Archive for Margaret Morgan
Summer Seminars Deadline Extension
After much deliberation, the Programs Department here at FEE has decided to extend the application deadline for the summer seminars to Thursday, April 30th. It is our hope that this will enable students who may be unsure of their summer schedules mid-semester to attend. We think that these seminars, though always relevant, are increasingly so [...]
23Mar2009 | Margaret Morgan | 0 comments | ContinuedThough newspapers might be suffering…
…luckily, for us, good journalism isn’t. Paul Steiger (former managing editor of the Wall Street Journal) founded ProPublica: Journalisma in the Public Interest in 2008. One particularly fun link is ChangeTracker. It tracks any changes (new posts or things deleted) the following websites: whitehouse.gov recovery.gov and financialstability.gov. Three cheers for investigative journalism!
25Feb2009 | Margaret Morgan | 0 comments | ContinuedCalifornia Dreaming
Though it’s easy to affirm the idea that attempting to spend or tax one’s way out of economic woes is bogus, it’s even easier when you see proof positive, like the current debacle in California. The Wall Street Journal says this: The Golden State — which a decade ago was the booming technology capital of [...]
18Feb2009 | Margaret Morgan | 0 comments | ContinuedChild's Play and the Stimulus Package.
When I was at the age where I received an allowance, my parents gave me the dollar amount equal to my age. So, when I was ten years old, I got ten dollars. At that age, you can do a lot with that kind of dough. However, in the adult world, that’s child’s play, not [...]
13Feb2009 | Margaret Morgan | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Salary Cap
Don Boudreaux points out the frightening precedent set by Obama’s bailout stipulations in this article in the Pittsburgh Tribune: Government is now increasingly in the business of determining salaries and deciding whether firms can have private jets. These matters — salaries and jets — are lightning rods for public attention. So they are,ipso facto, lightning [...]
11Feb2009 | Margaret Morgan | 0 comments | ContinuedJust a Quote
In light of the increasing drift toward protectionism, this quote is appropriately direct: “There is simply no other choice than this: either to abstain from interference in the free play of the market, or to delegate the entire management of production and distribution to the government. Either capitalism or socialism: there exists no middle way” [...]
6Feb2009 | Margaret Morgan | 0 comments | ContinuedTo the Point
I’m not an expert policy analyst, but a comment in today’s National Review made a lot of sense, “The problem with trying to spend $1 trillion quickly is that you end up wasting a lot of it.” I thought, “Hmm, that is probably really true.” Then I got to the part of the package where “$87 [...]
5Feb2009 | Margaret Morgan | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Bacon Explosion, Metaphorically Speaking
This past Sunday, I joined hundreds of thousands of other individuals in reproducing this year’s latest culinary sensation: The Bacon Explosion. Though ours didn’t turn out quite as prettily as the one pictured here, we deemed it a success.It is worth pointing out the irony hidden in this barbequed-bacon wonder: The very year this “massive [...]
4Feb2009 | Margaret Morgan | 0 comments | ContinuedState Fairs and Government Spending
In Michigan’s attempt to cut spending (their state has a 1.6 billion dollar deficit), officials are proposing shutting down the state’s 160-year old state fair. This has met considerable nostalgia from citizens. For example, Linda Lukofsky: “They even have a Senior Citizens Day which everyone seems to look forward to each year — maybe because [...]
3Feb2009 | Margaret Morgan | 0 comments | ContinuedNPR and Other Smart Stuff
As an avid (and only sometimes apologetic) NPR listener, I feel it’s worth citing the Overton’s Arrow blog post, which mentions both this week’s episode of This American Life and NPR’s economy blog, Planet Money, in a positive light. One particularly good recent Planet Money post quotes H.L. Mencken’s essay, “What Is Going on In the World” [...]
2Feb2009 | Margaret Morgan | 0 comments | ContinuedWhen the Bottom Line is the Bottom Line
Leave it to Forbes to address the concerns of the populace: we want the economy to be profitable again. Arnold Kling’s article points us to the root of the problem: The economy is in trouble today because of, pardon the pun, false profits. The financial sector reported as much as 40% of all profits in [...]
30Jan2009 | Margaret Morgan | 0 comments | ContinuedDirty Logic
Robert Murphy discusses one of Paul Krugman’s arguments in his blog post and shows that Krugman’s logic is, indeed, ‘dirty,’ because, (discussing the stimulus package) “when this pork spigot turns off, won’t you have 5 million people suddenly thrown out of work?” He goes on to say that “Friedman famously said (though apparently didn’t coin), ‘There’s no [...]
29Jan2009 | Margaret Morgan | 1 comment | ContinuedOn Rhetoric
I tend to think that labels and rhetorically eloquent phrases are an ineffective trick of rhetoric that allows individuals (and, perhaps, particulary politicians) to avoid expressing real thoughts. Take, for instance, the term “stimulus spending.” At face value, these words imply two things: first, that there is actual money being spent, and that by spending [...]
29Jan2009 | Margaret Morgan | 0 comments | ContinuedGates on Market Superiority
Matthew Bishop interviewed Bill Gates the other day for The Economist about Gates’ letter that he wrote to citizens. It’s worth watching for a number of reasons. First, because of what Mr. Gates has to say about the role of private enterprise in social aid (approximately 2:19 into the interview), and second, because of his [...]
28Jan2009 | Margaret Morgan | 0 comments | ContinuedRisky Business.
L. Gordon Crovitz said in his Wall Street Journal article yesterday that “Markets thrive when information flows freely, and they seize up when uncertainty replaces understanding.” This basic principle is key for risk analysis, mortgage-lending, and when considering long-term effects of any decision. So the question becomes: how do we restore certainty into the markets? [...]
27Jan2009 | Margaret Morgan | 0 comments | ContinuedPenthouses for playmates? More like the poorhouse for the populace.
It is when the porn industry asks for a $5 billion dollar bailout that I hope citizens have an interest in just where our tax dollars go. On the other hand, when I mentioned this bailout to the president of the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, Joe Lehman, his response was something to the effect: “Why wait [...]
26Jan2009 | Margaret Morgan | 0 comments | Continued"Vive la liberte!"
Or so came the cry of the French Revolutionaries. As anyone interested in history and liberty can attest, liberty requires a good deal of hard work. I was especially struck by the relationship between liberty and work when reading French chef Jacques Pepin’s autobiography earlier this week. The Apprentice: My Life in the Kitchen recounts [...]
23Jan2009 | Margaret Morgan | 2 comments | Continued-
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The Snow Plowers’ Petition
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Capitalism, Corporatism, and the Freed Market
When a front-running presidential contender tells the country that thanks to Barack Obama, “[w]e are... Read More
Creating Jobs versus Creating Value
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