Guido is using the term deficit deniers repeatedly. Same tactic only funnier than “social justice” or “fairness” because the very people who have so successfully teed up the word “denier” to be an end to all debate now face the very weapon they made. The engineer, hoist by his own petard.
UPDATE: Mark Wallace makes a [...]
Archive for the ‘Free market’ Category
More word reclamation
Word reclamation
There was an interesting passage on Radio 4’s Today programme this morning. Evan Davis was interviewing George Osborne, who has been making a point of using the words “progressive” and “fair” to describe Conservative policies. This is a significant trend in the approach of the current Tory leadership and must represent a deliberate tactic. Another [...]
Monkey economics and the Blank Slate
09 Aug 2010 at 09:11
Peter Risdon
Blank slate, Free market, Just interesting, Politics, economics, evolution
Cut through some of the fluff that surrounds this 20 minute talk, and the core is completely fascinating.
Laurie Santos has been experimenting with “monkeynomics”. She has taught a group of monkeys to use money – metal discs – to pay for treats then after straightforward “purchases” of treats, one grape for one disc, become routine [...]
Imagine
Tim says, of speculation in foodstuffs:
Imagine we had no speculation at all? Not even physical hoarding.
You don’t have to imagine. As I pointed out in a post a year ago, this was exactly the situation during much of the Middle Ages, when regrating was at times illegal and always condemned by the Church. Regrating means:
To [...]
Did mortgage lender lobbying cause the recession?
No, according to the measured conclusion of this paper by Atif Mian, Amir Sufi and Francesco Trebbi:
Moreover, given the nature of political influence and the complexity of government decisions, our results should not be seen as a “smoking gun”. Instead we provide suggestive evidence of the influence of subprime borrowers and lenders [...]
Compare and contrast
This news story from today:
Prof Mike Kelly, the public health director at Nice, added: “This isn’t about telling individuals to choose salad instead of chips — it’s about making sure that the chips we all enjoy occasionally are as healthy as possible.
“That means making further reductions [...]
Quote of the day
I have been trying to digest this Krugman article in the NY Times about the Tea Party movement. Sooper genius Krugman has worked it out: the Tea Partiers think the GOP is about helping people, but it’s really about helping corporations.
“The mood on the right may be populist, but it’s a kind [...]
Workplace fatalities and regulation
Does regulation improve worker safety? If so, you should be able to tell from this graph when the USA’s landmark Occupational Safety and Health Act was passed. Can you? Scroll down for the answer.
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Via.
The power of Tesco
Isn’t quite as strong as people think:
Tesco, which bases the price it pays to its 800 dedicated suppliers on the cost of production as estimated by Promar, actually cut its rate from 1 April reflecting predicted farmer savings on feed and fertiliser.
The result was a 0.47p/litre drop to 26.9p/litre for those [...]
The General Scaffolding Council
I was skimming one of the debates, from 1984, about the changes to the law concerning the sale of reading glasses, now that a large part of the Hansard back catalogue is online. This is a case I was involved in, as the debate makes clear. This passage caught my eye (emphasis added):
The Earl of [...]