While I had a laundry list of small and large earthmoving projects to accomplish on our farm, the real reason I was renting a bulldozer, I explained to the sales rep at the Komatsu dealer in Sioux Falls, was because…
Category: Other
Lighter justice for the rich is damaging
Justice is supposed to be blind, but it is not deaf — and money still talks in U.S. courtrooms. Perpetrators of large financial crimes often fare far better in relative terms than those who have committed more minor property crimes.…
Dropping birth rate has economic consequences
When economic times are bad and people worry about the future, they become cautious about undertaking long-term projects. There are few initiatives that have longer-term implications than having babies. So the recent news that the number of births in our…
Political parties don’t define Keynesians
Identity confusion is muddying the waters of public discussion about what economic policies our nation should follow in the wake of the worst financial system crisis in 80 years and the worst recession in 30. If you are a Republican,…
Bernanke should pack baggage, let Yellen run Fed
Ben Bernanke’s four-year term as chair of the Fed’s Board of Governors ends in January. Rather than reappoint him, President Barack Obama should name a new chair who can take a fresh shot at the job, unencumbered by any policy…
Unregulated, lots of good ideas go off the rails
In public life, just as in private ones, people want the benefits of some action but prefer to not pay the costs. A nation may get away with that longer than an individual could in private life, but eventually the…
In health care debate, EU statistic is dead on arrival
The adage, ‘a little knowledge is a dangerous thing’ is nowhere more true than when people seize on demographic or economic indicators to make a political point without really understanding what the indicator means. Take a recent letter to the…
Don’t trust Bernanke’s soothing words
Don’t be reassured by Fed Chair Ben Bernanke’s bland assurances to Congress last week that the Fed can safely unwind all of the monetary expansion embodied in various financial sector bailouts over the past 23 months. Remember that he represents…
Something for nothing? It’s highly unlikely
The Obama administration and many in Congress apparently believe that the U.S. health care system is “Pareto-inefficient.” That’s what economists call the most basic criterion for identifying resource waste, a situation where you can make some people better off without…
Changing structure of dairying only prolongs sector’s agony
Virtually all animal agriculture faces hard times right now, but dairying is especially hard-pressed. Milk prices have fallen by half since last year, to their lowest level in 30 years — even without adjusting for inflation. Although feed prices have…