California's budget problem results from the uncontrolled growth of government. However, help is on the way! Unfortunately it's coming in the form of a possibly illegal takings (Mother Jones and Cafe Hayek).
You may have already guessed that a rushed and kludgey repair job on the Bay Bridge caused the recent failure. This analysis suggests that guess is correct (Sci-experiments.com).
The University of Utah Genetic Science and Learning Center has created an excellent interactive graphic that helps explain the scale of small things. You'll want to show this one to your kids as you explain to them about germs or molecules (U of U).
The problem with economics is that it hasn't advanced far enough that it can make useful predictions. However, as Nassim Nicholas Taleb would point out, that's OK because there are still plenty of economists who are willing to go out on a limb and suggest untestable hypotheses to explain past events (Amazon.com and Bluematter).
The problem with socialism is that no one knows how much anything costs. Eric Falkenstein uses Amtrack as an example. Funny, but I keep hearing the same thing about health care (Falkenblog).
5 hours ago
California's an unstoppable nightmare. When they're not crushing your overpriced cars with their botched engineering repairs, they're stealing your money and calling you close-minded.
ReplyDeleteI love the graphic from the U.
Not sure what to say about Bluematter...except that they're British.
And it's obvious even to me, a non-economist, that not knowing what your own costs are is a huge problem.