Happy Halloween

3 days and counting

Greg Mankiw posted an invitation for any economist to defend Barak Obama's position on "ethanol subsidies, tariffs on Chinese goods, the Byrd amendment, etc." three days ago. Considering over 17,000 people visit his site daily (not counting all of the economist who have it in their RSS feeds) it is strange no one has jumped at the opportunity. Which begs the question: Why are so many Economist supporting Barack when they can't defend his positions?

Nov 4th...a little early.

Once a year we all participate in what is the most heavily contested, corrupted, and costly event of the year. No, not the Superbowl. I am of course referring to our yearly elections, and with the president on the ballot this year it is shaping up to be the most expensive event of the century. In the past year I have seen approximately 25 debates, read over 500 articles, and watched millions of dollars in commercials all aimed at influencing my decision once inside the voting booth November 4th. But it will all be in vain because what Barack Obama doesn't know is I decided to vote early.
It was a mater of a seconds after stepping into my local library before I was staring at the screen reading my four options for the office of President of United States of America. Briefly I thought about Barack Obama and the National Bank/Hospital/Auto Manufacturer he would shortly be creating. I thought about John McCain and the insurance I had that, although he didn't understand the economy during a time when banks around the world are failing, I could count on him to set preconditions before having lunch with anyone. I briefly hovered over the name of Bob Barr, the libertarian, who, surprisingly, left me disappointed. Then I saw something that really caught my eye "write in". The possibilities were suddenly endless as to who I could chose. Ron Paul, Thomas Sowell, Bobby Jindal, even Greg Mankiw began battling for my vote inside my mind. The highfalutin speeches ceased their insidious plans to obfuscate past mistakes or intimations of future ones. Leaving behind the lucid and concise arguments of the venerable candidates who now presented themselves. This was my opportunity to determine the future of our country. This was the root from which democracy has flourished, the right to vote. And with the world entering into what appears to be one of the largest financial crisis in history I knew this decision was not to be taken lightly. The radio announcers voice I had heard only moments early rang back through my ears proclaiming "This is the most important decision Americans have faced in their life time". My decision was clear, there was only one person I could count on in such dire circumstances. As usual the rest of the country will not see the wisdom of my vote for years to come. In time, I am hopeful, they will understand why during 'the most important decision of my life" I decided to vote for, Merrill K. Gee.

And the Winner is...

Not only did Dr. Mankiw's brilliant text book create a penchant for economics in my soul. His blog has become a main staple of my diet. Each article he has written for the NY Times has been a breath of fresh air and a source of true enlightenment. And although I don't always agree with his intimations, he has given me the vast majority of what I know about economics.
Congratulations Greg, you are this years winner of the UtiliGEE Prize in Economics!

Will the real tax payers step forward.

Today, Catherine Rampell pointed out most American's don't need to worry about paying for the bailouts since they aren't even paying their taxes. However after promising Obama, in my concession speach, to keep him posted on his flaws and weaknesses it is my duty to poinnt out this one. Although it may appear McCain and Obama are going to give more tax breaks to the poor to than anyone in history. This, is nothing more than a rouse. Sure, it looks great on paper. A modern day robin hood helping the poor and taxing the rich. But just like tax brakes "trickle down" so do taxes. Every property tax hike pinches the renters pocket just like it does the land loards. The luxury tax on that yacht effects "Joe-the-yacht-salesman" more than it does "Phillpe-the-yacht-owner". So to all of you who will be lining up for your free lunch when Obama gets sworn in, just remember the sandwich is not included.

