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

The Freedom to Diminish Other Peoples’ Freedom

by Mike Kimel The Freedom to Diminish Other Peoples’ Freedom You’ve probably heard about this study by the Mercatus Institute looking at Freedom in the 50 States. I always find these measures look at the wrong things, and that’s usually because they pick one side of an equation and ignore the rest. See, I support […]

Accountability

by Mike Kimel Accountability Watching the slow motion train wreck that is the European economy right now, and the Argentine economy just about always, I started to wonder – should political leaders be personally liable for their failures? Obviously, there is no way that someone whose ineptitude puts a creates a crash that causes severe […]

Revealed Preference

by Mike Kimel Revealed Preference This week came news that Rob Portman, a Republican senator from Ohio, is bucking his party and reversing his own long-held position on gay marriage. Now that his son has come out as gay, he supports it. From an article in the Cleveland Plain Dealer by reporter Sabrina Eaton: Republican […]

The Republican Party and the National Debt

Mike Kimel from Angry Bear 2007 described another aspect to be kept in mind during the current austerity policy debates. The Republican Party and the National Debt Posted by cactus | 12/04/2007 Public Agenda is asking bloggers to contribute to a discussion on the National Debt they call Facing Up. These are my thoughts on […]

A Reminder

by Mike Kimel A Reminder My wife was talking to a friend of hers who gets paid by the school district her son attends to bring the boy to school because, given where they live, it would be inconvenient to provide bus service to where they live. We worked out the numbers, and my best […]

Markets Need Regulators – Food Edition

by Mike Kimel Markets Need Regulators – Food Edition Back in college, I had a chat with one of my more libertarian economics professors about the need for regulation. He thought regulation was completely un-necessary. “But what about mislabeled food?” I asked, “How do we even know that what is labeled on the side of […]

Paul Krugman, Angry Bear, and Jazzbumpa

Update: Noahpinion takes on the same in How to win arguments by pretending to be stupid.  The comments section offers other points of view. Ron T. aka Jazzbumpa received an unusual thank you from Paul Krugman for this post on a Mish Shedlock post about debating PK. Krugman recommended Beverly Mann  on January 15th this year […]