Disqus - Latest Comments for KipEsquire

Re: Ron Paul: Good for “the Blacks”?

KipEsquire — Tue, 15 Jan 2008 17:11:05 -0000

The hypothetical President Paul would not end the War on Drugs -- only the federal War on Drugs.

RICO and the Coast Guard and block grants and such notwithstanding, the WonD consists mostly of state & local undertakings, and Paul, as a radical neoconfederalist, would as a matter of policy not interfere with such efforts. Indeed, there's no evidence to suggest that he wouldn't eagerly embrace them.

Re: David Brooks and the Infrastructure of Technocratic Control

KipEsquire — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 17:52:40 -0000

"if, say, more women spend more time in the kitchen, pregnant, rather than competing for social esteem on an equal footing with men, then the state is ready with its managerial tools to reshape our incentives"
Yup.

Re: The Laissez Faire Welfare State

KipEsquire — Fri, 22 Feb 2008 13:32:01 -0000

Iceland has (well, had) its own ongoing Marshall Plan throughout the NATO years. The Icelandic economy's dependence on (mostly U.S.) military personnel spending their money in Reykjavik was all-encompassing and supplemented only by tourism (which, unsurprisingly, Iceland is now pushing heavily as its strategic role wanes).

(A secondary effect of the NATO factor, incidentally, was that English became the de facto second language on the island -- EVERYONE in Iceland speaks absolutely fluent English. This too has ripple effects on economic growth, etc.)

Just as it is invalid to compare continental European (or Japanese) economic performance in the mid- to late 20th Century to that of the U.S. without adjusting for who was paying for whose defense for 50 years, so too is it invalid to analyze Iceland without adjusting for its symbiotic relationship with the NATO generally and the U.S. specifically, even if it is now winding down in post-Cold-War world.

Re: Choice Architecture and Paternalism

KipEsquire — Sun, 20 Apr 2008 18:43:08 -0000

Those underwhelmed by Sunstein & Thaler should also check out Mario Rizzo's latest anti-Nudged paper on SSRN, regarding the problem of soft paternalism and "slippery slopes."

Re: Middle East News Tidbits: Tom Rants

KipEsquire — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 07:32:19 -0000

"Dubai's royal family is 'furious' about US bigotry..."

But what about the Dubai people -- what do they think?

Oh, right, there are no elections of any kind in the UAE, so who cares...

Re: That at one Time and with one Voice, the good People may express the grateful Feelings of their Hearts: Tom Rants

KipEsquire — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 09:50:38 -0000

Our country was founded by men and women who realized their dependence on God and were humbled by His providence and grace.

Actually those men (how many of the women had a say in the matter?) were fleeing religious persecution, came here -- and promptly established the cruellest, most bloodthirsty theocracy the Western world has ever seen.

How praiseworthy of them.

Re: One wouldn't write a check, one wouldn't pick up his scalpel without it: Tom Rants

KipEsquire — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 07:22:15 -0000

Interesting how the fact that the girl was in a vegetative state "for some time" is being conveniently omitted from the more indignant commentaries. Perhaps CIGNA should have paid for a facelift for Terri Schiavo too.

Mouse's comment, meanwhile, is sophomoric. Insurance companies are, as you say, paid to live up to contracts, not to "provide coverage for these proceedures" [sic]. Pesky little difference, that.

Re: Gramm and the subprime crisis: Tom Rants

KipEsquire — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 20:54:11 -0000

"J.P.Morgan, a commercial bank, to buy out the condemned company. Under Glass-Steagall, that simply wouldn't have been an option."

You can take that a further step back and note that the company itself, JPMorganChase, would have been impossible under Glass-Steagall (JPMorgan was an investment bank; Chase was a commercial bank).

Re: Are Real Estate Agents Overpaid?

KipEsquire — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 09:27:07 -0000

The agents do have a natural barrier to entry with their proprietary listing services; that counts for something.

In any case, I fear that our beloved state attorneys general will soon pre-empt a market-based equilibrium from evolving by: (a) suing everybody, and (b) pushing for regulated price ceilings.

Re: Liberal Values and Mandates

KipEsquire — Tue, 14 Mar 2006 09:03:58 -0000

"Why force Catholic Charities' contributors and employees to choose between adherence to their creed and their wish to facilitate adoptions?"

Actually, just about everyone even remotely associated with CathChar is opposed to the request for an exemption to exclude gays, including the board of trustees, which voted, 42-0 I think, not to pursue the exemption.

It's the bishops -- and only the bishops -- who are pressing the issue.

Oh, and the presidential candidate. Go figure.

Re: The New Market Failure

KipEsquire — Thu, 14 Sep 2006 08:48:56 -0000

As a political aside, the recently enacted Pension Protection Act of 2006 specifically authorizes employers to switch from opt-in to opt-out 401(k) enrollment.

This is about as de minimis an example of paternalism as one can conceive. By contrast, mandatory 401(k) participation, without an opt-out, would be a far more disconcerting development.