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David Henderson: September 2010
An Author Archive by Month (33 entries)
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September 30, 2010
Books: Reviews and Suggested Readings
David Henderson
This is how I end my review of Matt Ridley's The Rational Optimist. I defended it from some of the charges against it by William Easterly. And a book that "only" shows us how economic freedom makes most Americans and... MORE
September 29, 2010
Labor Market
David Henderson
A few days ago I posted about economist Peter Dorman's views on the minimum wage and just noticed that a few days later he replied as a commenter. This is my reply to him. Professor Dorman writes: Mainstream empirical research... MORE
September 26, 2010
Economic Philosophy
David Henderson
David Brooks wrote what I thought of as one of his strangest editorials last month and I didn't get around to commenting on it. Titled "A Case of Mental Courage," it led off with a gruesome story about a woman... MORE
September 24, 2010
Labor Market
David Henderson
In an article in Econ Journal Watch, David Hedengren, Dan Klein, and Carrie Milton present data showing a sharp divide among economists who sign petitions on economic policy issues. They segment the petitions into liberty-reducing and liberty-augmenting. Economists who signed... MORE
Growth: Consequences
David Henderson
Somewhere along the way, during the last 50 years, the critique of capitalism changed from condemning its failure to spread the wealth to condemning the very opposite. Suddenly the great sin of capitalism was that it was producing too much,... MORE
September 23, 2010
Economics of Health Care
David Henderson
And so it begins. Today, one part of Obama's new health care law kicked in. It's a part that, if enforced literally, is likely to eliminate so-called "mini-med" insurance. As I wrote: But the reason the mini-meds are so affordable... MORE
September 22, 2010
Economic Methods
David Henderson
David Friedman has an excellent post titled "What Should Count as Nutty?" It follows two of his earlier posts on Christine O'Donnell. A couple of excerpts: In trying to make sense of all this, I fall back on the observation... MORE
Energy, Environment, Resources
David Henderson
Dan Klein and David Hedengren have a piece at Cato on economists signing petitions. One of their basic findings is how little overlap there is between the group of economists who sign anti-freedom petitions and the group who sign pro-freedom... MORE
September 20, 2010
UK Proposes All Paychecks Go to the State First Update at bottom. That's the headline on a CNBC story and these are the first two paragraphs: The UK's tax collection agency is putting forth a proposal that all employers send... MORE
Last week, I was interviewed for 16 minutes by Mike McConnell on WGN, Chicago. He was a cut above in his understanding of the various economic issues. My test for whether it's working with the host is whether he invites... MORE
September 19, 2010
Economics and Culture
David Henderson
Gun Control is when you keep firearms plus guns away from people. Many people think that gun control is right because they think keeping people away from guns will reduce the amount of deaths each year. They also think that... MORE
September 18, 2010
Labor Mobility, Immigration, Outsourcing
David Henderson
I would say that Bryan Caplan hit a home run with his recent lecture on immigration, but that would be an understatement. Bryan was the Mr. October of economists. He laid out the arguments beautifully and in the right order,... MORE
Property Rights
David Henderson
One more problem with securitization. This morning, Yves Smith over at Naked Capitalism has a sobering article about a not-very-well-known time bomb in real estate. Here's a relevant section: Given how many sales will be done out of REO, and... MORE
September 17, 2010
Upcoming Events
David Henderson
On Thursday, September 23, I'll be giving two talks in St. Louis. The first is at the University of Missouri, St. Louis. It's in 411 Woods Hall and, including Q&A, goes from 2:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Title: Seven Myths... MORE
September 16, 2010
Here's an entertaining criticism of the penny. In 2006, I supervised a thesis in which my student made the case for eliminating the penny. The author, Stephanie King, was at the time a Major in the U.S. Marine Corps. A... MORE
Politics and Economics
David Henderson
But Beck does not make a single case against immoral government behavior. In fact, he agrees with the principle. And this is the third, and biggest, problem that I have with him. He started and ended his show with the... MORE
September 15, 2010
Business Economics
David Henderson
