Many people like to point out how Americans work harder — and longer — than the rest of the world. Many leftists like to point out that America’s work / life balance is out of whack and that we need to spend more time at home and less time at the office.
Maybe.
But we don’t really [...]
The Wall Street Journal correctly skewers T. Boone Pickens today:
Boone Pickens may be a fine man, and has played a colorful and useful role on the American stage for decades. But his “energy plan,” which he’s spending a fortune to promote on cable TV, is not a plan. Asserting that [...]
The Southeast has been experiencing drought conditions for over two years now. Many residents don’t want to watch their lawns turn brown or their flowers die off. So, they’re drilling their own wells.
While Atlanta’s main water source, Lake Lanier, has sunk 15 feet below desired levels and ordinary families have let their lawns [...]
Bryan Caplan has some great advice to live by: Two Heuristics to Live By When You Don’t Know What You’re Doing:
When we see people making bad decisions - whether as consumers or voters - we often blame the “complexity” of the issues they face. If Ph.D. economists can’t figure out the best [...]
As I’ve mentioned in the past, I enjoy reading a few economics blogs. Lately, oil prices have been a hot topic — why are they high?, are they too high?, are they too low?, are speculators driving up the price, etc. It’s been a fascinating discussion.
Yesterday, Arnold Kling suggested that it’s more likely that oil [...]
With the spring weather that we had this year, eating local doesn’t look like such a great idea:
The floods that damaged farms in southern Wisconsin will likely result in fewer fruits and vegetables at farmers’ markets this summer and help boost already high prices for organic eggs and meat at grocery stores in [...]
When is a monopoly not a monopoly?
“If Barnes & Noble does buy Borders, we’re facing a real monopoly,” she said, though such a deal would also be likely to receive regulatory scrutiny. “We would see an initial deep discounting, trying to keep or attract the Borders customers to Barnes & Noble.”
Meade argues that [...]
It seems that some people get annoyed when used book sellers visit library book sales.
Book dealers armed with handheld ISBN scanners are threatening to take over the used book sales run by volunteer fundraising groups for the Madison Public Library system, Morris said. The scanners tell them how many copies [...]
The economy seems to be staggering around and politicians everywhere are eager to stimulate it back into coherence. But nothing paralyzes a business more than uncertainty about whether it its investments will earn a tidy profit or a large tax bill. Nothing frees a business more than certainty and predictability. With the Bush tax cuts [...]