“…power-mad bureaucrats probably outnumber kidnappers and serial killers at least a thousand to one.” — How Legal Is Free-Range Parenting?, Bryan Caplan | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty
“The IMF believe that the “black economy” is about 30% of Italy’s GDP” — Want To Buy a Cheap Ferrari? | The Big Picture
“Free and responsible men and women do not take seriously those who use their fame as a platform to issue advice about matters on which they know nothing” — Venting
“You know it’s bad when banks are the most truthful guys in the room.” — Mortgage Settlement as Attorney General Sellout: Deal is Not Done, and Final Version Guaranteed to be Worse Than Advertised « naked capitalism
CTE, the concussion crisis, and an economic look at the end of football - Grantland -
Fascinating!
“When proponents of government intervention make their case, it is nearly always in terms of intent. “X is bad, Y would be better, and we need government intervention to get Y.” The fact that government intervention often yields Z, and Z is worse than X, is forever being overlooked.” — Timothy Taylor’s Instant Economist, Arnold Kling | EconLog | Library of Economics and Liberty
“I wouldn’t have thought that the question of why working class marriage rates have fallen would be a sharply partisan issues. But since Charles Murray decided that moral decay is to blame, many of his critics have started countering that poor economic outlook for working class men over the past decade is the issue. The obvious third hypothesis, it seems to me, is that with women’s social and economic opportunities much improved over the past several decades they’re less reliant on marriage as a form of social and economic support.” —
Home Economics: Marriage Rates and the Lottery
Seems obvious to me too.
“Mr Barnier, the (French) EU Commissioner is pushing President Sarkozy’s financial transactions tax. Good luck mate – only means that there will be even better French restaurants in London to service the flood of French traders moving across the Channel (or La Manche, if I remember my French) to London.” — January Chinese inflation higher than expected | The Big Picture
Should I consolidate my various online presences? Perhaps funnel everything through Twitter? This is a test to see how things tumble onto Twitter.
“Usually, it is the banks that are fighting efforts to impose new regulations on the industry. Now, it is foreign governments fighting against bank regulations in the United States.” — Volcker Rule Stirs Up Opposition Overseas — DealBook - NYTimes.com
Scary!
I’m backing off tumblr for a while. You can read about it here.
I’m taking a pause in posting here while I evaluate this activity. Year end reflections include considering what this actually accomplishes and what does it cost. I’ll document my conclusions.
“In other words, no matter how much the Fed and the Administration try to flog the economy, nothing has really worked. As much as Bernanke boasted about being able to prevent another depression, he and the Bush-Obama Administrations have done everything they could to make things worse. And the classic indicators of a depression are still playing out and reminding us of the inefficacy and incompetence of conventional economic wisdom.” —
Making Sense Of 2011 | The Daily Capitalist
Good year end analysis.
Why, indeed, would we wish to give tasks to those least capable of doing them?