tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-16054929211794215702012-02-08T05:53:18.596-05:00The Last EmbassyEconomics, Insurance, and the Economics of Insurance.W.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.comBlogger3931100tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-87193791428351476672012-02-08T05:31:00.000-05:002012-02-08T05:31:00.259-05:00Greek Debt Crisis, US Entitlement Crisis and Through the Looking Glass
Say one were to describe the Greek debt crisis and associated politico negotiations regarding over spending by use of debt and the subsequent austerity measures as well as the bail-out time line. One would be attempting to describe the ongoing, rolling, on-again-off-again, never seems to be resolved crisis. One might go on to write a 2,500 word essay describing the situation.
Further, if one W.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-55259582882907925672012-02-07T16:01:00.000-05:002012-02-07T16:01:00.418-05:00Being Green -or- Merely Wearing Green Shaded Glasses: Conundrums, Product Substitution Panacea, and the Prius Fallacy
“A favorite trick of people who consider themselves friends of the environment is reframing luxury consumption preferences as gifts to humanity. A new car, a solar-powered swimming-pool heater, a 200-mile-an-hour train that makes intercity travel more pleasant and less expensive, better-tasting tomatoes—these are the sacrifices we're prepared to make for the future of the planet.
Our W.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-83622483293342589472012-02-07T06:01:00.000-05:002012-02-07T06:01:00.100-05:00St. Petersburg Paradox: when an infinite gambit is preceived as a finite gambit.
“If you are considering buying into Facebook's initial public offering of stock, take a moment to ponder the St. Petersburg Paradox, an old riddle still relevant to investing today.
Proposed in the 18th century, the paradox works like this: I will toss a coin until it comes up heads, at which point you get paid and the game ends. You get $1 if the coin comes up heads on the first toss, $2 ifW.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-26035317501680917432012-02-06T19:01:00.000-05:002012-02-07T06:53:27.489-05:00The repeal of ObamaCare's subsection C.L.A.S.S.: entitlement repeal -or- repeal of a budget gimmick entitlement?
“The Republican-led House on Wednesday voted to repeal a financially troubled part of the 2010 health care law that was designed to provide affordable long-term care insurance.
The House vote comes months after the Obama administration suspended the Community Living Assistance Services and Support program, known as the CLASS Act.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius in W.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-62813602495911146942012-02-05T09:45:00.000-05:002012-02-05T09:45:02.937-05:00Barking Cats, Milton Friedman’s classic 1973 short essay
On an annual basis one should consider re-reading/reviewing Milton Friedman’s classic 1973 essay Barking Cats. This very short essay speaks volumes. It also identifies a constant/reoccurring phenomena that one can identify on nearly a daily basis.
The essay points out that broken economic models are many, many times perpetuated rather than removed. That is, “reformers” merely put forth W.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-73102489992421893682012-02-04T16:31:00.000-05:002012-02-04T17:25:29.183-05:00Take the “If the Economy is Getting Better” Quiz!
The blog TheEconomicCollapse has compiled a short quiz on the subject of the media’s relentless taking point that “….the economy is getting better”. (1)
Try the "If the economy is getting better" Quiz!
If the economy is getting better, then why did new home sales in the United States hit a brand new all-time record low during 2011?
If the economy is getting better, then whyW.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-8893545765677259492012-02-04T11:01:00.000-05:002012-02-04T11:01:00.505-05:00Current Labor Participation Rates: an indicator of an increase in labor participation rates within the subterranean economy?
The subterranean economy, in a nutshell, is non-reported work which means non-reported wages meaning zero tax revenue for state. The subterranean economy is as simple as the neighborhood kid mowing lawns for cash and as sophisticated as organized crime. Keep the subterranean economy in mind for a moment.
Within the study of labor economics is the phenomena of the discouraged worker. The W.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-49779489319948813232012-02-04T05:01:00.000-05:002012-02-04T05:01:00.137-05:00And About that Labor Participation Rate and The Supposed Headline Unemployment Rate
"CNBC's Rick Santelli: You know what I said at 8:30 Eastern? We want a million jobs an hour. That's what we want. What we got looked like a good report. I said, 'Let's get the calculator out,' and I did. And so did a boatload of my sources and big blogs that many people read like Zero Hedge. The labor force participation rate, if you look at non-seasonallyW.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-18313786835502078412012-02-03T06:31:00.000-05:002012-02-03T06:31:00.999-05:00Spirit Airlines “Unintended Consequences Fee": Pricing the Negative Externalities of Government Failure?
‘Spirit Airlines announced this week that it would add a $2 "unintended consequences fee" to all tickets due to new federal regulation aimed at protecting consumers.
The "Department of Transportation Unintended Consequences Fee" was added to each ticket effective immediately and is a direct response to new DOT rules put in place Jan. 26 to offer travelers better "passenger protections."
W.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-21307265563463207942012-02-02T05:31:00.000-05:002012-02-03T07:54:57.940-05:00Obama Mortgage Refinance Plan [White House market intervention-distortion #1,621]
‘President Barack Obama announced a package of proposals designed to jolt the housing market, his latest effort to reignite the economy after four years of foreclosures and falling home prices.
“This housing crisis struck right at the heart of what it means to be middle class in America: our homes,” Obama said in a speech in the Washington suburb of Falls Church, Virginia. “We need to do W.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-86719936854008712392012-02-01T22:31:00.000-05:002012-02-02T04:01:11.675-05:00Indiana: the newest right-to-work state
Regardless of your politics of right-to-work or required unionization, one has to consider “voting” preference in regards to revealed preference.
