Economics Roundtable

Usually, customers seek the maximum value at all times. This could mean paying a lot for very high quality, or paying a little for something that barely suffices. But customers optimize for value -- bang for the buck.

In the American health care system, nobody is optimizing for ...

David Isenberg drives me batty. He's the fellow who pointed out that a stupid network (intelligence at the edges) produces more public benefit than the smart network that his then-employer, AT&T, was building. Well, of course when you make a public fuss like that, you either change your employer's direction, ...

Our new governor says that state government needs to do more to lower cost of doing business in New York:

To create a more conducive climate for business, the governor said New York must make doing business in the state cheaper by investing in infrastructure and reducing high energy and health ...

Having watched people poop on the streets in Mumbai, wanting to help stop that, and not knowing what to do, I was pleased to come across the PoopReport's project to help people in India. Specifically, schoolgirls in Uttar Pradesh. They can build a composting toilet for $250, which ...

Earlier I spoke about the "stimulus" when it was still merely under discussion. Today comes a LA Times article saying that most recent public opinion polls found that, on the eve of distribution of the stimulus checks, most Americans plan to save the stimulus rather than spend it. ...

Everybody willing to give up home, family, community, home, hearth, and (within two generations) language to come here has the same nature as everyone else already here, and is thus already an American. We should not stand in the way of anyone who wants to set up a new life in ...

The comedian John Oliver was quoted as saying, about an inflatable floating barbacue grill, which lets you cook while soaking in your pool:

"Is there any greater example of what it is to live in the freest nation on Earth than that?", he marvels with no small dose of ...

Look at this chart:

We need to stop sunspots! Rather than worrying about silly CO2 emissions, we need to stop the sun from varying the number of sunspots! Or ... maybe .... more sensibly ... we should understand that the climate changes. Rather than engage in ...

It's good that government operatives in the Department of Homeland inSecurity realize that anti-future laws are harmful and are going to "bypass" them. Good idea! How about they allow us to "set aside" these laws, too? After all, building a wall to keep ot workers is going ...

Ever heard anybody say that something must be done "because of the terrorist threat"? The purpose of saying this is to stop discussion. Maybe there are alternative actions? Maybe it would be better to do nothing? But no, some people try to keep you from talking about ...