One of the biggest blind spots of policymakers and pundits is the inability to take target market into account. For example, you can’t just compare the wages of employees at Hilton Hotels vs Motel 6’s and conclude that Hilton Hotels are superior because the employees are paid more. You have to take the companies vastly […]
Archive for November, 2010
Nov30th2010
In Defense Of For-Profit Colleges
Published by in (modern day) Liberalism, Academia, Education, General, Hispanics (Minority Issues), ModernPolitics, Personal and University. 1 CommentNov29th2010
I haven’t verified this, but I thought this sequence of tweets from David Frum interesting:
What do we learn from Wikileaks re Iran?
1) Many more govts than you might think back a US military strike.
2) It’s now public knowledge that Iran and North Korea are exchanging deadly military technology.
3) Whole world can see that US has […]
Nov25th2010
“First Thanksgivings aside, these local birds just wouldn’t do, and the English began importing turkeys to America. This preference carries over to the present day, and the bird Americans sit down to eat every Thanksgiving is not the northern wild turkey Meleagris americana but the Aztec land chicken Meleagris mexicana [which […]
Nov24th2010
“The New York Times invites you to eliminate the federal deficit by picking and choosing among 16 options. I agree with Arnold Kling and David Henderson about the takeaway message: It’s really really easy to cut the deficit to zero without raising taxes. And that’s without even eliminating any […]
Nov23rd2010
Is Groupon worth it for businesses? It depends. But for a great lesson in how this question would be answered, using basic economics, from a business perspective, read this.
Nov19th2010
“Joel Kotkin has an excellent column in Forbes about the economic plight of California (thanks, RCP). The notion that the state embodies American enterprise and innovation at their most flourishing is seriously out of date. Broken government and a lagging economy have become mutually reinforcing, and the state seems to lack […]
Nov17th2010
“But look at the way it cuts spending and raises taxes. It means-tests Social Security benefits for high earners and raises the cap on taxable income, while also adding a larger benefit for the poorest seniors. Its hypothetical discretionary spending reductions don’t come from anti-poverty programs, for the most part: They […]
Nov16th2010
Why Isn’t Mexico Rich Yet?
Published by in Economics, FreeTrade, Hispanics (Minority Issues) and LatinAmerica. 0 CommentsAn economics professor at UCSD explains:
Over the last three decades, Mexico has aggressively reformed its economy, opening to foreign trade and investment, achieving fiscal discipline, and privatizing state-owned enterprises. Despite these efforts, the country’s economic growth has been lackluster, trailing that of many other developing nations. In this paper, I […]
Nov15th2010
“Are McDonald’s* hamburgers immune to natural processes like rotting? There’s some evidence that they are, but a truly scientific inquiry into the matter has been lacking — until now. J. Kenji Lopez-Alt of Serious Eats tested nine different hamburgers of varying sizes (both homemade and from McDonald’s) to find out. Contrary to […]
Nov9th2010
“One thing we do know is that it was a good year to be a Republican Hispanic candidate,” said Arturo Vargas, head of the National Association of Latino Elected and Appointed Officials. “Hispanic Republican candidates rode the Republican title wave. It was coast to coast. The only place they didn’t seem […]
Nov8th2010
“The vote- or seat-maximizing incentive for the Republican Party as a whole is to lay low, put forward no “Newt Gingrich” villain figure, and let Obama continue to take the blame for the ailing economy, while avoiding fights they can lose, because of the President’s superior bully pulpit and media presence.” — Tyler […]
Nov2nd2010
Which, in the end, may be the doom of President Obama in 2012.
The agenda in Congress is run from the House, which gives Republicans the ability to pass widely sought after legislation (repeal of ObamaCare, tax cuts, etc) knowing that the Senate will block said bills. This will likely force Obama to side with the […]
Nov2nd2010
A great article by Daniel Disalvo in the fall issue of National Affairs. Here are some of my favorite parts:
When it comes to advancing their interests, public-sector unions have significant advantages over traditional unions. For one thing, using the political process, they can exert far greater influence over their members’ employers — […]
