It is too bad the Old Testament prophet Elijah never passed through Washington, D.C. His challenge to the Israelites in 1 Kings 18, “Choose ye this day whom ye will serve,” is a powerful argument against holding two diametrically opposed…
Category: Other
Beauty should be built into new I-35W bridge
Beauty is the Rodney Dangerfield of public construction. It don’t get no respect. We may find a particular bridge or building beautiful – St. Paul’s High Bridge or Landmark Center, for example – but we seldom explicitly discuss how to…
Few seem to know, care that inflation is a tax
Where is Milton Friedman when we need him? It is too bad he died nine months before we once again really need his insight. The Federal Open Market Committee, the Federal Reserve’s policy-making body that meets Tuesday, knows what Friedman…
Reaping econ lesson from wheat prices
Many Americans would not even know wheat prices had increased were it not for news stories. Wheat prices hit record highs a week ago, at least if you don’t factor in inflation. This week they fell back again on news…
Public good is also good for business
Government actions often help more people than intended. On Monday, the National Hurricane Center classified Hurricane Felix as a Category 5 storm and predicted it would hit Honduras and Belize in two days. Earlier, the center had warned Aruba, Bonaire…
Public good is also good for business
Insurance is a great human invention, but people should understand how it works. In particular, they need to understand the incentives insurance can create, both for the good of society and for ill. We face those questions after recent flooding…
Housing price expectations as strong on the way down
Every cloud has a silver lining. Yes, housing prices are dropping at the sharpest rate in decades. Yes, existing home sales just fell for the fifth consecutive month. On the other hand, I have great new examples of demand shifters…
Over time data can prove unreliable
Much of our prosperity stems from our ability to identify important relationships from masses of data. This is as true in economics as in the sciences. Generally, the more information, the easier it is to determine important relationships. But data…
Carelessness can hurt any industry
Mattel is in the same fix as funds holding collateralized mortgage obligations. Both find it difficult to sell their products because potential buyers don’t know what they are getting. While concerns about safety hurt the sales of any consumer product,…
Fed’s actions aren’t solely up to Bernanke
Many news reports on the Federal Reserve’s response to ongoing problems in financial markets misinterpret what it is doing. This is not unusual. The Fed is a complex organization that many professional economists don’t fully understand, let alone reporters. But…