Ponder this: if one can vote in an election, if one can vote with one's dollars, if one can vote with one's feet…..then certainly one can vote with his/her human capital. Since 90% of the private sector is non-union, then 90% of human capital has W.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-10949164448886313122012-02-01T06:01:00.000-05:002012-02-01T06:01:57.422-05:00Economic Malaise: simultaneously deploying Keynesian deficit spending and QE in an environment of high public and high private debt
An item that receives little attention is that Keynesian deficit spending and quantitative easing [QE] were both economic theories developed during a period of very low public and private debt. Deploying the theories, simultaneously, in an environment of high public and high private debt within an advanced economy was first tried in the early 2000’s in Japan. The result? Economic malaise.
W.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-84473136690542503322012-01-31T15:31:00.000-05:002012-01-31T15:31:00.517-05:00Sentimentalists, The Old Order, The Middle Ages, Custom and Prescription into Associations, Ranks, Guilds vs. Realistic, Cold, and Matter-of-Fact Social Structure Based on Contract with Status of Least Importance
“No doubt one chief reason for the unclear and contradictory theories of class relations lies in the fact that our society, largely controlled in all its organization by one set of doctrines, still contains survivals of old social theories which are totally inconsistent with the former. In the Middle Ages men were united by custom and prescription into associations, ranks, guilds, and W.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-11869688791465438152012-01-31T13:31:00.000-05:002012-01-31T13:31:00.225-05:00The Seemly Without End Greek Debt Crisis
The ongoing saga, the never solved, the ever changing Greek debt situation. A very confusing situation. The problem is solved yesterday, then its suddenly not solved. Then another meeting is announced for next week which will solve the situation. Then next week comes and no accord.
Seems oddly confusing. -Or- was the Greek debt situation explained long ago?
"It's very good jam," said the W.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-72449356367061702122012-01-31T05:31:00.000-05:002012-01-31T05:31:00.931-05:00The Word Sustainable is Unsustainable
H/T: Carpe Diem. Source: http://xkcd.com/1007/W.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-51616312643981239072012-01-30T19:00:00.000-05:002012-01-31T10:51:56.606-05:00Coincidentally irrelevant events can increase one’s “fair share“.
When acquiring your “fair share” one must know the process. Below is a story of "process".
The University of Chicago Medical Center hired Michele Obama in 2002 as executive director of programs for community relations, neighborhood outreach, volunteer recruitment, staff diversity and minority contracting. The hospital was kind enough to promote her in 2005 to vice president of community W.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-50157834546797464492012-01-29T12:31:00.000-05:002012-01-29T12:31:00.625-05:00“Fair Share”: The Allocation Process of Fair-Share-Units
Suppose one
viewed the political argument of “fair share” as fair-share-units? That is, if one considers the fair share argument, that of transferring [redistribution], what about considering the argument in terms of transferring or redistribution of
fair-share-units from some sort of production realm to some sort of recipient realm.
Putting
aside one’s political view of redistributionW.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-49125138368779685192012-01-28T15:31:00.000-05:002012-01-28T15:31:00.350-05:00Not In My Back Yard (NIMBY): Residential Solar Panel Arrays
‘I was reminded of this when I read a recent article in ClimateWire (sub. req.), by Lacey Johnson, “Boom in Solar Panels injects NIMBY Battles into Neighborhoods.”
The story begins with Barbara Katz, whose hilltop home in historic north Baltimore, amid roaming wildlife, was threatened by her neighbor’s plan to install an 600-panel solar array. Johnson reports:
“My initial reaction was, ‘OhW.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-15966080690640044132012-01-28T05:31:00.000-05:002012-02-07T06:55:18.316-05:00ObamaCare and the Supreme Court: What’s Are The Arguments and Briefs Filed?
‘In the last week, the main parties in the health reform lawsuit began filing their opening briefs. Advocacy, consumer and trade groups – including AHIP, America's Health Insurance Plans – weighed in by filing amicus briefs as well.
Oral arguments are scheduled for five and a half hours over three days: March 26-28. The Court will hear arguments about four different issues:
*The W.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-69258413483747025952012-01-27T23:01:00.000-05:002012-01-27T23:01:00.732-05:00Solyndra Inc., Beacon Power, and now Ener1: Green Cronyism and Bankruptcy - Your Tax Dollar Working to Pick Losers!
“The parent company of an electric car battery maker that received a $118 million grant from the Obama administration filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Thursday.
New York-based Ener1 said it has been affected by competition from China and other countries.
Ener1 subsidiary EnerDel received a $118 million stimulus grant from the Energy Department in 2009, and Vice President Joe W.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-78198377742562724602012-01-27T07:31:00.000-05:002012-01-27T16:22:30.283-05:00“Fair Share”: another name for politico constituency building through the use of other peoples‘ money.
“Fair share” or a version thereof has been used many times by politicos over the years. Two components exist: fair and share.
“Fair” has very little meaning other than what one wants it to mean in a particular context. Generally, given a context of political debate, where fair is very often used, fair is said to mean: what you are doing or advocating and what someone else is not doing or W.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-33177778173277355322012-01-25T06:31:00.000-05:002012-01-30T14:03:59.714-05:00Manufacturing Jobs Peaked, On a World Wide Basis, Years Ago: Not a Singularly US Phenomena
Talking heads, pundits, and media types supporting current public policy [more accurately termed politico policy], are always in search of a statistical data point, holding forth statistics as fact, then making the leap that the data point constitutes complete evidence of an open and shut case…..have recently latched onto the data point of an increase in manufacturing jobs.
