I encountered the writings of Robert Klitgaard twice. I read “Tropical Gangsters” an excellent book on his experience working for The World Bank in Ecuatorial Guinea which is not to be confused with the epymenus epyminus (oh hell I’ll never guess the spelling of that word ) CD by King Creole and the Coconuts. Years […]
by ilsm The latest report, a continuing subject for GAO, observes that “A Knowledge Based Funding Approach COULD Improve Weapon System Acquisition Outcomes”. See for the whole set of observations. From an economic, as well as a cost accounting, perspective how could anyone spend anyone else’s money without rudimentary knowledge of WHAT they could get […]
by coberly I was listening to radio for smart people the other day when they did a piece about the effect of high gas prices on the price of gas guzzling cars. They followed the owner of a very high-end SUV as he drove into the used car lot and asked how much he could […]
I don’t like talking about stocks. I believe the market is rigged, that the allocations do not favor the investor who is not also a senior executive of the company and/or a member of the Board of Directors, and that reported profits and losses on a quarterly basis is a lousy way to run a […]
Obama ready to cave in to insurance industry AKA ‘Her Way’; Obama Health Plan Could Go In Clinton’s DirectionTeddy Davis, John Santucci and Gregory Wallace ABC News 06.29.2008 Obama’s surrogate [Dr. Kavita Patel] made her comments Wednesday while representing him at a National Journal health-policy forum moderated by Ron Brownstein, the political director of Atlantic […]
Tyler Cowen takes a premise of Arnold Kling’s: My guess is that most of the younger (aged 30-34) highly-educated folks are children of two highly-educated parents. My guess is that many of the older (aged 55-59) highly-educated folks are children of a college-educated father but not a college-educated mother. I don’t think we have a […]
UPDATE: Brad DeLong lists some of the Usual Suspects who are Not in the Line-up. John McCain’s 300 economists who support his Jobs for America Plan (via Tyler Cowen, non-sociopath, who provides an appropriate context for the list) includes one person, an Ike Brannon, whose affiliation is listed as “Department of the Treasury” and who, […]
For those who don’t want to try to read about John McCain’s 2 – 1 = 7 calculations, a couple of interesting links. It’s missing the appropriate equations, so I suspect a few of the simplifying assumptions are skewed, and he doesn’t mention that the industry in question has always been at the forefront of […]
The Most Trusted Name in News: Former secretaries of state James Baker III and Warren Christopher say the next time the president goes to war, Congress should be required to say whether it agrees. The co-chairmen of a bipartisan study group have proposed legislation that would require the president to consult lawmakers before initiating combat […]
After all the recent discussion of oil inventories and other arguments about the price of oil I thought I would throw another set of data and thoughts on the subject. This chart compares the price of oil to the CRB Index of industrial commodity prices — an index of 13 major commodities that does not […]