Marginal Utility

by Ken Houghton

At Dr. DeLong's place.

Volumes 5, 4 (includes Mark Thoma), 3, 2, and 1.

Labels: Brad DeLong, Mark Thoma, Politics, Tom Toles

by Ken Houghton

While Robert Barro fellates MSFT (though not Bill Gates) in the WSJ (h/t Mark Thoma via DeLong), saner heads note that arguing a Consumer Surplus requires making a positive contribution to the commonweal:

Over the last two months Microsoft and a cadre of high paid lobbyists have been working a full-court press in Albany in an attempt to bring about a serious weakening of New York State election law. This back door effort by private corporations to weaken public protections is about to bear fruit....

In an earlier blog I wrote about Microsoft's unwillingness to comply with New York State's escrow and review requirements. Now the software giant has gone a step further, not just saying “we won't comply with your law” but actively trying to change state law to serve their corporate interests. Microsoft's attorneys drafted an amendment which would add a paragraph to Section 1-104 of NYS Election Law defining “election-dedicated voting system technology”. Microsoft’s proposed change to state law would effectively render our current requirements for escrow and the ability for independent review of source code in the event of disputes completely meaningless - and with it the protections the public fought so hard for.

But there's a lot of productivity created by the Blue Screen of Death Crew, so what's a few votes?

Labels: Brad DeLong, Economists View, Mark Thoma, MSFT, programming, WSJ

by Ken Houghton

We have Toles on 26 February.



We have Thoma, with the full articles here (11 Feb) and here (20 Feb). Excerpts:

I would be very pleased to find out that growing inequality is not a problem. However, despite the attempts of Alan Reynolds and a few others to argue otherwise, the preponderance of evidence and of professional opinion clearly indicates that inequality has been rising since 1988, and that the trend toward widening inequality has been present for much longer than that. The question is what, if anything, to do about it. If we can get past the attempts to cloud the issue, perhaps we can proceed to more important discussions. [11 Feb]

There is a role for skeptics, but there is also a time to accept that the preponderance of evidence points in one direction and to begin to think about and implement corrective measures. I believe an important question is how we respond to inequality – will it be through progressive taxation, minimum wage legislation, changes in the structure of health care, investments in education and retraining programs, wage insurance and so on, or will we do nothing? [20 Feb]

I report. You decide.

Labels: Economics, Economists View, Income Inequality, Mark Thoma, Tax Incentives, Tom Toles