One must realize W.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-16019222144191587272012-01-24T17:31:00.000-05:002012-01-24T17:31:00.277-05:00Environmentalism as an exclusionary, barrier to entry, denial scheme?
“In turning down Keystone, however, the President has uncovered an ugly little secret that has always lurked beneath the surface of environmentalism. Its basic appeal is to the affluent. Despite all the professions of being "liberal" and "against big business," environmentalism's main appeal is that it promises to slow the progress of industrial progress. People who are already comfortable withW.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-45102927354363836972012-01-24T05:31:00.000-05:002012-01-24T05:31:00.071-05:00The Free Lunch Phenomena and Election-eering
'The economist does, normally, attribute precise meaning to the terms "more" and "less." Moreover, if a similar model of rational behavior is extended to the collective-choice process, we are able to derive propositions about individual behavior that are parallel to those contained in economic theory. If the hypotheses are valid, the representative individual should, when confronted with W.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-36992789148056097252012-01-24T05:24:00.000-05:002012-01-24T05:24:36.095-05:00The True Cost of Public Education - CATOW.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-46641813014370045762012-01-22T11:01:00.000-05:002012-01-24T21:27:47.529-05:00Weltschmerz
It is impossible to imagine the universe run by a wise, just and omnipotent God, but it is quite easy to imagine it run by a board of gods.- H.L. Mencken
Taking five economists, F.A. Hayek, Milton Friedman, Thomas Sowell, Robert Lucas and Thomas Sargent, and boiling down many of their observations, one might make the following consolidated-compact summation:
Markets never clear W.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-37590364542944313202012-01-21T17:01:00.000-05:002012-01-21T17:01:00.439-05:00Pawns and PoliticsW.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-39354140537131587322012-01-21T10:31:00.000-05:002012-01-21T10:31:00.765-05:00Public Policy or Politico Policy?
How does one define public policy and what in the world does the “public” have to do with “public policy”?
Public policy eludes to grass root, spontaneous order/emergent order policy that the public demands. Nay, nay. Public policy doesn’t exist. On the other hand, politico policy does in fact exist. The vast majority of “policy” appears, and is due to, the "vision" of a group of politicos W.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-10653267594293869002012-01-21T05:31:00.000-05:002012-01-21T05:31:01.058-05:00Thomas Sowell on Barack ObamaW.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-67608792650965223682012-01-20T21:00:00.000-05:002012-01-20T21:00:01.216-05:00Newt Gingrich and CNN's John King Over Open Marriage Question.W.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-87657335836948825582012-01-20T09:30:00.000-05:002012-01-20T09:30:03.410-05:00Andrew Klavan: Liberal Fantasies vs. Reality, Can you Spot the Difference?W.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-57045072818395070472012-01-19T13:01:00.000-05:002012-01-21T11:46:27.106-05:00Revisiting William Graham Sumner from 1883: A Society That Refuses a Class Structure Must Be a Society With No Special Class Rights
“If we refuse to recognize any classes as existing in society when, perhaps, a claim might be set up that the wealthy, educated, and virtuous have acquired special rights and precedence, we certainly cannot recognize any classes when it is attempted to establish such distinctions for the sake of imposing burdens and duties on one group for the benefit of others.”
“If words like wise and W.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-5222475927051078682012-01-19T05:31:00.000-05:002012-01-19T05:31:00.773-05:00Chuck Woolery Returns: The Topic of "Democracy"W.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-571084957079144442012-01-18T05:31:00.000-05:002012-01-18T05:41:54.774-05:00Buffaloed in Buffalo -or- The Home of The Public Employee Face Lift
“This is an old story for Buffalo. Ever since the city began losing its manufacturing base in the 1950s and gradually declined into one of America’s poorest cities (the poverty rate today is nearly 29%), the federal and state governments have poured hundreds of millions of dollars into subsidized redevelopment schemes that have yielded few tangible benefits.
Buffalo may be the paradigmatic W.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-42231714970100206842012-01-17T10:22:00.000-05:002012-01-17T10:22:07.982-05:00Know the Truth About Government Health-Care: The Video.W.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-38671341587549113422012-01-17T08:06:00.000-05:002012-01-17T08:07:59.657-05:00Regarding the web site Dirty Spending Secrets Dot Com
"It’s the seedy underbelly of Washington, D.C. The hallways of Congress are often dark alleys of wasteful spending and pork-laden deal-making. Down these lanes, shadowy special interests and empire-building bureaucracies lie in wait to relieve innocent taxpayers of their hard-earned money. They spend billions on wasteful programs, pet projects, and the accumulation of personal power. They W.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-42222962907584107852012-01-15T05:31:00.000-05:002012-01-23T15:38:16.378-05:00A Charming Tale of Political Nitwitery and Your Tax Dollar: Neighborhood Stabilization Program (NSP).
There are two
distinct camps of thought regarding the US housing bubble: (a) the government induced
bubble caused by decades of housing market intervention augmented by a cheap
money bubble created by the Federal Reserve 2002-2004, (b) greedy bankers. Regardless of which school
of thought one subscribes to the US housing bubble resulted in a mortgage foreclosures
crisis, resulting in an W.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-4991518472692136722012-01-14T11:31:00.001-05:002012-01-14T11:31:00.681-05:00EPA Regulations as a Job Creator and Other Pixie Dust Fairy TalesW.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-20207257734217874512012-01-14T05:31:00.000-05:002012-01-14T05:31:00.594-05:00The Last of the Ford Ranger Pickup Trucks –Sort Of
The last Ford Ranger, a smaller compact pickup truck, was produced in the US for
the US market December, 2011. However, the Ford Ranger is still being build,
completely redesigned, but only available in foreign markets.
