Should states set environmental standards?

California can't seem to get enough federal regulation. They are beggingfor more. Maybe we'd feel that way if we had to breath their air and had their water problems.

Should states be allowed to set their own standards?

My dog Annie.

This is not posted for official response just thought I'd share a photo of my insanely smart dog. She doesn't like to stay in the yard. When I put up electrified fence as a last resort I caught her on top of my kids swingset. She is either contemplating suicide or jumping into the alley (which I think would have the same result as a suicide attempt).

Hillary vs. Milton Pt. III

Free Trade vs. Fair Trade

"Too many people have made too much money."

-- First Lady Hillary Clinton condemns the insurance industry, feeling it’s not fair that certain businesses are making ‘too much money’

"'Fair' is in the eye of the beholder; free is the verdict of the market. (The word 'free' is used three times in the Declaration of Independence and once in the First Amendment to the Constitution, along with 'freedom.' The word 'fair' is not used in either of our founding documents.)"
-- Milton Friedman, WSJ, Mar. 7, 1996

More Hillary vs. Milton

Social Security

"We can’t afford to have that money go to the private sector. The money has to go to the federal government because the federal government will spend that money better than the private sector will spend it."

-- First Lady Hillary Clinton in a disagreement with a Republican congressman

"I have long been a critic of Social Security, basically because I believe that it is not the business of government to tell people what fraction of their incomes they should devote to providing for their own or someone else’s old age."

-- Milton Friedman, WSJ, March 15, 1988

Housing rollercoaster.

They say some markets are like a roller coaster. The housing market certainly has been over the long term.

This is one of the most unique ways. I have ever seen to graph data. It takes 3 or 4 minutes to watch but well worth it (if you are an econofreak).

Guess what the Russians think about the Imus affair.

They may no longer be communists but they are still nuts. If you are a fan of conspiracy theories you will love this one.

P.S. When researching never use Pravda as a source..

Unintended consequences?

Do you think there would have been fewer casualties at VT if this bill had passed? Prepare to hear all those on the left and the right debate this issue.

People have seriously pushed to arm public school teachers. How would you feel if I were armed?

Hillary vs. Milton (& my own 2 cents)

"The unfettered free market has been the most radically destructive force in American life in the last generation."
-- First Lady Hillary Clinton on C-Span in 1996



"What most people really object to when they object to a free market is that it is so hard for them to shape it to their own will. The market gives people what the people want instead of what other people think they ought to want. At the bottom of many criticisms of the market economy is really lack of belief in freedom itself."
-- Milton Friedman, Wall Street Journal, May 18, 1961


"Fear the man (or woman) who wants to replace the market with their own judgment. Past proponents of this folly - Marx, Lenin, Stalin, Mao, et al."
--McKay, Here, April 16, 2007.

This doesn't sound good.

This may be a bit deep, but it shouldn't be. You have studied everything you need to fully understand this speech by the Dallas Fed president. Read it and you'll understand why I chose this photo to illustrate the point.

Will we crash and burn, or will we finally elect candidates that will hold Americans accountable (and do what has to be done, however painful that may be)?

N.F.L. cleans house. Sort of.

The National Football League’s commissioner, Roger Goodell, has just made it a lot more expensive to be a thug. Goodell suspended the Titans’ Pacman Jones without pay for the upcoming season (a loss of $1.29 million in base salary) and the Bengals’ Chris Henry for the first half of the season (surrendering as much as $230,000 in base pay). Jones has been arrested five times since he was drafted two years ago; Henry was arrested four times between Dec. 2005 and June 2006.

So here is the question: in the upcoming N.F.L. draft, how much has the value of crime-prone players fallen? Individual teams and the league itself put together fat dossiers on every legitimate draft pick, including psychological profiles and criminal tendencies. Has Goodell’s new anti-crime stance just made good citizenship more valuable?

Have money, will eat.

Here is a new working paper called“Why Is the Developed World Obese?” by Sara Bleich, David Cutler, Christopher Murray, and Alyce Adams. They conclude that “rising obesity is primarily the result of consuming more calories” (as against declining physical activity), and that “the increase in caloric intake is associated with technological innovations such as reduced food prices as well as changing sociodemographic factors such as increased urbanization and increased female labor force participation.”

In other words: when there is a lot of tasty food around and it is relatively cheap, people tend to eat a lot of it.

O.K. future economists what is your solution to curb obesity? Think incentives.