UtiliGEE prize in Economics

Every Monday and Friday I grit my teeth, go to nytimes.com, and read Paul Krugman's acerbic Op-ed piece. The first time I read his column I asked myself "Who hired this loony?". I nearly lost faith in the Economic profession once I found out he was once a professor at Princeton (how could an economist writings be so visceral and his speeches so vapid). Having come directly out of BYU I was still under the impression all Economist were brilliant Libertarians striving pick up where Milton Friedman left off. Since reading Krugman's articles I have come to realize there are all sorts of highfalutin nut jobs studying Economics with crazy names like Austan who think every right thinking economist will support Keynesian models during financial turmoil. So hearing Paul had just become the second youngest person to take home the Nobel prize in Economics was a bit more than I could stomach. I mean seriously, I just gave my concession speech to Barack, why do you have to kick me while I'm down. In an effort to keep myself out of the fetal position I have decided to give out my own Economic Award--The UtiliGEE Prize in Economics--given yearly to an individual whose contributions in Economics have developed and improved my understanding of how people, business, and governments maximize Utility.
This year the nominees are:

Greg Mankiw
Thomas Sowell
Martin Feldstein
Walter Williams
Gary Becker
David Leonhardt
Tyler Cowen
Russell Roberts

Stay tuned for the announcement of the winner on October 23rd.

David's been reading my blog

David Brooks agrees with me that the pendulum is about to start swinging the other direction.

First, there will be the bailouts. Once upon a time, there were concerns about moral hazard. But resistance to corporate bailouts is gone. If Bear Stearns and A.I.G. can get bailouts, then so can car companies, airlines and other corporations with direct links to Main Street.

Like David, and I, said, we are about to see how big Big Government can be. But, on the bright side, by the time we get to 2016 everyone will be ready for Bobby Jindal to cut it back to size.

Uncle!

I said it. I give up. You win already. While we still have several weeks before election day, I have decided to spare you the anticipation and write my concession speech today. (No, I wasn't actually running for president, but I am doing this in behalf of John McCain, Bob Barr, Chuck Baldwin, Ralph Nader, and anyone else who may wake up Nov. 4th to find their name on the ballot).

I realize this campaign has been long hard and often ugly. I would like congratulate you, Barack Obama, on running a great campaign and beating the odds. You have brought together the masses. The world who has been harboring animosity against us the past 8 years, seems to be willing to let that sail, as they are already to welcome you with open arms. Your wife has said for the first time she is proud to be an American. I hope in the coming years many more people will add their voices to hers and become "proud Americans". Now many of us have been proud of this country since we were old enough to light a sparkler on the 4th of July. Hopefully we will, in time all learn to, be proud to call you our President.

Your going to step into office during the greatest financial crisis since the great depression. I am fully confident that you will be able to lead us out and on to better times. However I am also not completely naive, and realize you are fully capable of going Herbert Hoover on us. The day you set foot into office there will be knocks on your door trying to Nationalize all banks, then it will be the automobile industry, followed by the airlines. I will fill more comfortable if you are reading Free to Choose those days. You don't have it...come on over and borrow mine, believe me it will help.

Because honestly I don't expect much from you. I don't want your health care plan. I don't want a penny of social security. I won't need medicare, medicaid, or food stamps. You don't need to protect me from greedy CEO's on wall street. I don't need you to provide low interest rates for me to buy a house. I've been poor before and I'm sure I'll be poor again, don't worry about me, I'll be fine. The only thing I'm afraid of is losing my freedom. You and John have been arguing a lot about the possibility of going to war with Iran or Russia. I'm not as worried about Vladamir Putin or Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as I am about the enemies inside the gates. Remember the words of Mormon, at least I think it was Mormon (it doesn't really matter since you haven't read it anyways), to clean the inner vessel first. So I am here to wish you luck and success in what is shaping to be one of the most critical times in our history. I will be here supporting you and criticizing you the whole time. Just remember to watch out for the Kingsmen.

Adam Smith

As an Application Engineer I was often asked questions about subjects I didn't understand. When I told my co-workers I really had no idea what I was doing, they would always reply "you know a lot more than you think you do." And after realizing the people asking the questions had no clue either, I decided I would simply answer their questions the best I could. As long as I seemed confident in my answer they were happy--even if the answer was completely wrong. Sadly, I seemed to have extended this habit into my personal life. As my roommates will attest, I will answer any question, regardless if I know the answer or not. So although I am correct 99.9% of the time, they are always weary of anything I tell them. It wasn't until recently that I found someone as good at making up ridiculous and erroneous comments as I was. Fortunately I haven't made any of my blunders are national TV with the whole country watching. He is probably hoping that he just won't get any hard questions.