Loans are not soybeans. Keep that in mind when digesting news of a much ballyhooed “credit crunch.” Market forces of supply and demand drive household and business lending, but not in the simple way introductory econ students learn. Soybeans are…
Safety first…but check the budget
Safety is never an absolute. It is not a binary, yes/no variable. It is, rather, a long continuous scale with a whole range of degrees of relative safety. It is evident from discussions about last week’s Interstate 35W bridge collapse…
Higher mileage standards aren’t enough
How will higher mileage standards for passenger vehicles move more freight by rail instead of truck? How do they cause farmers, miners or contractors to use less diesel fuel? The answer is that they won’t. That is why such standards…
Disaster aid, and where it ends, is never simple
Most people support government aid to victims of natural disasters like Hurricane Katrina or the San Francisco earthquake. Most people don’t think such aid is warranted when hail knocks out windows or trees fall on a few roofs. Drawing the…