I support the free market because it makes my stocks and real estate go up, but it makes too many utopian assumptions – specifically how competition is supposed to lead to better products. Maybe better in terms of new features and more advanced technology, but not reliability or perceived speed. Wirth’s Law, a computing adage… Continue reading Planned Obsolescence
IQ and Writing
It’s almost a truism that people who dismiss IQ tend to sound really stupid, or at the very least, intellectually dishonest in the process. To the left, IQ is either meaningless or redefined to only measure the skills that they deem to be important, while other more concrete skills such as memorization or learning ability… Continue reading IQ and Writing
The Daily View: China, Debt and Why We Need More Millionaires In Congress
Google finally discloses its diversity record, and it’s not good Some people on isteve and elsewhere like to criticize Facebook and Google, but these companies are meritocracies in that they only hire the best and the brightest out of very large application pools, actively screening for high-g candidates. The left wants just the opposite: promotion… Continue reading The Daily View: China, Debt and Why We Need More Millionaires In Congress
The Post-2008 Economic Reality
[this was part of an earlier post on tax cuts but it deserves its own post] The S&P 500 has closed at another record high. Wealth creation is unstoppable. People are getting richer than ever. America’s position as an economic superpower has only been solidified post-2008 – the exact opposite of what the left predicted… Continue reading The Post-2008 Economic Reality
America’s Polarized Job Market
From the Washington Post and marginal revolution Unemployment fell from 3.3 to 3.2 percent for people with a bachelor’s degree or more, and from 5.7 to 5.5 percent for those with some college. But it actually rose from 6.3 to 6.5 percent for people with only a high school diploma, and from 8.9 to 9.1… Continue reading America’s Polarized Job Market
An Approach to Eugenics
Stocks keep going up. The S&P 500 has risen over thirty points in the past two days alone. We predict at the minimum dow 18000 by the end of year and S&P 500 at 2100. The creative class is being rewarded with rising stock and real estate prices for the value these individuals bring to… Continue reading An Approach to Eugenics
A vote for the GOP is a vote for growth
As shown below, the Bush tax cuts coincided with the bottom of the DJIA in 2003: The Bush tax cuts broadened the tax base, softened the blow of the 2008 banking problem and aided in the subsequent recovery. Economist Paul Krugman wrote in 2007: “Supply side doctrine, which claimed without evidence that tax cuts would… Continue reading A vote for the GOP is a vote for growth
The Daily View: Economics, Poverty, Treasuries, Geithner, Bitcoin
The discussion of economics in the context of wealth inequality has become the new American pastime, along with idling on Facebook and watching re-runs on Netflix. Even those who have never taken an economics class have an opinion. And why wouldn’t they? Economics is a social science in that it involves people and their interactions… Continue reading The Daily View: Economics, Poverty, Treasuries, Geithner, Bitcoin
Education and Reality
“Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn’t go away.” –Philip K. Dick That’s where we are today – a willful denial of reality by the left, in particular the commenters on various liberals sites encompassing a collective delusion that we can close the achievement gap with costlier schools or that IQ… Continue reading Education and Reality
Ignorance, The 2008 Financial Problem, and the Limitations of Knowledge
From The American Conservative: Our Collective Hatred of Ignorance In the smartist era, the value or importance of intelligence has never been greater. Yet at the same time, the consequences of naivete and ignorance can be grave. Look how Rick Perry, a three-term governor of America’s second largest economy, was decollated by the punditry after… Continue reading Ignorance, The 2008 Financial Problem, and the Limitations of Knowledge