Clik here to view.
Two Questions for Bob Murphy
Bob Murphy objects to my recent defense of Jonathan Gruber. I have two questions for Bob. Suppose a newly elected Republican president wants to exempt all investment income from taxation. There are two...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Three Short Essays on Eric Garner
I. If you asked me to make the best possible argument in favor of the police action that led to the death of Eric Garner, it would go like this: Cigarettes are taxed. You can’t have taxes without...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Corrections
In yesterday’s post about Eric Garner, I wrote: Suppose you are a typical street vendor of an illegal product, such as, oh, say, untaxed cigarettes. Suppose the police make a habit of harassing such...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Trey Gowdy Thinks You’re Stupid
Here we have six and a half minutes of Representative Trey Gowdy badgering Jonathan Gruber while studiously avoiding any form of substance. There’s a lot Gowdy could have asked, like “So, is it...
View ArticleClik here to view.
What Is Larry Summers Thinking?
Larry Summers, writing in the Washington Post, tells us that: While the recent decline in energy prices is a good thing in that it has, on balance, raised the incomes of Americans, it has also...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Those Clinton Emails
If Jeb Bush is elected president and appoints me Secretary of State, the first thing I will do is set up a private server to handle my official email correspondence. This is not because I expect to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Life in Baltimore
Christopher Ingraham, writing in the Washington Post, points with alarm to a 20-year gap in life expectancies between the poorest and the richest Baltimoreans. This begs the question of whether that...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Sweet Talk
Is it only me who is driven crazy by the American Heart Association’s campaign against “added sugars”, and the attendant campaign to label foods for their added sugar content? Look. I am no expert, so...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Bosonic Ka-Ching Theory
George Johnson of the New York Times writes that: In a saner world, where science and the law meshed more precisely, a case like Firstenberg v. Monribot would have been dead on arrival in court. Arthur...
View ArticleClik here to view.
News Flash
Today, the Supreme Court ruled that the president of the United States can do any damn thing he wants to, regardless of the law. Where were these guys when Nixon needed them? Click here to comment or...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Goin’ To the Candidates’ Debate
I might regret this, but….. Thursday evening (August 6) there will be two debates among the Republican candidates for president, the first beginning at 5PM eastern time and the second at 9PM eastern...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The First Debate in Real Time
This thread is your opportunity to post comments on the first (5PM) Repbulican candidates’ debate, in real time as the debate occurs. I might or might not find the stomach to participate. Keep in mind...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Second Debate in Real Time
This thread is your opportunity to post comments on the second (9PM eastern time) Repbulican candidates’ debate, in real time as the debate occurs. I might or might not find the stomach to participate....
View ArticleClik here to view.
Politics As Usual
To me, the biggest disappointment of this camapaign season has been Rand Paul. I’m sure there will be others. I just saw Senator Paul on Fox News, where he made four substantive statements, one...
View ArticleClik here to view.
The Ashley Madison Test of College Faculty Cluelessness
Science marches on. Recent developments have made it possible to answer the age-old question: What percentage of your college faculty used their work email addresses to establish accounts at Ashley...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Minimum Logic
The question is often raised: “Why would you ever want to raise the minimum wage when you could raise the earned income tax credit instead?”. In other words, if you’ve got a choice between two ways to...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Minimum Logic, Part 2
Yesterday’s post touched on several related points, and I’m afraid the most important one got buried near the end, so I want to repeat it: 1) In the presence of an effective minimum wage, all benefits...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Ask Not What the Church Can Do For You; Ask What You Can Do For the Church
Pope Francis is coming to New York, and Cardinal Timothy Dolan is disturbed about ticket-scalping: “Tickets for events with Pope Francis are distributed free [via lottery] for a reason — to enable as...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Bad Planning
In a bid for ongoing taxpayer support, Planned Parenthood president Cecile Richards will be appearing before Congress today. It’s reported that as part of her testimony, she will admit that only 1...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Party of the Rich
I did not watch the debate. I chose to go to my aerial silks lesson instead. When I got home, the debate was half over. I turned it on for about a minute, during which Marco Rubio managed to turn my...
View Article