“It has
only been a month since the last Ranger rolled off the assembly line at a
closing Minnesota plant, but the repercussions are still rolling through Ford.”
“At least
W.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-34233285486491292572012-01-12T10:31:00.000-05:002012-01-14T02:20:00.916-05:00Obama Recess Appointments: No Recess, No Problem!
"Remember those terrible days of the Imperial Presidency, when George W. Bush
made several "recess appointments" to overcome Senate opposition? Well, Czar
George II never did attempt what President Obama did yesterday in making recess
appointments when Congress isn't even on recess.
Eager to pick a fight with Congress as part of his re-election campaign, Mr.
Obama did the W.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-3409046559624534882012-01-12T05:31:00.000-05:002012-01-12T05:31:00.790-05:00“Winning” by Debbie Wasserman SchultzW.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-38796865896749786782012-01-11T21:21:00.000-05:002012-01-11T21:21:41.632-05:00Dog Houses, Fallacies, and Elizabeth Warren
“Nobody in this country got rich on his own. Nobody. You built a factory out there good for you, but I want to be clear, you moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because the police forces and the fire forces the rest of us paid for….because of the work the rest of us did”. - Elizabeth W.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-8363054421268416282012-01-09T16:00:00.000-05:002012-01-09T16:00:00.951-05:00DEBT LIMIT - A GUIDE TO AMERICAN FEDERAL DEBT MADE EASY.W.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-38221120163762180162012-01-08T17:01:00.000-05:002012-01-08T17:01:01.495-05:00Solyndra Comes in Many Forms
The Solyndra boondoggle/bamboozle and its many associated headlines, essays written, and discussions there of, appears to many readers as special interests and crony capitalism through politico enablers specifically in the alternative energy business. Stated alternatively, the boondoggle is specific to alternative energy.
Solyndra is merely a public choice theory poster child example, notW.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-79217133538824474182012-01-08T05:31:00.000-05:002012-02-07T07:15:34.486-05:00Homeowners Insurance Rates on the Rise in 2012
"Homeowners insurance premiums are starting to rise after tornadoes, hail, winds
and lightning slammed U.S. insurance
companies' balance sheets throughout 2011." - usatoday, 01/04/2011, Adam Belz.
Link to entire article appears below:
http://www.usatoday.com/money/industries/insurance/story/2012-01-04/homeowners-insurance-rising/52367258/1W.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-18031874472116733632012-01-07T15:01:00.000-05:002012-01-07T15:01:00.997-05:00Bowl Attendance Dips to 1978 - 1979 Carter Malaise Level
“Tuesday night's Sugar Bowl was the 30th of this season's 35 games, each of which also was played last season. The total attendance for those games is more than 2.5% lower this season than it was last season. If this trend holds for the remaining five games, the average bowl attendance for the season would fall to 50,542. That would be the lowest since 1978-79, when the number of games W.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-19903186717080547552012-01-07T14:14:00.001-05:002012-01-07T14:14:15.193-05:00And About Those Vehicle Sales Trends
Current public policy, also known as notional visions of elites through their particular politico enablers, is that auto makers should create small vehicles with greater gas mileage. In other words, the paramount purchasing criteria for consumers should be gas mileage regardless of consumer preference. However, the revealed preference of consumers is pickups, vans, and SUV’s. Go figure!
W.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-1714871891459890272012-01-07T13:01:00.000-05:002012-02-05T13:06:29.905-05:00Upon Further Review: The 01/06/2012 Jobs Report and the Rise of the Discouraged Worker
Has the employment/unemployment picture become brighter? Has the unemployment rate fallen? Are current unemployment rate statistics reliable measurements?
The problem [illusion] with the current unemployment rate statistic lies in the labor participation rate. That is, the labor participation rate is at a historical low of 64%. That is to say, in recent job reports more and more discouragedW.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-53666527856703327842012-01-02T12:31:00.000-05:002012-01-15T03:34:32.323-05:00Dupery Under Nitwitery and in Government Mysticism We Trust: The Head Start Program.
"Alice laughed:
"There's no use trying," she said; "one can't believe impossible
things."
"I daresay you
haven't had much practice," said the Queen. "When I was younger, I
always did it for half an hour a day. Why, sometimes I've believed as many as
six impossible things before breakfast."
- Alice in Wonderland.
Crony capitalism, economic rent seekers, and special
interests are many W.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-36174079735718901072011-12-31T14:01:00.000-05:002012-01-21T11:48:39.316-05:00Upon Further Review: “the aristocracy of labor”.
Milton Friedman referred to unions and their particular associated unionized labor as “the aristocracy of labor”. In other words a special class of labor with special wages, special benefits, and special political clout. That the remaining non-unionized labor pays directly and indirectly for the aristocracy class, in this case “the aristocracy of labor”. (1)
If ninety percent of private W.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-15124304659656744852011-12-29T14:01:00.000-05:002011-12-29T14:01:00.147-05:00Journalistic Sun Stroke - IowaHawk
“Sometimes our intrepid media class chooses to cover a story that perfectly (if inadvertently) illustrates the real problem: our intrepid media class.”
