Relevant and even prescient commentary on news, politics and the economy.

Preface to a Thought-Experiment on Labor, Capital, and Income Distribution

Mark Thoma goes to something called the Business Ethics Blog for an economics thought-experiment: A Montreal accessories company has taken its policy of using no animal products beyond the rack and has forbidden its staff from eating meat and fish at work. A former employee says the policy violated her rights as a non-vegetarian…. It’s […]

And Here I Thought Corporations were Rational

Ken Houghton lowers the level of discourse at AB by discussing the career of a porn star other than Adam West. One of the primary tenets of economic theory is that corporations believe in nothing other than profits. Well, it’s not quite that stark—we use phrases such as “utility maximization,” “cost minimization,” and the like—but […]

The Gold Standard in One Easy Quote

Warren Buffett: [Gold] gets dug out of the ground in Africa, or someplace. Then we melt it down, dig another hole, bury it again and pay people to stand around guarding it. It has no utility. Anyone watching from Mars would be scratching their head.

Remember the Vega response? It’s a philosophy problem.

by DolB After reading Tom Bozzo’s post via Vtcodger, I was inspired by the comments about bad management. I’m not confident that the issue of the Big 3 management is the result of stupidity as much as it is from philosophy. Part of the bitching of the Big 3 in the first crisis was do […]