Category Archives: Self Interest

Blogging Break

My turn for a blogging break. I have three midterms this week and will be off the blogosphere until after next Friday. Social Bookmarking
Posted in Self Interest | Leave a comment

Blogging Break

In lieu of upcoming midterms and essays, I will not have an opportunity to blog about a number of things that have been on my mind lately. I’m going to outline a few things that I expect to have time to blog about later on this week: Thinking clearly about health-care reform. Book review of Albert Jay [...]
Posted in Self Interest | Tagged , | Leave a comment

Going Meta: Part 1

I’ve always suspected that I have an above-normal predisposition towards analyzing the nature my thoughts and beliefs, putting me in the company of one of my favorite philosophers, Robin Hanson. For example, ever since I began forming opinions about the way the world works, I have been obsessed with understanding why my beliefs about reality differ [...]
Also posted in Knowledge problem, Philosophy, Psychology & Behavior | Tagged , , , | 4 Comments

Ron Paul on Assassinations

Interesting stuff. Social Bookmarking
Posted in Self Interest | Leave a comment

Greg Mankiw Still Signaling Something…

I will always have a deep respect for Professor N. Gregory Mankiw for introducing me to the basic principles of economics. In my opinion, he is one of the most sensible and even-handed mainstream economists. However, I have commented before on Mankiw’s seeming lack of self-awareness when it comes to patting himself and similarly accomplished academic [...]
Also posted in Psychology & Behavior, politics | Tagged , , , , , | Leave a comment

Earmarks are Good?

Earlier today, Tyler Cowen shared a radical tweet, from Mercatus fellow Garett Jones. Jones has worked on Capitol Hill, so he knows how Washington works: The key to controlling spending is permitting more earmarks (sic). Cowen asked readers to try to figure out what model Jones is using. Arnold Kling took a stab at it. Find out [...]
Posted in Self Interest | 2 Comments

A Call for Comments

Hey, you. We can make this blog more fun if there were a dialogue in the comments section. Half of what I get out of other peoples’ blogs comes from comments and the ensuing discussions. I also take this opportunity to call on Greg Mankiw and Division of Labor to open up their ports and [...]
Posted in Self Interest | Leave a comment

Marginal Tax-Rates and the Working Poor

Often times, a graph will speak louder than words. Such is the case with this chart posted by Michael Cannon on Cato-at-Liberty: Cannon produced the chart for a study on the effects of two proposed health-care bills and the mandates they require of individuals and families to purchase  above a certain income level. The marginal tax-rate [...]
Also posted in Freedom, Philosophy, Unintended Consequences | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Wilkinson on Klein

In a fashion similar to my post Krugman at His Most Partisan, Will Wilkinson takes Ezra Klein to task for flippantly dismissing the foundation of Republican disagreement. Within Krugman and Klein’s frame of thinking, people disagree for strictly partisan reasons rather than the more plausible, good-intentioned starting point of the other side thinks their policies work. The more [...]
Also posted in Psychology & Behavior | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Why I’m Not Tripping Over The Louisiana Purchase

The 2009 Louisiana Purchase: “Sen. Mary L. Landrieu, Louisiana Democrat, provided one of the last two votes needed to bring the government health care takeover to the Senate. She didn’t even blush about selling her vote. “I am not going to be defensive. And it’s not a $100 million fix. It’s a $300 million fix,” Mrs. [...]
Also posted in Government Spending | Tagged , , | 1 Comment