I got to thinking the other day, as I so often do, after seeing somebody toss off a joke on Twitter. The gag is an asset manager being told by a prospective client, "I need real, net of fee returns of 8%, so I don’t think you are a fit." The asset manager drily replies in .gif form, "Correct." My immediate response was not to the "realistic" or "unrealistic" element of an 8% … [Read more...] about The more unrealistic your goals are, the more of them you need
rant
Means-testing and Appalachian roots
In October, 2017, the Washington Post published a very strange series of articles about the recipients of disability benefits in the United States. The entire series is worth reading for various reasons, but I want to direct your attention to one particular entry: After the check is gone. The principal character in the article, Donna Jean Dempsey, collects aluminum cans … [Read more...] about Means-testing and Appalachian roots
Learning to love Baumol’s cost disease
Baumol's cost disease is one of the simplest ideas in economic theory, but I experience it as a kind of brain worm: once you know about it, you see evidence of it virtually everywhere. You can read the Wikipedia page as well as I can, but this is how I think about Baumol's cost disease: If productivity is increasing economy-wide, labor costs have to rise in sectors where … [Read more...] about Learning to love Baumol’s cost disease
Why have capitalists lost faith in capitalism?
I've been following with interest the evolving crisis over the United Kingdom's exit from the European Union, not because it affects me in any way but because it's less depressing than the American political system which I still have to rely on for my health insurance, retirement security, food safety, and environmental hygiene. However, the Brexit crisis has led me to … [Read more...] about Why have capitalists lost faith in capitalism?
Human Genetic Engineering Can’t Work
At least not the way you want it to. I've been thinking a lot lately about two related stories that recently crossed my desk. In one, our top Chinese scientists are apparently genetically engineering babies "with the goal of making the babies resistant to infection with H.I.V." The second is simply headlined, "Deformities Alarm Scientists Racing to Rewrite Animal … [Read more...] about Human Genetic Engineering Can’t Work