Warning: Read this before, not after, you start drinking, or your head will explode.
At the risk of starting a new ritual, I present the Weekly Saturday Intellectual Gum of the Week.
“Man can escape the tyranny of the king, but only at the cost of falling under the tyranny of cousins, and ritual.”
- Ernest Gellner (still alive)
Why, here’s a techno remix of Senator Ted Stevens explaining the Internet, before the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation.
Informative videos like this are the reason Al Gore invented the Internet, out of old tubes.
Neo-Goric (ni’oh gor-ik) [adj, adv.]: A boneheaded proposal intended to suggest an individual’s propensity for self-sacrifice in the face of Global Warming, even in contradiction with, well-known, well-established, and well-regarded laws of natural or social science. Related to, but not to be confused with, correctly-alarmist Paleo-Goric rhetoric (see for example Al Gore’s “An Inconvenient Truth”).
This is not the first time I have taken issue with Thomas L. “Beat the Palestinians with a Stick” Friedman, but as he has crossed the thin line between normative political debate and economic axioms, I feel I could do worse than to point out the Neo-Goric blatherskite of his article yesterday in the NYT; I’ll give you a moment to read it over.
In particular, this gem:
Therefore, what our mythical candidate would be proposing, argues the energy economist Philip Verleger Jr., is a “price floor” for gasoline: $4 a gallon for regular unleaded, which is still half the going rate in Europe today. Washington would declare that it would never let the price fall below that level. If it does, it would increase the federal gasoline tax on a monthly basis to make up the difference between the pump price and the market price.
In keeping with long-standing tradition, Friedman begins this rubbish by alluding to an economist, much as Hillary “I don’t think comparative advantage exists” Clinton began her adorable refutation of economics with a reference to Paul Samuelson (a Google search of “Hillary Buiter” produces a great article explaining why Samuelson is, indeed, a great economist – and why Hillary is not). I’ll reserve judgement on Mr. Verleger’s credentials for the time being (the results of an Internet search are not promising); let’s me just set the story straight.
There is a certain natural tendency to seek Karma in economics; as a result, it’s easy enough to tell people that fun things – like price ceilings on gasoline – will not be good in the long run, for the same reasons you cannot eat desert before you finish your dinner. We’re used to self-restraint in this department.
The problem is that economics is, at its core, is not a morality play; it has more to say than don’t do bad things. The problem with Friedman’s proposal is that price floors are just as damaging as price ceilings; instead of demand exceeding supply, you’ll have supply exceeding demand. The problem here (besides an unnecessary loss of income for your corner gas station owner) lies in incentives and information. Prices transmit information about the state of resources, as well as demand for them. If half of America switched to cars that were twice as efficient, all else being equal, we’d expect demand for gas to halve. But this is a good thing - it would lead to lower prices, lower emissions, and no market distortions. By proposing price floors, Friedman is treading a dangerous path towards price manipulation with ostensibly “moral goals.” This was tried in Central Eastern Europe, and it’ll take another thirty years for GDP per capita to catch up with its Western neighbors.
So cut it out, Friedman.
But I really don’t know how to make it the background for my blog because the Internets is really too complicated.
…along with Germany and Britain. Poland thought it was in good company – but then England and Germany went out for drinks and didn’t invite Poland:
Now we know Russia won, but their sketchy brand of managed democracy and “oil”gopoly shenanigans have no place on this elitist website, with its target audience consisting exclusively of democracy-loving freedom-adoring Americans and Iraqis. You’ll have to look elsewhere to find their music. Instead, you can watch Poland’s last-place entry here [The YouTubé]
…whenever you need to “take inflation into account,” you just multiply by 1.5