New York Times: Trump Told Russians Comey Was “Nut Job” and His Firing Took Pressure Off Russian Investigation
20 May 2017 Leave a comment
in economics
The New York Times is reporting (and the White House has reportedly confirmed) that President Donald Trump made some truly disturbing comments in his controversial meeting with the Russians. Not only did Trump call former FBI Director James Comey “a real nut job” but told the Russians that the firing has taken pressure off of him in terms of Russia. The leaked summary will fuel the allegations that Trump fired Comey to try to shutdown the Russian investigation to relieve pressure on himself. While I have discussed my skepticism over the evidence of an actual crime by the President, Trump appears committed to leaving the greatest incriminating impression possible in such meeting.
View original post 277 more words
French Overseas Regions and Territories Explained
20 May 2017 Leave a comment
in constitutional political economy Tags: France
The Economics of Airline Class
20 May 2017 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, transport economics Tags: peak load pricing, prime discrimination
India/Bangladesh – The world’s worst border
20 May 2017 Leave a comment
in International law Tags: economics of borders, maps
Mankiw on Just Deserts
20 May 2017 Leave a comment
in economics
From Greg Mankiw’s “Joe the Plumber” essay (see also his “Defending the One Percent“) on alternatives to utilitarianism:
“Let me propose the following principle: People should get what they deserve. A person who contributes more to society deserves a higher income that reflects those greater contributions. Society permits him that higher income not just to incentivize him, as it does according to utilitarian theory, but because that income is rightfully his. This perspective is, I believe, what Robert Nozick, Milton Friedman, and other classically liberal writers have in mind. We might call it the Just Deserts Theory.”
Mankiw goes on to say that a competitive market equilibrium is not just efficient but fair, since it gives people what they deserve:
“[T]he Just Deserts Theory… gives a new normative interpretation of the equilibrium of a competitive market economy. Under a standard set of assumptions, a competitive economy leads to an efficient allocation…
View original post 910 more words
Johnny Cash (with Marty Stuart) sings “Rusty Cage”
19 May 2017 Leave a comment
in Music, television Tags: Johnny Cash
Ex Muslim Voices: Faith to Faithless
19 May 2017 Leave a comment
in economics of religion, liberalism Tags: atheism, political correctness
Members of the original Dad’s Army cast doing some PR in Brighton. 1974
19 May 2017 Leave a comment
in television Tags: Dad's army
Remember: Honeymoon elections matter
19 May 2017 Leave a comment
On 23 April, when many commentators were lamenting how weak (then-expected) President Emmannuel Macron’s support might be in the National Assembly, I offered an estimate of 29% of the vote for his newly formed party. I based this solely on the mean surge that presidents’ parties tend to have when an assembly election occurs early in their terms–a honeymoon election.
Maybe that was an underestimate. While one poll (OpinionWay/ORPI) has Macron’s party, La République en marche! (LRM), on 27%, Harris Interactive sees it on 32%. Both agree this will be the biggest party (Reuters). Given the electoral system, such a share puts Macron well within reach of having a majority in the Assembly.
And what a party it is!
Half of the LRM preliminary list of 428 candidates for the 577-member National Assembly are women and 52 percent are civil society figures.
Better yet, 95% are not current MPs and…
View original post 179 more words
Top 10 Common Misconceptions About Food Safety
19 May 2017 Leave a comment
in economics of information, economics of media and culture Tags: food safety
Penn and Teller with John Cleese
19 May 2017 Leave a comment
in television Tags: John Cleese, Penn and Teller
Climategate Email: UEA’s Phil Jones admits cooling trend (But adjusted data denies it)
18 May 2017 Leave a comment
in economics
From: Phil JonesTo: John Christy Subject: This and that Date: Tue Jul 5 15:51:55 2005 John, There has been some email traffic in the last few days to a week - quite a bit really, only a small part about MSU. The main part has been one of your House subcommittees wanting Mike Mann and others and IPCC to respond on how they produced their reconstructions and how IPCC produced their report. In case you want to look at this see later in the email ! Also this load of rubbish ! This is from an Australian at BMRC (not Neville Nicholls). It began from the attached article. What an idiot. The scientific community would come down on me in no uncertain terms if I said the world had cooled from 1998. OK it has but it is only 7 years of data and it isn't statistically significant.
Here’s…
View original post 76 more words
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
Recent Comments