophy… by demonstrating that politicians are crooked. Behold: Thinking about BP and the Gulf: in this old interview, Milton Friedman says that there’s no need for product safety regulation, ...
..about GM and the Treasury’s amazing lies?
George Will’s latest column is a must read. He outlines, with the help of my good friend Russ Roberts, how the Greek bailout is an epic, pan-Eurpoean scam where everyone is actually bailing out everyone else’s banks. It’s insanity which is only trumped by the Greek socialists rioting in the streets because their decade ...
…about competition in web browsers?
Behold. Competition is doing for the browser market what a pointless so-called “anti-trust” trial could never do: getting Microsoft to write a better web browser. From Five Things IE9 is (Actually) Doing Right: Is This the New Microsoft? Maybe. I hope so. The skeptic in me wants to hate the company for the years of agony they’ve subjected ...
…about pennsylvania’s creepy, Orwellian ad campaign?
Just in case you’re weren’t absolutely certain that the tax man was an evil supervillain, PA is making it completely clear. Get a load of that tagline: FIND US BEFORE WE FIND YOU Wow. Seriously. Are they kidding? I’ve come to believe that big government ...
…about federal food fascism?
Apparently, the Obama administration’s FDA is being inspired by New York’s insane food fascism. The Washington Post reports: The Food and Drug Administration is planning an unprecedented effort to gradually reduce the salt consumed each day by Americans, saying that less sodium in everything from soup to nuts would prevent thousands ...
…about too much aggregation in headlines?
CNNMoney featured the following headline on monday: “Economists: The stimulus didn’t help”. From the article: In latest quarterly survey by the National Association for Business Economics, the index that measures employment showed job growth for the first time in two years -- but a majority of respondents felt the fiscal stimulus had no impact. NABE conducted ...
…about the failure of home loan modifications?
The NY Times is reporting about some problems with the Treasury department’s alleged efforts (more on why its “alleged" below) to keep people in their homes. The number of homeowners who defaulted on their mortgages even after securing cheaper terms through the government’s modification program nearly doubled in March, continuing a trend ...
…about winning a Sammie?
I’m very pleased to announce that Russ Roberts and I have won a Sammie Award for Best Video for “Fear the Boom and Bust”, which has also officially crossed the 1 million view mark on YouTube, with over 100,000 more views in the various subtitled versions. Check out this cool widget:
…about the broken window fallacy?
"Pyramid-building, earthquakes, even wars may serve to increase wealth, if the education of our statesmen on the principles of the classical economics stands in the way of anything better.” - John Maynard Keynes in The General Theory of Employment, Interest and Money The infamous quote above was neither the first nor the last time that waste ...
I’m John. This blog is where I work through ideas. I’m not an economist. In some cases, that may work to my advantage (or so I’m told). Still, I’m bound to make mistakes. That’s kinda the point. Be skeptical. Take everything with a grain of salt. Push back. I’m looking for feedback. Oh… and I’m not this serious in real life. I’m actually kinda goofy.
Read my full backstory.
