Archive for Richard W. Fulmer
Richard Fulmer is a freelance writer from Humble, Texas.
I, Slide Rule
I am a slide rule. For nearly three and a half centuries, my ancestors and I commanded the western scientific and engineering worlds. We could be found in humble shops, helping carpenters reckon areas and volumes; we fought on battlefields calculating trajectories for artillery officers; we were engineers’ constant companions, determining stresses, flow rates, velocities, [...]
20Apr2010 | Richard W. Fulmer | 6 comments | ContinuedLegends of the Fall: The Real and Imagined Sources of Our Bubble Economy
Preface The Foundation for Economic Education is pleased to announce that Richard W. Fulmer of Humble, Texas, is the winner of the second annual Eugene S. Thorpe writing competition. Mr. Fulmer holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from New Mexico State University and for over 20 years has worked as a systems analyst in [...]
24Mar2010 | Richard W. Fulmer | 13 comments | ContinuedHow Dense Can They Get?
When it comes to power, energy density is the key. Solar power, wind power, and ethanol are so expensive because they are derived from very diffuse energy sources. It takes a lot of energy collectors such as solar cells, wind turbines, or corn stalks covering many square miles to produce the same amount of power [...]
5Jan2010 | Richard W. Fulmer | 13 comments | ContinuedHow Dense Can They Get?
When it comes to power, density is the key. Energy density. The reason that solar power, wind power, and ethanol are so expensive is that they are derived from very diffuse energy sources. It takes a lot of energy collectors such as solar cells, wind turbines, or corn stalks covering many square miles to produce [...]
12Nov2009 | Richard W. Fulmer | 9 comments | ContinuedWorld War II Ended the Great Depression?
In his 2008 book, The Return of Depression Economics and the Crisis of 2008, Paul Krugman writes: “The Great Depression in the United States was brought to an end by a massive deficit-financed public works program, known as World War II.” He has since repeated this bon mot in a number of columns and television [...]
23Oct2009 | Richard W. Fulmer | 30 comments | ContinuedEnlightened Altruism
Libertarians are awfully irritating. They keep talking about “enlightened self-interest,” which is, both literally and figuratively, a self-centered phrase. Why don’t they talk about “enlightened altruism,” that is, doing the most good for the most people? After all, there’s a lot of need in the world. People need food, clothing, shelter, medicine-all the necessities of [...]
1Apr2003 | Richard W. Fulmer | 3 comments | ContinuedDoes Court Time-Saving Cost Liberty?
The ability of ordinary American citizens to appeal unjust and arbitrary government decisions is being steadily eroded by the federal court system. In the name of efficiency and cost-saving, courts have been discarding time-proven practices such as hearing oral arguments and writing, presenting, and publishing reasoned opinions. These practices, which open the proceedings of the [...]
1Nov2002 | Richard W. Fulmer | 0 comments | ContinuedBook Review: Oil, Gas, & Government, 2 Volumes by Robert L. Bradley, Jr.
Untold damage has been done by governments that restrict human action in attempts to correct perceived market failures. Like a pebble dropped in a pond, each government action ripples through the economy in ever-widening circles, yielding unforeseen consequences that create demands for additional government intrusion. Ironically, when the market failure that provided the excuse for [...]
1Feb1997 | Richard W. Fulmer | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Social Security Trust Fund: Savings vs. Saving
Mr. Fulmer is a systems specialist in Houston. For every person receiving Social Security benefits in 1950, 17 others were employed. By 1970 the ratio had dropped to three workers per beneficiary, and as postwar baby boomers reach retirement age early in the 21st century? that ratio will drop to two-to-one. In the year 2030, [...]
1Aug1990 | Richard W. Fulmer | 0 comments | Continued-
The Latest
JPMorgan Chase and Casino Banking
JPMorgan Chase & Co., one of the nation’s leading banks, revealed in May that a London trader racked... Read More
Individualism, Trade-Unions, and “Self-Governing Combinations”
Who do you imagine said this? “[Trade-unions] seem natural to the passing phase of social evolution,... Read More
Bubbles, Malinvestment, and Higher Education
Many commentators are asking whether the next big bubble to burst will be the debt associated with the... Read More
JPMorgan’s Blunder Is No Market Failure
I am not going to try to defend JPMorgan Chase for its recent, widely reported financial blunders. ... Read More
For Equality; Against Privilege
This TGIF originally ran July 7, 2006. The freedom philosophy can be boiled down to two phrases: for... Read More
