Category Archives: economics

What Would Jesus Cut?

Posted on April 2, 2011 by Bradlaugh

Lunchtime mail brought my April copy of The Dominion, “News of the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island.” The front page leader was by my local prelate, The Right Reverend Lawrence C. Provenzano, Bishop of Long Island.   Titled “Budgets, Leadership, and … Continue reading →

Posted in economics, Religion | 22 Comments

Nothing sacred

Posted on January 6, 2011 by David Hume

Military not exempt from spending cuts: Republicans: U.S. military programs will not necessarily be exempt from sharp spending cuts Republicans in the House of Representatives plan to put forward in coming months, incoming House Republican Leader Eric Cantor said on … Continue reading →

Posted in economics | Tagged | 1 Comment

The Great Stagnation

Posted on August 1, 2010 by Andrew Stuttaford

Via the Financial Times: The slow economic strangulation of the Freemans and millions of other middle-class Americans started long before the Great Recession, which merely exacerbated the “personal recession” that ordinary Americans had been suffering for years. Dubbed “median wage … Continue reading →

Posted in economics | Tagged , | 6 Comments

Food stamps and the importance of *doing something*

Posted on December 9, 2009 by David Hume

At Gene Expression I recently put up a series of posts relating to food stamps. For example, the correlates of food stamp utilization by county. I’m really skeptical of the ubiquity of food stamp usage. There are vast swaths of … Continue reading →

Posted in culture, economics | Tagged | 23 Comments

Creative Destruction: Pretty Much a Good Thing

Posted on November 20, 2009 by Andrew Stuttaford

The house of the right should have many mansions, whether it’s the cathedrals of the theocons, the country clubs of the RINOs, the unadorned blocks and towers of the Randians, the revival tents of Huckabee County and… well, you get … Continue reading →

Posted in economics, philosophy | Tagged , | 6 Comments

Capitalism’s lost social capital

Posted on October 21, 2009 by David Hume

A few years ago Francis Fukuyama wrote Trust: The Social Virtues and The Creation of Prosperity. The short of it is that modern economies tend to be “high trust,” you can rely on more than simply your family to get … Continue reading →

Posted in culture, economics | Tagged , , | 33 Comments

The Commanding Heights

Posted on September 13, 2009 by David Hume

U.S. Is Finding Its Role in Business Hard to Unwind: But one year after the collapse of Lehman Brothers set off a series of federal interventions, the government is the nation’s biggest lender, insurer, automaker and guarantor against risk for … Continue reading →

Posted in culture, economics, history, politics | Tagged | 1 Comment

12 Questions for Derb (cont.)

Posted on July 19, 2009 by Bradlaugh

Hoo-ee, the commentators at Economist.com are even more rude and moronic than P.Z. Myers’, which I would not have thought possible. Is it naïve of me to be surprised? Though at least Economist.com screens out the f-word.

Posted in debate, economics | 7 Comments

Social science & engineering

Posted on June 17, 2009 by David Hume

A recent Bloggingheads.tv featured two philosophers, and was titled “Explaining and Appraising Moral Intuition”. A considerable proportion of the discussion involved the utility of cognitive and evolutionary psychology in probing the reflexive roots of our moral intuitions, and how that … Continue reading →

Posted in culture, economics, philosophy, science, Uncategorized | Tagged , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Muddle to the Right?

Posted on March 25, 2009 by David Hume

I’m reading Niall Ferguson’s The Ascent of Money: A Financial History of the World right now. I’ve not read Ferguson before, and I have to say he’s a rather good prose stylist. Though dense with data & concept The Ascent … Continue reading →

Posted in economics, politics | Tagged , , , | 18 Comments