Economics

Yes, You Do Have Staff, But You've Got to Be Staff, First Too Both First and Too Twitter, the Favor Economy, and the Power of Crowds You've seen the ad:  some bozo, trying to project competence and connections, tells a potential customer:  "I've got people to handle that."  By which he means he can look up folks in the Yellow Pages, hire some, and take his … [Read more...] about Yes, You Do Have Staff, But You’ve Got to Be Staff, Too

This is the long-awaited (mostly by me) fourth post in my series about the stimulus bill. I would have got it posted earlier, but I've been kind of busy. (You might want to read the first three parts about GDP, Fear, and Spending.) Recall that under the theory behind the stimulus, recessions happen when consumers decide to reduce their consumption to try to save cash for an … [Read more...] about Thinking About the Stimulus: Theoretical Badness

It's been a few weeks since I've done any long-form blogging, but the normally sensible Reason website just linked approvingly to a Washington Post op-ed by Robert J. Samuelson that cries out for a response. He's talking about Obama's "green" energy plans and how we improve our economy: Since the dawn of the Industrial Age, this has been simple: produce more with less. … [Read more...] about Samuelson’s Complaint

I know I still owe my readers a post on what can go wrong with the stimulus, but I found something interesting about the bailout. Kip Esquire posts the following context-free tweet: If A owes B $2, and B owes C $2, and C owes A $2, and nobody has any money, then the required bailout is not $6, but $0. Just saying... It's an excellent point. As a nation, all of us being in debt … [Read more...] about Thinking About the Bailout

I disagree with a lot of what Lindsay Beyerstein writes, but she's still one of the most thoughtful people on my blogroll. However, she gets a bit goofy when it comes to labor unions. Consider yesterday's post about the Employee Free Choice Act: Management groups object to majority signup (aka "card check") for the simple reason that it would make it easier for workers to have … [Read more...] about EFCA and Secret Ballots