What is Full Employment?

Martin Feldstein thinks that we may be close to full employment, due to a combination of disincentives to work caused by entitlements and rules an regulations that reduce employers' incentives to hire.

Here is the link.

What is Full Employment?

Martin Feldstein thinks that we may be close to full employment, due to a combination of disincentives to work caused by entitlements and rules an regulations that reduce employers' incentives to hire.

Here is the link.

Trade Is Trade – Or, Economic Activity Is Economic Activity

Here is a link to a post by Don Boudreaux that puts job losses due to international trade in perspective.

Don explains why losses of domestic jobs to foreign workers is no different than losses of domestic jobs to other domestic workers.

Myths of American gun violence - and Obama's untruths

Here is an article by John Lott that illustrates the perpetuation of untruths by the anti-gun crowd, including Obama.

On Obamacare, John Roberts helps overthrow the Constitution

George Will gets it right in his Washington Post column about John Roberts.

Politicians endlessly proclaim that the United States is the land of freedom and liberty.  It is not - and is getting worse.

Jokes and Puns

Two hydrogens are walking along a street. The first one says, "Hey! I think I lost an electron!"  The second one replies, "Are you sure?"  The first one then says, "Yeah, I'm POSITIVE."

Magnet: Something you find crawling all over a dead cat.

The pistol of the flower is its only protection against insects.

Honesty is the key to a relationship.  If you can fake that, you're in.

No one dies a virgin, life screws us all.

If money doesn't grow on trees then why do banks have branches?

The state of discourse on guns

The state of discourse on guns - John Lott is the "good guy".

Response to Evan DeFilippis and Devin Hughes' claims at "ArmedwithReaon" about my research

Recently Evan DeFilippis and Devin Hughes claimed that defensive gun use was a myth.  Gary Kleck wrote a response where he noted that these authors were merely repeating earlier criticisms and ignored the responses that he and others have made to those critiques.

Well, DeFilippis and Hughes use the same approach in discussing my research (a screen shot of their original post is saved here).  Let's try to go through these points in order that they are presented:

So what if Greece leaves the European Union?

A great column by George Will in the Washington Post.

An important reason why cities and countries often linger in poverty and decay is that their debts are not erased.

If a city is insolvent, a productive person can avoid the financial burden by moving out.  That worsens the insolvency and leaves the city a disaster area.

If the city goes bankrupt and its obligations are erased, taxes can be reduced to the point where it becomes economically viable.

Bankruptcy is likely to discourage lenders from financing another round of financial stupidity - which made the mess possible in the first place.  However, that depends on all obligations, such as pension funds, being kept fully funded at all times - so that borrowing is a prerequisite for further financial stupidity.

Bankruptcy will hurt those who were promised money.  City retirees and others who were handed excessive pensions or "deals" may deserve to be hurt.  Bondholders deserve whatever they get - or fail to get - it is their responsibility to evaluate their investments.  Bankruptcy can help current residents by making their city viable again.

In the case of countries, insolvency imposes a similar financial burden on economic activity.  However, it is much harder for people to avoid the financial burden by moving out - hence more people suffer.

Countries cannot go bankrupt in the sense that a city can.  While a country can choose to default on its financial obligations, the default is less likely to be sufficiently complete.  Many financial obligations to citizens, who vote, will remain - probably enough of them to prolong economic chaos indefinitely.

The Ring

I still remember the day I lost my Cub Scout "Wolf" ring, more than sixty five years ago. It's one of the few things that I remember from that time.

I had wanted a Wolf ring badly and my parents gave me one on my birthday. It was a silver color and had a sculptured wolf’s head. I loved it.

I lost the ring only a few minutes after I received it, while I was playing in our backyard during my birthday party. I don't remember whether I was wearing it or had it in my pocket when I lost it. All I remember is looking for it in the grass where we had been playing - and feeling a deep sense of loss.

I searched and searched, but couldn’t find it. I thought that I would have seen it in the grass - I wondered whether one of my friends had found it and kept it. I still wonder.

My parents did not give me another Wolf ring, and I never had one again.

Crosswind landings and takeoffs

The interesting thing in this video is the apparent lack of knowledge about how to do a crosswind landing at the flare.  The crab is good until just before touchdown.  Then it should be converted to a slip.  See if you notice upwind wing down and rudder to the downwind side.  Mostly, no.

On the takeoffs, rudder should be on the downwind side and upwind aileron should be up.  See if you notice that.  Mostly no.

Here is the link.