http://iowahawk.typepad.com/iowahawk/2011/12/journalistic-sun-stroke.htmlW.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-18425622357481762592011-12-29T05:31:00.000-05:002011-12-30T21:00:52.382-05:0013 Questions for 12
Donald J. Boudreaux, professor of economics at George Mason University, asks thirteen very interesting questions in his essay And the answer is? One might contemplate these questions as we enter 2012. Below are several of the questions as well as the link to the entire TribLive [Pittsburgh Tribune] column/essay:
“Why do so many "progressives" believe that higher marginal tax rates on incomesW.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-67295937766766318152011-12-28T13:31:00.000-05:002011-12-28T13:31:00.444-05:00The Camel’s Nose: Cell Phone Bans, Medicare, and the 16th Amendment
‘But back to the proposed cellphone ban. NTSB Chairwoman Hersman said: "It's going to be very unpopular with some people. We're not here to win a popularity contest. We're here to do the right thing." C.S. Lewis warned us about people like Hersman, saying: "Of all tyrannies, a tyranny sincerely exercised for the good of its victims may be the most oppressive. It would be better to live under W.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-62198821644458419542011-12-28T05:30:00.000-05:002011-12-28T05:30:02.063-05:00What Fannie and Freddie Knew, The SEC shows how the toxic twins turbocharged the housing bubble. - WSJ
Democrats have spent years arguing that private lenders created the housing boom and bust, and that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac merely came along for the ride. This was always a politically convenient fiction, and now thanks to the unlikely source of the Securities and Exchange Commission we have a trail of evidence showing how the failed mortgage giants turbocharged the crisis. - The Wall W.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-6884846048045512072011-12-27T05:31:00.000-05:002012-01-24T21:10:34.586-05:00Third Party Satisfaction Bandits
The term “Utility“, in economics, is basically the amount of satisfaction one receives from the consumption of a good, service or action. Marginal utility is the amount of satisfaction one receives from consuming additional units of the same good, service, or action. Since marginal utility drops off regarding consumption of additional units of the same good, service or action, the general W.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-21185429822473793982011-12-26T10:00:00.000-05:002011-12-27T23:23:15.008-05:00The End of Nowhere
Drinking, gambling, and prostitution were 24/7
pursuits across the river in the Ballyhack district, where the Dunglen Hotel was
said to have hosted a poker game that lasted 14 years. – Richmond Federal Reserve, Regional Focus, The End Of Nowhere, third quarter 2011.
Link to the
entire article appears below:
http://www.richmondfed.org/publications/research/region_focus/2011/q3/pdf/W.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-85202754445617895602011-12-25T18:31:00.000-05:002012-01-16T06:20:40.374-05:00Regarding Self Appointed Minor Deities: Lisa Jackson of the EPA
The Wall
Street Journal
Editorial: Lisa Jackson's Power Play
Date:
12/22/2011
At an
unusual gala ceremony on the release of a major new Environmental Protection
Agency rule yesterday, chief Lisa Jackson called it "historic" and
"a great victory." And she's right: The rule may be the most
expensive the agency has ever issued, and it represents the triumph of the
Obama W.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-20661463094956748152011-12-25T05:59:00.000-05:002011-12-25T05:59:00.779-05:00It is December 25th! Which is it? Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays, Wonderful Winter Solstice?
With December 25th now upon us many reflect upon
the exact meaning of the date. When considering the meaning one might want to
consider your personal meaning vs. third party meanings. Stated alternatively, the
individual meaning, your meaning, is much more important than your-third-party-betters
inflicting their particular brand of meaning upon you.
When one reflects upon one’s personalW.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-45006581174205504742011-12-23T07:02:00.000-05:002011-12-23T07:03:28.163-05:00US Public Education: Wealth Accumulation Through Barking Cats
Milton Friedman wrote two important essays that one should be aware of:
(1) The first essay is The Role of Government in Education, 1955. In this 1955 essay was the birth of the school voucher proposition and the return of K-12 education to the private sector. Of Friedman’s many outstanding points within the essay was the observation that politicos through the mechanism of government, W.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-42195350573323395112011-12-22T17:23:00.000-05:002011-12-22T17:23:16.787-05:00Macro Santa And The Austerity Grinch - Forbes 12/22/2011
“The year is nearly over. The holidays have arrived. The news media is stirring with visions of holiday consumer spending sugar plums, terrifying debt crisis, and depression. ‘Tis the season for John Maynard Keynes! That’s right, there’s no better time to reflect on the maestro of modern macro and more importantly his many modern followers. Each year the public enjoys a sleigh full of W.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-27550779744589823372011-12-22T07:11:00.000-05:002011-12-22T07:15:15.567-05:00Beyond the Aggregate Demand Argument
Just because macroeconomic textbooks and journal articles focus overwhelmingly on changes in aggregate demand as the chief cause of changes in the vigor of economic activity is no reason for a scholar not to search for some other cause, especially if another identifiable cause is solidly grounded in economic theory.
Becoming More Certain about the Role of Regime Uncertainty - Donald J. W.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-40617329040677327912011-12-20T18:15:00.001-05:002011-12-20T18:16:57.271-05:00Chuck Woolery on Budget CutsW.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-18996309638561187632011-12-20T05:30:00.000-05:002011-12-20T05:30:02.252-05:00The Dreadful Legacy of North Korean Dictator Kim Jong Il in One Satellite Picture and One Chart - Carpe Diem
"This one picture
above of the Korean peninsula does a pretty good job of capturing the legacy of
Kim Jong Il by comparing electricity usage at night between North and South
Korea". - Dr. Mark Perry
Link appears below.
