Nigel Hollis writes Successful advertising rarely succeeds through argument or calls to action. Instead, it creates positive memories and feelings that influence our behavior over time to encourage us to buy something at a later date. No one likes to think that they are easily influenced. In fact, there is plenty of evidence to suggest […]
An article about famine in the Horn of Africa by Maude Barlow appeared today. It is worth your consideration. (h/t coberly) My own response is in comments. Following are excerpts: Most Westerners see the crisis in the Horn of Africa as a combination of a large population, chronic poverty, corruption on the part of African […]
By Daniel Becker Randolph Duke: Money isn’t everything, Mortimer. Mortimer Duke: Oh, grow up. Randolph Duke: Mother always said you were greedy. Mortimer Duke: She meant it as a compliment. Trading Places 1983 A while ago (an understatement) I posted on the question of what is rich. The first dealt with what issues to consider […]
Busy day on several fronts, but these should be discussed and I’ve already posted one rant this week, so a riff on the second piece would be overkill. Sort of an Open Thread, with four topics. Tyler Cowen argues that, instead of giving out stimulus monies, the government should just hire people directly. No, really: […]
It’s rare to see theft described so directly: Proposals made in July by the Basel Committee on Banking Supervision should be redrafted to allow banks to use so-called contingent capital to meet the obligations, the European Banking Federation said in a letter seen by Bloomberg News. They should also be changed so lenders that can’t […]
Yesterday the Conference Board released its measure of consumer confidence, which dropped to 44.5 in August. This brings the Conference Board measure of confidence in line with the Reuters/University of Michigan measure of consumer sentiment. Bloomberg summarizes the Conference Board results. Confidence is important, since consumer spending accounts for the lion’s-share of aggregate spending. Consumer […]
Since Sunday noon till about Tuesday 6 pm had no power. The live high voltage wire downed along with two trees prevented cars coming or going for the duration of days, so helped spur reflection on neighbors, basic water needs and food stuffs, and in some cases emergencies (not our area). Still, fire and ambulance […]
by Mike Kimel This post is the third in a series that looks at the relationship between real economic growth and the top individual marginal tax rate. The first looked at the period from 1901 to 1928, the second from 1929 to 1940. This one will look at the period from 1940 to 1950. Before […]
This article by David Leonhardt in the New York Times is getting a lot of attention. Leonhardt argues that there is an active debate in the economics profession between inflation hawks, moderates and doves and that only the position of hawks and moderates are represented on the Fed open market committee (FOMC). He guesses that […]
by Mike Kimel Tyler Cowen has a post on truck driving jobs in North Dakota: My poking around showed that some of them start at 75k a year, though with raises for good performance. The implication, of course – why don’t unemployed people move to North Dakota and drive trucks for good wages rather than […]