Robert Waldmann It would be easy to pass a law that issuers of securities aren’t allowed to pay ratings agencies. One problem is that if purchasers of securities paid for ratings, the ratings would have to be their secret at least for a while. One might add a provision that ratings be made public after […]

Rick Perry famously declared that there was no recession in Texas, even though the only way they balanced the budget was through emergency funding. Rick Perry and the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas appear not to talk with each other: Texas factory activity showed the first signs of bottoming out in September, according to the […]

by Tom aka Rusty Rustbelt How malpractice drives health care costs. This is a bullet point narrative, representing a long time line, but illustrates what happens to drive health care costs: Emergency physicians use x-rays to diagnose closed-head injuries and miss brain bleeds. The hospital and physicians are threatened or sued for malpractice. Word circulates […]

Robert Waldmann Neoconservatives have expressed sympathy for “intelligent design theory,” that is, creationism. This is well documented by Ronald Bailey’s article in “Reason on line.” Bailey discusses why neoconservatives might claim they don’t believe in evolution by natural selection even though there is no scientific basis for that view. update: link corrected thanks to VtCodger […]

Manufacturing evidence is apparently legal for prosecutors who then prosecute the case. This, at least, is the argument a couple of crooked prosecutors are making. Radley Balko is more optimistic than I am about prosecutors: If the Supreme Court…would essentially overturn Buckley and give prosecutors complete immunity, even when they conspire to convict an innocent […]

by cactus I spent last week on a floating buffet. I had never been on a cruise before, and I was pleasantly surprised. The service was amazing, though I’m not sure having someone make the beds twice a day isn’t overkill. The food, in general, was quite good. Even the buffet had great fare, though […]

rdan Several other conferences are happening elsewhere in the world, but with less fanfare than in Pittsburgh, both in media coverage and police activity. We do forget the ‘smaller’ issues of distibution of goods, so here is a reminder. How to target the poor? How can governments and aid agencies target the poorest? Some use […]

rdan Chris Blattman has an interesting note reminding us of how US elections were done and offers a little consolation about elections in Afghanistan.

Once of the things that was clear at CGI this week is that the power companies that have looked into alternative energy sources have quickly realised they are not only good publicity but profitable (i.e., lower cost when used to scale). Florida Power & Light (discussed here) expanded an already major commitment, mostly in FL […]