Creeping Lunacy - Economics category

Wanted: Personal Economic Trainers. Apply at Washington Post

Mon, 09 Feb 2009 06:37:40 GMT

If you have a big home equity loan, an even bigger mortgage, over the limit credit cards, a car that will last a year with a loan that will last three, and poor prospects for future employment, apparently, the thing to do is to start lighting cigars with hundred dollar bills. When this is the prevailing wisdom, the end is nigh as the thought contains no wisdom and indicates a widespread acceptance of irresponsibility. This bastardization of the work of John Maynard Keynes has taken root in news rooms, editorial pages, legislatures, and cable news stations from sea to shining sea and across the fruited plain. It is accepted as if it came down from on high carved into stone tablets. One side decreeing the dangers of anthropogenic global warming and the other extolling Keynesian economics and specifying the liberal programs to spend money on to stimulate the economy. All of this presented as if it were based on science as sound as Newton’s Laws of Motion. The worst part is reading hack columnists like Steven Pearlstein denigrate prudence as economic illiteracy.

Jevons Paradox

Thu, 26 Jun 2008 20:01:25 GMT

In 1865, the most prolific economic mind on the planet was occupied with coal. More specifically, William Jevons was trying to understand why the consumption of coal in England continued to increase despite ever more efficient steam engines. What became known as the Jevons Paradox explains why increases in efficiency result in higher total consumption. The news has yet to reach Washington.

Lies, Damn Lies, and the Names of Government Programs

Wed, 12 Sep 2007 02:39:40 GMT

On September 7, 2007, the Senate passed the conference report to the College Cost Reduction Act (H.R.2669). If the President signs this bill into law, the cost of a college education will most certainly rise. Like most acts of Congress, this piece of legislation does nothing in its title. It does prove that the members of the House and Senate are unfamiliar with the most basic principles of economics.