Author: smartistone

IN 2001, Steven Levitt of the University of Chicago proposed an explanation for why the crime in the U.S. declined so dramatically since the 1990s. Understandably, the kneejerk reaction of the left overshadowed the merits of the study. Unfortunately, the right’s fixation on ‘pro life’ is preventing potentially good policy. The category of abortions for… Continue reading Is partisanship holding back good policy in the abortion debate?

The boom of the freelancer economy, temp economy, and service sector is part of a growing trend where people are being paid for the value they truly create, instead of the inflated wages of the pre-2008 economy. This helps restore the equilibrium between labor and capital, which until recently was too skewed in favor of… Continue reading In Praise of Low Wages

A few days ago one of the architects of Reaganomics, Murray Weidenbaum, passed away. Looking back, Reaganomics was a success. ECONOMY BEFORE REAGAN When President Reagan entered office in 1981, he faced actually much worse economic problems than Obama faced in 2009: Three worsening recessions starting in 1969 were about to culminate in the worst… Continue reading The Success of Reaganomics

The concept of a basic income has gotten a lot of traction among liberals and libertarians as a solution for placating the millions of unemployed in the wake of rising structural unemployment and obsolescence of old industries. A basic income would allow individuals to become self-sufficient without the bureaucracy and inefficiencies of traditional welfare, or… Continue reading No, it’s not time for a basic income

Stocks keep going up. Anyone that bet against the market due to tapering has lost money. We’re still in a Goldilocks zone where any good news is good and bad news means more QE. Dow 20,000 soon. The we are doomed subset is still vocal on sites like zerohedge and business insider, their shrill cries… Continue reading Why We Need Gridlock Or, Better Yet, Complete Republican Control

General Motors announced that it is expanding a recall of compact cars due to an ignition problem, and has raised the number of deaths resulting from the problem to 13. The recall now affects 1.37 million vehicles built between 2003 and 2007. Similarly, between 2009-2011 Toyota recalled 9 million cars due to unintended acceleration; estimates… Continue reading Liberal Media Bias in Coverage of Auto Recalls

Yesterday, isteve posted an article about Alan Greenspan endorsing more h-1b Visas. Like most articles on this subject matter it generated a lot of discussion, the majority expressing opposition to more visas. However, being a free market capitalist I wrote: But if more high tech immigration isn’t allowed and retraining the workforce isn’t feasible due… Continue reading Immigration and the Liberal War on Success

How is it possible a small blog has a more accurate and longer running track record than professional pundits, with their adulation, media appearances, and books? Looking back through the post archives, with few exceptions, all of our predictions came true. This is because we only care about the hard economic data and, secondly, the… Continue reading Revisiting Correct Predictions

The most liberal person in the world says there is no tech skill shortage, implying that the h-1b visa cap shouldn’t be raised. But the tech shortage is real. According to a study conducted by CareerBuilder, IT jobs in the U.S. grew by 13 percent from 2002 to 2013, but the number of people who… Continue reading The Free Market Case For More Immigration

Through observation, the most popular topics as measured by comments and pageviews are posts that are critical of higher education or student loans, posts that are about IQ or standardized testing, and lastly, minimum wages, basic income and Obamacare. This theory was affirmed when the half-pint Robert Reich published a satirical college commencement speech on… Continue reading Sorry, No Student Loan Bubble