Category Archives: Economics

Business, Economics, Mathematics, Social Commentary

Non-Intuitive

23 Comments

A few years ago, on a Delta flight, I noticed that the airline was boarding people in the middle first. I asked the flight attendant about it, and he said that studies had shown that it was faster than back to front, which surprised me, because the latter had always been conventional wisdom and industry practice. Now, American claims that, based on simulations, random boarding is better yet. I’d be interested to see a plausible explanation for this, if true.

Business, Economics, Political Commentary

It’s A Feature, Not A Bug

2 Comments

…Steny:

House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D.-Md.) said on the House floor last night that if the balanced budget amendment Republicans are supporting is ratified and included in the Constitution it would make it “virtually impossible” to raise taxes.

Gee, wouldn’t that be awful? Does he really think this helps his case?

There are actually a lot of problems with the BBA, but this isn’t one of them.

Economics, Education, Media Criticism, Political Commentary

The Academic Bubble

4 Comments

Is it about to burst? Given the degree to which it’s been driven by government money, and the coming fiscal meltdown, I’d say so.

…consumers seem to be reading the cues in the marketplace.

An increasing number of students are spending their first two years after high school in low-cost community colleges and then transferring to four-year schools.

A recent Wall Street Journal story reported that out-of-staters are flocking to low-tuition North Dakota State in frigid Fargo.

I went to community college my first two years before transferring to Ann Arbor, where I picked up all the basics for engineering — calculus, physics, chemistry, etc. I’m convinced that I got both a cheaper and better education there than those who were freshman and sophomores at Michigan, based on their descriptions of their classes (giant lecture halls taught by grad students for whom English was a second language). But I missed out on a couple years of the “college experience.”

[Update early evening]

The bubble will pop this decade, and here’s one reason why.

[Bumped]

Business, Economics, Media Criticism, Political Commentary, Space

More Denigration Of American Entrepreneurs And Industry

26 Comments

…by so-called conservatives:

Let’s look at what the Obama budget proposes. It ends our manned moon and space exploration, but it proposes a total NASA spending increase by $1 billion. So NASA won’t be totally out of business. His FY2011 budget proposed $19 billion, with emphasis on science, not on manned space flight. He wants to end NASA’s manned space flight program and rent space on Russian spacecraft. He wants to turn space transportation over to private, commercial companies, such as Space X, United Launch Alliance, Boeing, Sierra Nevada, Bigelow Aerospace and others. There is only one problem with privatization with space flight – it does not work. Space X is where NASA was in 1960 with Project Mercury. The ability to put humans into orbit exists only on paper.

Really? The Falcon 9, which has had two successful flights with no failures, and the Dragon capsule, which flew into orbit and returned safely last year, “exists only on paper”? And a capsule that can carry seven crew is “where NASA was in 1960 with Project Mercury,” which could only carry a single person? Really?

Whence comes this compulsion from many supposed anti-government and free-market types to deliberately slander private industry? Do they really hate Barack Obama that much?

Business, Economics, Political Commentary

The Administration’s War On Business

3 Comments

The head of Home Depot calls them out on it:

IBD: If you could sit down with Obama and talk to him about job creation, what would you say?

Marcus: I’m not sure Obama would understand anything that I’d say, because he’s never really worked a day outside the political or legal area. He doesn’t know how to make a payroll, he doesn’t understand the problems businesses face. I would try to explain that the plight of the businessman is very reactive to Washington. As Washington piles on regulations and mandates, the impact is tremendous. I don’t think he’s a bad guy. I just think he has no knowledge of this.

He’s being too generous. There’s little evidence that he’s a good guy.