In spite of being quarantined for several weeks I have avoided writing here about the Coronavirus Covid-19. I am not trained in the subject of viruses and their prevention and treatment. I have, however, in these last weeks read a great deal about it, most of it written by people who don’t seem to know…
Category: Economics
Few Want to Wake Up to a Massive Debt Call
Wall Street Journal letter, September 10, 2016 Gov. Mitch Daniels should be President. He has put his finger on perhaps the fatal flaw of democracy, identified long ago by George Bernard Shaw: “A government that robs Peter to pay Paul can always depend on the support of Paul.” Mr. Daniels couldn’t have said these things…
The Transgender Non-Issue
Note: The sentiment of this post was the the subject of a Cape Cod Times letter on May 19, 2016. May 16, 2016. Without any discernible public need, the federal, state and some local governments have taken up the cause of transgender use of public facilities traditionally segregated by sex, such as rest rooms and communal locker…
Throw money at obesity
Boston Globe letter, September 21, 2015 THE HEADLINE of Joanna Weiss’s Sept. 11 opinion column — “Politicians are needed to help end the obesity crisis” — highlights its essential flaw. So, what’s the solution she wants to see? New taxes? New subsidies? More politicians, guided by their contributors and lobbyists, picking economic winners and losers?…
B&Bs vs. Rentals; Let’s Reverse Question
Cape Cod Times letter, April 15, 2015 Noting that the hotel room occupancy tax has been extended to bed-and-breakfasts and arguing that it should be extended to summer home rentals (“Falmouth seeks expansion of hotel room taxes,” April 10), Falmouth Selectman Sam Patterson says, “It seems to me to be an unfair situation that needs…
The Clinton Plan to Distort Market Signals
WSJ Letters, August 30, 2015 The result of increasing taxes on investments held for a short period of time will not be to encourage wise, long-term decision-making by investors and managers. Rather, complicating record keeping and increasing taxes will, at the margin, keep investors out of the market. Brian R. Merrick West Barnstable, Mass.
Time to Abolish the Penny & Nickel
WSJ, Letters, July 27, 2015 It shouldn’t take a Centennial Monetary Commission (“Fifty Years of Debasing Money,” Review & Outlook, July 22) to propose the most obviously practical monetary reform: abolish the darn penny. It costs more than it’s worth to mint it and is nothing but a nuisance to everyone but the copper-mining interests….
Hard Bargaining Wins Negotiations
WSJ, Letters, July 13, 2013 Craig J. Richardson’s “An Econ Lesson in a Shanghai Market” (op-ed, July 7) is especially timely coming amid stories about high-stakes negotiations around Greek debt and the Iranian nuclear program. The upper hand in the negotiations should go to “the one who is most able to walk away from the…
The Innovation Act & Loser Pays
Wall Street Journal Letters, April 30, 2015 University Presidents Brown and Clements complain of “loser pays” provisions in the proposed Innovation Act, directed at “patent trolls” and shifting legal fees to the losing party in patent litigation. The legislation could require a plaintiff bringing a patent action to file a bond to cover the other…
MonkfishOnCape 