I'm completing a study on how quickly the U.S. economy transitioned after WWII from a wartime economy with strong elements of central control to a relatively free-market economy. I've got all that. What I'm missing is stories such as, "The... MORE
September 14, 2010
Social Security
David Henderson
In a word, No. In a comment on my post yesterday, Jim Glass writes: This $15 trillion transfer owed to pre-2010 participants is a sunk cost. He goes on to explain: Whether it was a good idea or bad one... MORE
September 13, 2010
Fiscal Policy
David Henderson
Bryan posits a policy in 2005, had Bush succeeded beyond his wildest dreams, of privatizing Social Security. Bryan gives an argument against that. But there's a more basic argument that I made on a late 1990s talk show with Roger... MORE
September 11, 2010
Labor Market
David Henderson
Unlike in previous wars, Congress did not wait for World War II's termination to dispense generous social welfare to veterans. An American legion sponsored Serviceman's Readjustment Act, popularly known as the GI Bill of Rights, sailed through Congress in 1944,... MORE
Politics and Economics
David Henderson
I mentioned on my post yesterday that I had made a bet in 2003 about an outcome in the MIddle East in 2008 and that I won my bet, although the other bettor didn't pay up. Interestingly, none of the... MORE
September 10, 2010
Labor Market
David Henderson
Bryan is right to record bets. In 2003, at the Mont Pelerin Society meetings in Chattanooga, I made a bet about the Middle East for outcomes in 2008. I bet $1,000, her acknowledgement of it was in my computer in-box,... MORE
September 9, 2010
Economics of Education
David Henderson
I have never let my schooling interfere with my education. The above is a famous quote from Mark Twain and it relates to the challenge Bryan posed about whether there any countries in which there is too little education. I... MORE
Regulation
David Henderson
[Libertarianism] is hopeless intellectually, because the values people hold are many and divergent and some of these values do not merely allow, but demand, government protection of weak, vulnerable or unfortunate people. Moreover, such values are not "wrong". The reality... MORE
September 7, 2010
Growth: Causal Factors
David Henderson
Larry White has a good op/ed in tomorrow's Wall Street Journal on Germany's post-World-War-II economic miracle. He attributes this correctly to Ludwig Erhard's abolition of Hitler's price controls that the Allies had continued to enforce after the war ended. He... MORE
Economics of Health Care
David Henderson
Even though this action was a totally predictable response to the incentives we set up, it's unwarranted and unnecessary. Last April, I posted on how the health care law passed by Congress would likely cause some insurance companies to drop... MORE
September 6, 2010
Public Goods
David Henderson
Our analysis suggests not that gangs cause violence, but that violence causes gangs. In other words, gangs form in response to government's failure to protect youths against violence. The surprising implication of our insight is that efforts to reduce gang... MORE
Economics of Crime
David Henderson
In tonight's 60 Minutes episode, the lead item was on the huge amount of Medicare fraud that takes place. Scam artists get lists of patients, lists of expensive items they can bill to Medicare, and a bank account. Then they... MORE
September 5, 2010
In a comment on my post, "From the Vault: My Review of Krugman," commenter David C writes: I'd like to point out that on taxes at least, Krugman's position hasn't changed from 1990. He still thinks the tax rates we... MORE
September 4, 2010
Greg Mankiw posts about how some economists responded to a Wall Street Journal poll about whether the Bush tax cuts should be extended. According to Greg: 6 percent said no, all the tax cuts should be allowed to expire, 24... MORE
Energy, Environment, Resources
David Henderson
Terry Hazen, a microbial ecologist at the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory who published a groundbreaking study of microbial activity Tuesday in the online research journal Science Express, has had a team of researchers out in the Gulf since May 25... MORE
September 2, 2010
Books: Reviews and Suggested Readings
David Henderson
I was web searching this morning in the Fortune archives--I wrote a lot of articles and books reviews for Fortune between 1983 and the late 1990s--and I came across my December 31, 1990 review of Paul Krugman's 1990 book, The... MORE
September 1, 2010
Information Goods, Intellectual Property
David Henderson
I had missed David Friedman's post last week on eggs and quality. The whole thing is worth reading. He points out that even though the British government doesn't require vaccination of hens against salmonella, 90 percent of egg producers have... MORE
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