Eugene Volokh has a post today on this article by David Levy and Sandra Peart on the orgins of the phrase and its applications to economics. I’ve always (or at this point it just feels like always!) known that Thomas Carlyle was the origin of the phrase, but until I saw David Levy present this …
He is a thoughtful, clear thinker and a wonderful writer, as is apparent in this Washington Post commentary on whether or not our intentions in Iraq are entirely based on getting more oil. Yergin is very eloquently making a point that I think is key — Iraq’s oil industry needs capital investment, its development will …
Other than the link to my earlier commentary on airline bailouts, here are some more thoughts about United’s bankruptcy. Ownership, and in the case of United it’s employee stock ownership (ESOP), is something that we economists tout as an important tool in aligning the incentives of employees, management, and customers. However, ownership is neither necessary …
This New York Times article from Thanksgiving lists me as a woman blogger who writes about economics and energy deregulation. I appreciate that Lisa Guernsey, the author, also noted my link to Bonne Marie Burns’ Chicknits weblog! Gee whiz. I hope Megan McArdle does show up on Ms. magazine’s master list of women bloggers, although …
Sasha Volokh has a great post today on the speciousness of the fiscal responsibility arguments for the paternalistic banning of smoking in public places. His links to Kip Viscusi’s risk assessment work are also very useful.
And while I’m at it, United Airlines’ impending bankruptcy prompts me to post a link to this commentary on airline bailout proposals that I wrote in November 2001. An excerpt: But at its core, the reason why we should not bail out either the airlines or the insurance industry is simple ? we benefit from …
On Tuesday an op-ed I wrote about the value to getting over the California crisis and pursuing some standardized market rules ran in the Orange County Register; the text of it is here. While I do not support the approach FERC is following in its current proposal, as Brian Mannix and I argued in our …
Virginia Postrel’s Economic Scene column in today’s New York Times highlights some of the arguments in Joel Mokyr’s new book, The Gifts of Athena. Virginia’s treatment captures the book’s focus on transmission and distribution of “useful knowledge” as the source of the dramatic shift toward increasing economic performance in the 19th century. It’s a wonderful …
I didn’t have an expectation one way or the other about whether or not the Venezuelan oil workers would go along with the general strike this week, but it’s day two and they are largely on strike, according to this Bloomberg news article. I jumped the gun in April, declaring Chavez a goner, so I’m …
What a fascinating juxtaposition of articles on oil and politics today. In the National Review online, Doug Bandow writes about the political aspects of the US-Saudi relationship and the oil supply. Bandow points out some of the most important economic aspects of technological change, economic dynamism in the oil industry, and a chillier relationship with …
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