http://mjperry.blogspot.com/2011/12/legacy-of-n-korean-dictator-kim-jong-il.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+blogspot%2FmmMP+%W.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-73475425051274149952011-12-19T05:31:00.000-05:002011-12-19T05:31:00.369-05:00A and B decide on what C is going to do for D [W.G. Sumner's famous formula]
When William Graham Sumner wrote the essay The Forgotten Man he outlined a now
famous formula: A and B decide on what C is going to do for D. The underlying
concept is that A wants to solve a perceived problem which D is supposedly
suffering from. A recruits B who is of like mind. A and B then extract something
from C to give to D. The Forgotten Man being C. (1)
Sumner defined the formula W.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-38414436349773222792011-12-18T15:31:00.000-05:002011-12-19T09:10:11.965-05:00The Mighty Dollar, a wealth of worthless observations about money – P.J. O’Rourke
Upon which fallacious
comparison and self-sanctimony my bird dog lifts his leg. – P.J. O’Rourke
The entire essay appears in the link below:
http://www.weeklystandard.com/articles/mighty-dollar_610922.htmlW.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-38091106507642307132011-12-18T11:25:00.000-05:002011-12-18T11:25:03.569-05:00Globular Objects
The Light Bulb Cops
The budgetary gridlock
in Washington in the final legislative days before Christmas took on a farcical
atmosphere when Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid refused to move a
government-funding bill because, among several other features he objects to, it
would overturn a de facto federal ban on incandescent light bulbs.
But late last night
Mr. Reid and House Speaker W.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-18203586819900683012011-12-18T09:01:00.001-05:002011-12-18T09:01:44.876-05:00More on the Keystone XL pipelineW.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-54687727429483382192011-12-17T10:25:00.000-05:002011-12-17T10:25:36.798-05:00The Politico Painted Corner
“Those politically
painful steps [in the euro zone] involve selling off state enterprises, firing
tens of thousands of politically connected state employees and removing
jealously guarded protections that limit competition in dozens of
professions."
“Herein lays the crux
of the European problem. Although most of the other troubled European countries
may not have the same degree of tax W.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-9763887386039987362011-12-16T07:40:00.000-05:002011-12-16T19:12:54.374-05:00Greed: upon further review
Among the many other
questions raised by the nebulous concept of “greed” is why it is a term applied
almost exclusively to those who want to earn more money or to keep what they
have already earned – never to those wanting to take other people’s money in
taxes or to those wishing to live on the largess dispensed from such taxation.
No amount of taxation is ever described by the anointed as “W.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-66162115701096793802011-12-14T09:06:00.000-05:002011-12-17T09:52:56.890-05:00An Unlimited Supply of Amateur Reformers
“The most prevalent theme in President Barack Obama's Dec. 6 Osawatomie, Kan., speech was the need for greater "fairness." In fact, though the president never defined the term fair(ness), he used it 15 times“. - Walter E. Williams (1)
As previously elaborated upon, “fair” is what you are doing and the other person is not doing, -or- fair is where you go to get your pig judged. “Fair” or “W.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-41617035670878146792011-12-14T08:16:00.000-05:002012-01-24T21:28:54.197-05:00The Keystone XL Pipeline Meets Public Choice Theory
If one considers alternative energy schemes as crony capitalist ventures, with taxpayer dollars being profit to the rent seeking special interests, then is the postponement of the XL pipeline merely an exercise in the best interest of the special interest?
A special interest, in this case alternative energy, can only rent seek (acquire taxpayer dollars) if the special interest has a W.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-2795634145432065252011-12-13T06:04:00.000-05:002012-02-05T13:08:20.814-05:00The 12/02/2011 Jobs Report: An Unemployment Rate Illusion.
The 12/02/2011 jobs report showed the unemployment rate fell to 8.6% from 9%. That’s an illusion. Why? If the economy was improving the unemployment rate would increase. Rather counter intuitive huh?
The reason for both the illusion and the counter intuitive point is related to the calculation of unemployment and the dynamics of the components. In the latest report the denominator shrunk by W.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-33750349021024783742011-12-11T10:36:00.001-05:002012-01-11T22:01:53.897-05:00Curb excessive drinking? Sell beer!
"West Virginia University says it has found a profitable way to curb excessive drinking at home football games: sell beer at concession stands.
By tapping kegs at Mountaineer Field, West Virginia has added $700,000 to the athletic department and reduced the number of incidents in which police were called because of excessive drinking by around 30 percent, Athletic Director Oliver Luck saidW.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-56427637304651239782011-12-07T09:59:00.001-05:002011-12-07T22:37:38.994-05:00Obama’s Kansas Speech: Fairness, Pinocchio, and Pig Judging
"The Pinocchio Test"
"The president does not need to lard his case with such suspect data. There are few independent tax analysts who have much good to say about the Bush tax cuts. But it is difficult for Obama to justify blaming those tax cuts for being mostly responsible for today’s slow job growth, especially when he wants to retain a good chunk of those tax cuts.
To bolster his case W.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-79076276676959080912011-12-06T07:19:00.001-05:002011-12-06T14:27:18.564-05:00Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan: “positive fund balance and the current book of business is strong”. Really?
More Housing Red Flags
"Housing and Urban Development Secretary Shaun Donovan told the House Financial Services Committee last week that "unlike many other institutions," the taxpayer-backed Federal Housing Administration "retains a positive fund balance and the current book of business is strong." If only the numbers would cooperate.
The American Enterprise Institute's Ed Pinto recently W.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-64257281479002186552011-12-05T21:36:00.001-05:002012-02-05T22:07:27.841-05:00Temporary Payroll Tax Holiday Extension Debate
Milton Friedman’s permanent income hypothesis basically states that consumer consumption is based more on long term expected income patterns than current income. That a determining factor of the pattern is real wealth (capital and human capital) and much less real current income. Friedman’s permanent income hypothesis blows a major hole in the Keynesian consumption function proposition. (1)
W.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-90189879694534016192011-12-02T11:00:00.000-05:002012-01-30T21:20:59.488-05:00Capital and Labor: distorted definitions leading to sophistical debate.
