German Chancellor Angela Merkel studied physics, not philosophy, but German university studies usually include some study of logic. Yet she apparently fails to recognize the logical fallacy in the economic strategy she advocates, not only for the country she heads,…
Category: Other
If a tree falls in the city, who is responsible to get it out of the way?
Making government smaller, we’re told, is an idea that increasing numbers of Americans find appealing. Accomplishing that may be a long trek, but the city of Golden Valley took a first step this week when, breaking with past practice, it…
The pain of external costs, imperfect information
Sometimes, external costs end up being internalized again. I wryly recognized that this week as I twitched while an emergency room nurse practitioner cut slits in my swollen but inadequately numbed thumb. She was draining fluid that had accumulated from…
Boycott BP now! You might want to reconsider that
Like a lot of people, my wife and I are angered by the management decisions BP took that led to the ongoing oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. But does that mean we should stop buying gas and milk…
Crises happen, yes, but we can cut the risks
Call me ‘BP Lotterman.’ Servicing my pickup last week proved to me how right U.S. Senate candidate Rand Paul of Kentucky was in asserting that oil spills are just accidents that happen. Once in a while a series of things…
Supervalu-Walmart suit probably won’t help shoppers
The recent news that Supervalu, parent of Cub Foods, is suing Walmart to force it to reduce the number of food items in its Midway store says a lot about the ever-evolving structure of retailing in the United States and…
Used right, Internet can be reliable source
The old adage that ‘figures don’t lie, but liars can figure’ is never more true than when economic problems dominate our nation’s politics. That is why the Internet could improve the level of political discourse in our nation, if only…
We’ve lost some banks, but plenty of choices remain
Every week, the FDIC closes a few banks around the country. In Minnesota, six have been closed so far this year, equal to the number closed in all of 2009. Pinehurst Bank in St. Paul, which was closed May 21,…
How do U.S. incomes compare? It varies
Humans are inherently competitive and some people always want to know how their country compares to others in per-capita income. The problem is that such ‘Who’s No. 1?’ comparisons are not simple because they depend on exchange rates. These prices…
Nonprofits’ suit shows tradeoffs
This particular lawsuit involves “structured investment vehicles” that held subprime mortgages that eventually went bust. Other disputes have involved nonprofits and local governments that borrowed money via “auction rate securities.” But they all involve nearly identical issues. Just what role…