It’s not my fault if nature never felt like evolving a system that obeys a simple little first order equation. Source here

Ken Houghton remembers that Warren Buffett famously groused that he pays a lower percentage of his income in taxes than his secretary. Or the person who will come up with an actual cure for a cancer. Mark Cuban takes this one step further, pointing out the obvious: if we want to promote investment, “we should […]

Ken Houghton notes the obvious corollary to Bruce Webb’s post on the 1st: if you don’t “read the bill,” the obstructionists will lie about it. UPDATE: And now corrects his misreading (see Bruce’s update below, following on Mitt Shook’s comment). Milt Shook demonstrates in detail that, even if you do, people such as Alan Caruba […]

Nor is Cate Blachett playing me. (Nor, unfortunately, am I using this as an opportunity to post a picture of Ms. Blanchett in an attempt to troll for links. You want that, go to John Carney.) Taxes are always fun, and there’s a few other things going on. But, really, let me quote the Internet’s […]

If you needed a picture of a Megan M., you could have used this one: I’m probably not the only one who wonders why you chose a Megan F. instead. (h/t Susan of Texas. Photo credit to superficialgallery.com)

I have generally decided that the NYT’s attempt at becoming the WSJ on its editorial page is not worth the trouble of discussing. An editorial staph that replaces the despicable but somewhat coherent Bill Kristol with the execrable incoherence of Ross Douthat is clearly suffering a fatal infection, and therefore not deserving of support. But […]

The first item on Charlie Stross’s World Science Fiction Convention schedule: Thursday August 6th, 5pm (Location: P-511CF)Title: In Conversation: Paul Krugman and Charles StrossDescription: 90 minutes of Charles Stross discussing SF, economics, and other topics with Paul Krugman. [link in original] Those who might wonder why Krugman would be an appropriate guest at Anticipation (this […]

but it doesn’t do that much for the rest of us. Via The Ambrosini Critique, Scott Sumner discovers there was no housing crash: The BLS claims that housing prices are up 2.1% in the last 12 months….According to the BLS, housing makes up nearly 40% of the core basket of goods and services. Further reading […]

To often, we talk about models as if they are reality, instead of reflecting a reality that was approximated. At least forty economists, including at least three ‘Nobel’ Prize winners, know that: A rising tide lifts all boats only when labor and management bargain on relatively equal terms.

From Lenny Dyksytra’s letter to friends about his bankruptcy filing yesterday: William McKinley filed for protection while serving as Ohio’s governor in 1893. He was in debt to the tune of $130,000 (an insurmountable sum in those days!) before some friends eventually helped to bail him out. Three years later, he occupied a desk in […]