"The discussion of "the relations of labor and capital" has not hitherto been very fruitful. It has been confused by ambiguous definitions, and it has been based upon assumptions about the rights and duties of social classes which are, to say the least, open to serious question as regards their truth and justice. If, then, we correct and limit the definitions, and if we test the assumptions, W.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-56268516188073538132011-12-01T19:42:00.001-05:002011-12-01T19:48:02.671-05:00Employer Sponsored Health-Care: has it always been that way?
"We have become so accustomed to employer-provided medical care that we regard it as part of the natural order. Yet it is thoroughly illogical. Why single out medical care? Food is more essential to life than medical care. Why not exempt the cost of food from taxes if provided by the employer? Why not return to the much-reviled company store when workers were in effect paid in kind rather thanW.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-11216012762832584732011-11-28T08:32:00.000-05:002012-01-18T17:44:02.145-05:00Restricting Size and Scope of Government Based on Externalities?
The following is a question put forth by Dr. Donald Boudreaux, department of economics George Mason University:
“The point, rather, is to provide background for asking why the free-rider, collective-action, externality problems that are regularly identified as sufficient reason for restricting the role and scope of markets are so seldom identified as reasons for restricting the role and W.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-50855864391321528942011-11-24T05:31:00.000-05:002011-11-24T05:31:00.139-05:00OWS, Owls and Turkeys
“Undoubtedly the man who possesses capital has a great advantage over the man who has no capital, in all the struggle for existence.
This does not mean one man has an advantage against the other, but that, when they are rivals in the effort to get the means of subsistence from Nature, the one who has capital has immeasurable advantages over the other. If were not so capital would not be formedW.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-43539762588375537602011-11-23T06:39:00.001-05:002011-11-23T06:40:57.737-05:00Millionaires Promoting More Tax on Themselves? -Or- Millionaires Promoting More Tax on Other Millionaires? -Or- Just Plain Old Hypocrisy? - The Daily CallerW.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-56572878723056608322011-11-22T05:31:00.000-05:002011-11-23T06:17:46.018-05:00Political Constituency Building in Fail-Safe Mode
Public debt in percent of GDP (2010), CIA fact book 09/2011
Particular politicos that champion more or constant spending in the face of unsustainable debt loads point out that their particular political constituency recipient groups enjoy their particular taxpayer funded transfer payment and do not want benefits cut. Go figure.
Its an interesting argument in that the politico points to W.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-28654958747372316262011-11-21T05:47:00.001-05:002011-11-24T01:03:51.542-05:00The Austerity Argument: Real GDP Growth vs. False GDP Growth
Of the many problems with the "austerity argument" regarding lower GDP growth are:
(a) the argument regarding "austerity" leading to lower GDP growth relies on the implicit assumption that the previous false GDP growth number, created through endless government deficit spending, was in fact a real growth number, yet in fact the GDP growth number was false,
(b) the false GDP number is then W.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-54830063347055148872011-11-20T06:37:00.001-05:002011-11-20T06:43:59.954-05:00Euro Zone: Interactive Debt Graphic
Below is a link to a most excellent interactive graph
showing what the many players of the euro zone crisis owe to one another. The
graph also shows gross domestic product [GDP], foreign debt outstanding,
foreign debt per person, foreign debt to GDP, and government debt to GDP.
Eurozone debt web: Who owes what to whom? BBC 11/18/2011
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15748696
h/tW.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-76083840914491095862011-11-19T08:24:00.001-05:002011-11-20T07:06:57.470-05:00Supercommittee -or- how politicos cause the taxpayer to foot their bill
The technical name for the Supercommittee is The Joint
Select Committee on Deficit Reduction. The committee is made up of six
democrats and six republicans of which six are from the Senate and six from The
House of Representatives. Their charge is to reduce the deficit by one and one
half trillion dollars over a ten year period. The dead line for their recommendation
is November 23, 2011. W.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-81157160879752214492011-11-18T05:44:00.001-05:002011-11-18T10:40:41.350-05:00Solyndra: Purple Marbles and Dupery.
‘Testifying under oath on a widening controversy, Chu said
he was unaware of his staff predictions in 2009 that Solyndra was likely to
face severe cash-flow problems. He said that market changes which led to a
steep decline in the price of solar panels were "totally unexpected."
‘
‘Solyndra went belly-up after getting the $528 million loan
from the government and Chu told the House W.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-87979844409778563212011-11-15T05:07:00.000-05:002011-11-15T05:07:00.393-05:00The PIIGS: Austerity Upon Further Review.
One argument you hear from talking heads is that economic growth in Italy and Greece (the PIIGS in general) will be very low in coming years, even negative, due to "austerity". Austerity is used in terms of reduced government spending. That reduced government spending will reduce growth.
In regards to the above argument an item worth considering is how did one arrive at Z amount of public W.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-12738207855206100442011-11-12T16:31:00.000-05:002011-11-14T17:34:51.590-05:00Keystone Pipeline Decision: Environmentalism or Crony Capitalism?
This week Mr. Obama put off a decision on the Keystone pipeline until after the 11/2012 presidential election. That somehow, some way unresolved environmental items existed.
‘Obama said in a statement that he supports delaying a decision.
