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Category Archives: Unintended Consequences
Ideas Lead to Tragedy in Rural India
This WSJ article offers a textbook case of a “good” idea gone wrong because of the unintended consequences. Last week, a commenter on this blog defended the Federal government’s early involvement in agriculture:
“As for agriculture, again, you don’t seem to understand either history or the functioning of free markets. Making recommendations about what to plant [...]
A Question for the First Lady
The SF Chronicle recently reported on Michelle Obama’s ambitious plans to curb childhood obesity through federally funded programs aimed at helping parents and children make better eating decisions. The article stresses the urgency of government action given sky-rocketing health-costs and even goes as far to label rising obesity as a national security concern, since more [...]
Also posted in Freedom, Government Spending, politics Tagged bad policy, michelle obama, obamanomics, school lunches 11 Comments
The Hangover Theory
I could write a whole essay about the dirty tricks Paul Krugman employs in this Slate magazine article from 1998. Instead, I will focus on just one (okay, maybe a few more than one…).
Krugman insists that the Austrian theory of the business cycle is a pure misunderstanding of all the Keynesian and post-Keynesian economic “developments”. [...]
Also posted in Banking & Finance, Government Spending Tagged austrian theory, discourse, krugman, recession Leave a comment
Textbook Oddities
It’s a new semester here at Berkeley, which means among other things, it’s time to buy textbooks for classes.
Textbooks are expensive, there is no doubt about that. I try and recoup as much as my initial investment as possible by reselling my books at the end of the semester.
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Haitian Charity
It is not always the best thing to increase the funding of something. Not when there are more efficient alternatives for your resources, or long term unintended consequences. In a somewhat controversial blog post, Felix Simon argues that at this point you should donate to general emergency-relief funds instead of to Haiti.
I’m sympathetic to Simon’s information [...]
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, Self Interest Tagged leonard read, marginal tax-rates, moral objectivism, poverty trap Leave a comment
Economic Sanctions Harm Innocent People
Sanctions don’t work in countries with strong governments. They haven’t worked for past the 45 years in Cuba. They haven’t worked in North Korea. Kim Jong Il will still get his Gucci sunglasses while ordinary North Koreans suffer from our blockade.
For whatever twisted logic or folk economics, on December 15th the House of Representatives voted [...]
The Man of System: Justice edition
This semester in my Theories of Justice course, I have had the privilege of reading such eminent thinkers as J.S. Mill, Immanuel Kant, John Locke, Aristotle, and John Rawls. The course reader is put together by Harvard philosophy professor Michael J. Sandel, who also authors an accompanying volume, directed at a popular audience, of primarily [...]
Posted in Unintended Consequences Tagged academia, economics in one lesson, Henry hazlitt, justice, Michael sandel Leave a comment
Digging up the Archives