We are a commune of inquiring, skeptical, politically centrist, capitalist, anglophile, traditionalist New England Yankee humans, humanoids, and animals with many interests beyond and above politics. Each of us has had a high-school education (or GED), but all had ADD so didn't pay attention very well, especially the dogs. Each one of us does "try my best to be just like I am," and none of us enjoys working for others, including for Maggie, from whom we receive neither a nickel nor a dime. Freedom from nags, cranks, government, do-gooders, control-freaks and idiots is all that we ask for.
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Morning everyone. Bulldog here, bringing you today's links because Doc Mercury wanted a day off so he could sleep in, and I am happy to oblige.
We're two days past the Labor Day holiday weekend, but is it a day off when you're always off?
This is exactly what happened when I walked into the office at 8am yesterday.
Harvard study discovers what most of us already knew. Guns don't kill people, people kill people. Do not expect this to impact the national conversation.
What to expect with Obamacare. The NHS is the obvious goal. At least it's 'free'.
One side of the minimum wage debate. I wish everybody could be rich, but that can't happen. If it did, then the whole concept of 'rich' would be meaningless, so it's good to understand rents. The value of anything is based on its relative ease of obtaining it. If you can only dig ditches, and 90% of the population can dig ditches, too, you have to accept a lower wage or find some new skills.
If the minimum wage is increased, we will have higher unemployment, higher prices, and stagnant or reduced profits. So we'd be paying more tax dollars for people who aren't working, paying more for goods and services we need, and stocks would take a hit. Sounds like a plan to me. It doesn't take much to understand why minimum wage legislation fails as a ham-handed attempt to make a nation wealthy via legislation. If it actually worked, we could set the minimum at a very high level, say $100,000 a year, and we'd all be working and all be happy because consumers would have lots of money to spend. Better yet, let's make it $100,000 a year and no layoffs, ever. What could possibly go wrong with that?
More work on the Austrian Business Cycle Theory points to external influences in the boom and bust cycle, rather than irrational behavior. This has been a critical missing piece of Neo-Classical Economics as macroeconomic theory, and is part of the reason why Keynesian thought has dominated. That dominance is eroding.
Calvo sees as one of the great strengths of ABCT that it is able to explain the financial distrubances without recourse to irrationality. The source instead lies in the manipulation of money and credit which distorts the guiding and weeding functions of the price system for the time being, but the market eventually pierces that distortionary fog and a process of recalculation ensues.
In other news, Ronald Coase died. A winner of the Nobel Prize for Economics (which, by the way, is not really a Nobel Prize at all), Coase's work opened new windows on the nature of corporations and their optimal size. His work is often cited by conservative activists when government looks to regulate business. Below is Rodney Dangerfield, as Thornton Melon, explaining his version of Coase's work to an economics professor.
Covered regularly here on Maggie's, but of interest to me lately since I have one in college and another to follow - garbage degrees and the ultimate outcome of wasting 4 years to study an otherwise useless topic. I have a number of teachers in my family, but I'd still put "Education" on the list of degrees which won't get you far in terms of career or income. No offense to teachers, I have the highest respect for what they do. We parents can be the biggest problem many teachers face. And vice versa. I continue to believe what my father told me, "You go to college to get an education. You go to grad school to get a job." His point, obviously, was to challenge me so I would study something meaningful.
I believe the US government will seek to shut down Bitcoin. For now, they are trying to figure out if it is a threat to the Fed. It is.
Bill Maher praises Obama for 'restoring the Constitution' by asking for Congressional approval to strike Syria and takes a potshot at the Tea Party. Obama's 'restoration of the Constitution' is a purely face-saving measure designed to shift blame. After all, he never sought Congressional approval for Libya and continues to insist he doesn't need Congressional approval. Hillary remains invisible, though she helped craft this foreign policy. Perhaps she is spending time consulting on her upcoming Hollywood biopic?
Some interesting views about well-known people and events. I happen to like the first three. The rest aren't quite as good.
Drudge rightfully asks "Why would anyone vote Republican?" But why vote Democrat, either? Neither party is specifically looking out for the best interests of the nation, but rather for themselves and their position in society. As a Libertarian, I view Republicans as a sometimes useful first step toward the goal of reinstating the Constitution as the law of the land. But not the guys currently pushing for attacking Syria or voting for NSA funding of Prism. They need to get back with the program.
The world is a Rorschach Test. I've always disagreed with the concept that perception is reality. If perception is reality, does that mean demons really were coming from the WTC? I believe the job of the individual is to utilize facts to help overcome limitations of our basic perceptions. Just because we like what we perceive doesn't make it reality. This can be applied to Syria. The main tool to utilize in cutting through to the facts is cui bono.
Ending on an up note, I'm surprised I didn't read anything about Diana Nyad on Maggie's. On Monday morning I learned she was only 5 miles from shore. 53+ hours of swimming, at age 64, is quite an accomplishment. I've done a mile in a lake and it was murder, so I can't imagine what she went through. Her accomplishment is one which is consistent with our values. Persistence, hard work, and a desire to achieve. You really are never too old.