“Because this permit decision could affect the health and safety of the American people as well as the environment, and because a number of concerns W.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-75360153743972990782011-11-12T05:31:00.000-05:002012-02-07T07:03:05.328-05:00Rising Health-Care Costs: A Government Bridge to Nowhere
Innovation/technology and machines, many times through the aid of the phenomena of creative destruction, have advanced the quality and reduced the real cost of many, many items in our lives. Items once only attainable by the most affluent, are now merely everyday items used and enjoyed by James and Jane Goodfellow. Communications, computers, transportation, etc., etc. are lower in real cost andW.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-51161830600239717082011-11-11T11:11:00.000-05:002012-01-11T21:08:08.667-05:00Elizabeth Warren's Class Warfare Argument: Upon Further Review.....
Elizabeth Warren made the following statement in September, 2011:
“Nobody in this country got rich on his own. Nobody. You built a factory out there good for you, but I want to be clear, you moved your goods to market on the roads the rest of us paid for. You hired workers the rest of us paid to educate. You were safe in your factory because the police forces and the fire forces the W.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-68449780018474797132011-11-10T05:31:00.001-05:002012-01-30T14:43:08.011-05:00Austerity vs. Stimulus: a False Choice?
Above is a CNBC Squawkbox video from 11/07. Note 8 minutes to 9:50. Below is an excerpt of the text which is of interest:
Question/statement by Liesman of CNBC: If you look at the jobs numbers, there certainly should be higher or would be -- there would be more robust numbers that could engender more confidence if the state and local governments weren't laying offW.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-33107053398415808722011-11-10T05:31:00.000-05:002011-11-10T05:31:00.259-05:00Republican Debate : Housing Values.
In the Republican debate Wednesday evening 11/09/2011, the moderator asked a question about housing. The CNBC moderator prefaced the question by putting up statistics on a screen, of which, one of the statistics mentioned that $7 trillion dollars of home value has been lost since 2007.
That statistic, as a preface, implicitly assumes that the values in 2007 were true economic values [W.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-61029864484504065962011-11-08T05:31:00.000-05:002011-11-08T06:44:25.807-05:00Keynesianism In One Easy Lesson
"For policy, the central fact is that Keynesian policy recommendations have no sounder basis, in a scientific sense, than recommendations of non-Keynesian economists or, for that matter, non economists". -
After Keynesian Economics aka After the Phillips Curve: Persistence of High Inflation and High Unemployment, page 57, Lucas and Sargent.
http://www.bos.frb.org/economic/conf/conf19/W.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-52798625938629837422011-11-06T07:06:00.000-05:002011-11-06T07:06:57.772-05:00Moving Your Clock Back One Hour to “Railroad Time”
“People in the continental United States have become so
accustomed to four standardized time zones–Eastern, Central, Mountain, and
Pacific–that it’s hard to believe that we ever kept time any other way. But
until a crucial date in 1883, what time it was depended on the nearest city or
town. The time of day was a purely local matter as determined by the position
of the sun. Noon was when the sunW.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-44893799712035461062011-11-05T06:32:00.000-04:002011-11-05T08:07:39.858-04:00Distribution of Income and the Transfer Agent
Distribution of income statistics and statistics in general can be manipulated to make particular
arguments the particular presenter wants to represent. That said, a point made
many times by Thomas Sowell is that the numbers shown in many, many
presentations of distribution of income statistics are not “net”. That is,
subtract taxes from the producer class and add back entitlements and transferW.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-76905594818384020262011-11-04T15:04:00.000-04:002011-11-20T19:02:46.306-05:00Geographic Structural Unemployment and the Housing Market
The above video is the last half of Ben Bernanke’s news
conference held 11/02/2011. At the 16:05 mark in the video a reporter asked how
the tools in the Fed’s "tool kit" would work against unemployment
this time around [if needed to be deployed] since the Fed’s tools/policy have
not seemed to work in the recent past regardingW.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-41410311505519715032011-11-02T14:01:00.000-04:002011-11-02T14:01:00.238-04:00“ObamaCare” Disallowed in Congressional Mailings. Orwellian?
‘In the latest battle in the Congressional franking wars, Democrats have been vetoing use of the word “Obamacare” in taxpayer-financed mass mailings, saying it violates rules against using the franking privilege for “personal, partisan or political reasons.” ‘ (1)(2)
(1) Using the Word 'Obamacare' for Political Gain, Roll Call, 10/27/2011
http://www.rollcall.com/issues/57_49/W.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-51460844134950898772011-11-02T06:35:00.000-04:002011-11-02T06:39:26.713-04:00“Buy American” -or- “Buy Union Assembled”?
John Stossel recently wrote an essay entitled The Stupidity of "Buy American". Link to the essay appears below:
http://townhall.com/columnists/johnstossel/2011/11/02/the_stupidity_of_buy_american/page/2
Stossel is correct in that the rational consumer buys the best value regardless of the nation of origin. Many times the rational consumer buys American as it represents the best value. W.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-52119631554702069532011-11-01T09:23:00.000-04:002011-11-01T09:36:22.483-04:00No U.S. Energy Plan? -Or- Shadow Political Energy Plan of Very Comprehensive Design?
Those that debate U.S. energy production and energy delivery have common ground in pointing out that U.S. policy makers [politicos] have no comprehensive plan for energy. Since the oil shocks of the 1970’s, for thirty plus years, no “comprehensive energy plan” has come forth from policy makers.
Contrary to popular opinion, politicos do in fact have a very comprehensive plan. It’s a W.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1605492921179421570.post-19063881371141505362011-10-29T18:31:00.000-04:002011-10-29T18:31:00.136-04:00Equality of Income: Richard Epstein of NYU School of Law on the subject of Income Distribution Watch Does U.S. Economic Inequality Have a Good Side? on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.
HT Cafe Hayek blogW.E. Heasleyhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00368333904571061995noreply@blogger.com0