All Posts Tagged With: "risk"
Money, Greed, and Risk: Why Financial Crises and Crashes Happen
The reader of Money, Greed, and Risk is informed that the book’s author, Charles R. Morris, has been a partner in a consulting firm, an executive with Chase Manhattan Bank, the secretary of health and human services for the state of Washington, and assistant budget director for New York City. In short, Morris has considerable [...]
1Nov2000 | Larry J. Sechrest | 0 comments | ContinuedMarginalism and the Morality of Pricing Human Lives
When I ask students in my large economics classes if some things are just too important to put a price on, someone always answers, “human life.” This seems like a reasonable answer.
1Oct2000 | Dwight R. Lee | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Economic Consequences of Rolling Back the Welfare State
It took America’s professional politicians little more than three decades to spend more than $5.5 trillion on welfare programs for their constituents. Looking back, we know the results have not been pretty: work incentives were stood on their head by moral hazards created by government largess. Millions of able-bodied people have been trapped in poverty [...]
1Sep2000 | David L. Littmann | 0 comments | ContinuedFalse Dawn: The Delusions of Global Capitalism
John Gray’s new book, False Dawn: The Delusions of Global Capitalism, is exasperating. Gray makes big predictions, such as: “There can no longer be much doubt that we are approaching a major upheaval in the international economic system. It is a pretty safe bet that, a few years hence, it will be difficult to find [...]
1Jun2000 | Aaron Steelman | 2 comments | ContinuedThe Market for Space in the Market
Gary Galles is a professor of economics at Pepperdine University in Malibu, Calif. Slotting fees—payments by producers for space on retailers’ shelves—are under attack. According to Senator Christopher “Kit” Bond of Missouri, chairman of the Senate Committee on Small Business, which held hearings last fall, the practice “threatens competition, jobs and likely drives up the [...]
1Mar2000 | Gary M. Galles | 0 comments | ContinuedSpeculation and Risk
Last month I showed that speculators are best thought of as conservationists. They are constantly looking to the future and conserving resources they believe are becoming more valuable. Since no one can predict the future with full confidence, speculators necessarily take risks. And when a speculator misjudges the future, he moves resources from periods when [...]
1Sep1999 | Dwight R. Lee | 4 comments | ContinuedA World Without the FDA
Back in 1980 I had the good fortune to spend a summer in Santiago, Chile. My woeful high-school French produced an even more woeful Spanish, but I was able to travel about that beautiful country with wonderful people. In the middle of my stay I developed a fearful cold and wandered into what looked like [...]
1Sep1999 | Russell Roberts | 16 comments | ContinuedJust Deserts
The AFL-CIO has a Web site, www.paywatch.org, dedicated to condemning what it considers to be “runaway CEO pay” in private corporations. It claims that high executive pay damages all other “stakeholders” in corporations, especially workers and stockholders. In other words, the AFL-CIO asserts that excessively paid executives and other stakeholders are locked in a zero-sum [...]
1Mar1999 | Charles W. Baird | 1 comment | ContinuedMarket Worship?
As we approach the millennium, the pace of economic change quickens. Consumers have always wanted better products at lower prices. But in today’s economy, the market delivers “better and cheaper” more quickly than at any time in human history The time between product improvements gets shorter and shorter. Competition drives prices lower. It’s a wonderful [...]
1Jan1999 | Russell Roberts | 0 comments | ContinuedShould Profits Be Shared with Workers?
When most people argue that firms should share profits with workers, they are not interested in the general distribution of business receipts.[1] Rather, they are pointing to firms experiencing exceptionally high profits and claiming that fairness requires that most of those profits be passed on to workers. For example, management consultant Alfie Kohn states, If [...]
1Jun1997 | Dwight R. Lee | 5 comments | ContinuedInsurance: True and False
Mr. Rockwell is president of the Ludwig von Mises Institute in Auburn, Alabama. The movie classic Double Indemnity tells the story of a couple’s attempt to commit murderous insurance fraud. Their plans were foiled through the investigation of a hard-bitten insurance executive. At the time, audiences were shocked that a middle- class couple would attempt [...]
1Apr1996 | Llewellyn H. Rockwell Jr | 0 comments | ContinuedRisk
Who should decide how much risk you should take? Proponents of government safety regulation think that the government has the expertise to decide this issue for you. Professor John Adams of University College London presents a case for more individual autonomy. While the government may have the manpower and the budget to commission numerous studies, [...]
1Feb1996 | John Semmens | 0 comments | ContinuedThe Economic Safety Net (a parable)
Mr. Beard is an attorney in Chattanooga, Tennessee. Once upon a time, far, far away, people lived in a village on an island where life was difficult. But the people were good and worked hard and the village grew. The people called their island “Economy” and they were happy. On one side of the island [...]
1Jul1995 | Jes Beard | 0 comments | ContinuedRisks in the Modern World: What Prospects for Rationality?
Mr. Smith is president and founder of the Competitive Enterprise Institute in Washington, D.C. He is co-editor of Environmental Politics: Public Costs, Private Rewards (Praeger, 1992). Risk refers to the likelihood that something will go wrong.[1] People naturally fear such mishaps, and risk aversion is a basic survival trait. Only non-survivors rush in where angels [...]
1Mar1995 | Fred Smith | 1 comment | ContinuedControlling Risk: Regulation or Rights?
Dr. Stroup is a Senior Associate of PERC, a research center in Bozeman, Montana, that provides market solutions to environmental problems. For many decades, Louisiana’s Gulf Coast has been a center of oil and chemical plants. The region has higher-than-average rates of death from cancer, and has even been dubbed “Cancer Alley.” Many people assume [...]
1Mar1995 | Richard L. Stroup | 1 comment | ContinuedWhy Governments Can’t Handle Risk
Professor Simmons is the Head of the Political Science Department of Utah State University. Public opinion surveys indicate that mainstream America is worried about environmental risks.[1] In 1990, for the first time since pollsters began asking the questions, a plurality (46 percent) of American voters believed that the quality of life where they live was [...]
1Mar1995 | Randy T. Simmons | 0 comments | ContinuedAssessing the Risk Assessors
Dr. Benjamin is Professor of Economics at Montana State University and Fellowship Project Director at PERC in Bozeman, Montana. Life is risky business. As we travel its uncertain voyage, hazards must be assessed and choices made among them. For most of recorded history, both assessment and choice have been the prerogative of the individual. Society [...]
1Mar1995 | Daniel K. Benjamin | 0 comments | Continued-
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