The broken window fallacy does not always hold true (Debate Case) - The Mises Community Smiling Dave replied on Tue, Nov 6 2012 6:31 AM Austen, I like several things about your post. Thus, it deserves a response. So let's examine the Total Spending = Total Income equation, and the conclusions you draw from it. Yes, the equation is correct. So what is the right thing to look at, if not at Total Spending or Total Income? The answer, of course, is that "Total Spending = Total Income" is ignoring the variable that really counts, Total Production. Notice that the same flaw inheres in the other equation you quote, MV=PQ. Looking at that equation, the only way to improve the economy is to make good and sure Q, the quantity of goods, goes up. Before Keynes muddied the waters, this was universally understood. ...the encouragement of mere consumption is no benefit to commerce; for the difficulty lies in supplying the means, not in stimulating the desire of consumption; and we have seen that production alone, furnishes those means. Wrong. "Where is my mistake, Professor Keynes?"
Hurricane Sandy and Good Ole MV=PQ. Have We Broken Enough Windows to End the Recession? « Smiling Dave's Blog of Psychology, Economics, and Gentle Sarcasm. Over at the Mises forums, one Austen laid out the Keynesian case very nicely. It’s a long long post of his, and this humble article will talk about the beginning of it, upon which the rest depends. OK, Austen, you have the floor. You get the fancy italics, I get the normal font. Total Spending in an economy is equal to total income In an economy, based on simple arthimetic and common sense, one can see that all spending is equal to income, assuming that the money supply is not increasing. Total spending = Total income Therefore, the more spending that occurs in an economy, the higher one’s income is. Another way to think of this is the velocity of money: M*V = Q*P This is the quantity theory of money. M = money, V = velocity of money, Q = quantity of goods and services, P = price of goods and services. So as one can see If the velocity of money increases, then so do the quantity of goods and services, so long as prices do not not increase at the same rate. You see where Austen is going here.
Romney and Rent-Seeking « Organizations and Markets 5 November 2012 at 5:43 pm Peter Klein | Peter Klein | I teased Obama for his “you didn’t build that” gaffe, so it’s only fair that I say something about Romney’s infamous “47%” remark. A friend of mine says that rather than pick on Romney we should “address the very real concern that liberals are using the ‘safety net’ to create a majority underclass that makes our whole system and political class impervious to change or criticism.” I too was puzzled by the outrage over Romney’s gaffe; wasn’t he just expressing the median voter theorem? Mencken famously quipped that “every election is a sort of advance auction in stolen goods.” Entry filed under: - Klein -, Public Policy / Political Economy.
What Is Daylight-Saving Time? | Wired Science Oh sure, you know what it is … but do you really know what is going on? There is some interesting physics here. What is Daylight-Saving Time? Let me start with the sun. Let me show you the sun at different times of the day for my location on both Dec. 21 and June 21. What is different on these two days? So, there is less daylight time in the winter. The simple answer is that during the summer hours of daylight, the clock is shifted so that the sun rises at 6:30 a.m. instead of 5:30 a.m. Why Does the Length of Daylight Change? This is a better physics question. Look at the red dot on the Earth and the path it travels as the Earth rotates. What about a location in the southern hemisphere during this same time? Let me just show one more cool thing. Image: Wikipedia I am pretty sure this isn’t a real analema, but just a graphic. Why Does the Earth’s Axis Point the Same Way? Well, technically, it doesn’t. If you take an object and push it, it will have momentum. But what about spinning?
Chautauqua Cover of a 1917 promotional brochure Chautauqua (/ʃəˈtɔːkwə/ shə-TAW-kwə) describes an adult education movement in the United States, highly popular in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. Named after Chautauqua Lake where the first was held, Chautauqua assemblies expanded and spread throughout rural America until the mid-1920s. A Chautauqua Assembly brought entertainment and culture for the whole community, with speakers, teachers, musicians, entertainers, preachers and specialists of the day.[1] Former US President Theodore Roosevelt was quoted as saying that Chautauqua is "the most American thing in America".[2] §History[edit] Postage stamp commemorating the 100th anniversary of the first Chautauqua §The Mother Chautauqua[edit] The educational summer camp format proved to be a popular choice for families and was widely copied by the "daughter" Chautauquas. Today it is much larger than a camp site. §Independent Chautauquas[edit] §Circuit Chautauquas[edit] §Lectures[edit] Gov.
H. L. Mencken Mencken is known for writing The American Language, a multi-volume study of how the English language is spoken in the United States, and for his satirical reporting on the Scopes trial, which he dubbed the "Monkey Trial". He commented widely on the social scene, literature, music, prominent politicians, pseudo-experts, the temperance movement, and uplifters. A keen cheerleader of scientific progress, he was very skeptical of economic theories and particularly critical of anti-intellectualism, bigotry, populism, fundamentalist Christianity, creationism, organized religion, the existence of God, and osteopathic/chiropractic medicine. In addition to his literary accomplishments, Mencken was known for his controversial ideas. Early life[edit] Mencken was the son of August Mencken, Sr., a cigar factory owner of German ancestry. In his best-selling memoir Happy Days, he described his childhood in Baltimore as "placid, secure, uneventful and happy Career[edit] Personal life[edit]
Thymology Thymology is the study of those human aspects that precede or cause purposeful human behavior.[1] History[edit] Ludwig von Mises wrote: See also[edit] References[edit] Indirect Democide | Liberty on the Rocks Huntsville Democide: murder by government Professor Rudolph Rummel of the University of Hawaii has spent decades researching democide . The number he came up with is staggering: 262 million people murdered by governments during the 20th century. As unfathomable as that number is, it’s an understatement. First, it doesn’t include soldiers killed during war, but most of those people would not have died without state aggression. Many were conscripted. When the government people aren’t drone-bombing wedding parties and throwing peaceful people in cages by the millions , the result of their coercion is still death and suffering. The FDA The FDA’s drug approval process kills in three different ways. Beta-blockers reduce the risks of secondary heart attacks and were widely used in Europe during the mid-’70s. The other two ways the FDA kills are indirect. “Radiation is bad for little boys…” The TSA Statistically speaking, driving is a lot more dangerous than flying. Your tax dollars at work The War on Drugs
The Myth of American Meritocracy Just before the Labor Day weekend, a front page New York Times story broke the news of the largest cheating scandal in Harvard University history, in which nearly half the students taking a Government course on the role of Congress had plagiarized or otherwise illegally collaborated on their final exam.1 Each year, Harvard admits just 1600 freshmen while almost 125 Harvard students now face possible suspension over this single incident. A Harvard dean described the situation as “unprecedented.” But should we really be so surprised at this behavior among the students at America’s most prestigious academic institution? In the last generation or two, the funnel of opportunity in American society has drastically narrowed, with a greater and greater proportion of our financial, media, business, and political elites being drawn from a relatively small number of our leading universities, together with their professional schools. The Battle for Elite College Admissions Estimating Asian Merit
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