1.  “If we set up no smoking sections on airlines, then eventually you won’t be able to smoke at all on airlines.  Then they’ll ban smoking in restaurants, then bars, then offices, then spaces outside offices, then hotel rooms and apartment complexes.  Then they’ll start going after sugary drinks.” “Don’t be ridiculous.” 2.  “If we […]

Bob Murphy (AKA Inspector Javert) is taking time off from his search for Krugman Kontradictions, to look for some over at this blog.  Here’s one example: In any event, Scott used to lecture people when they thought about central bank policy in terms of interest rates. Nowadays, all Scott talks about is how it would […]

I frequently argue that public opinion polls on complex policy issues are almost meaningless.  (Although polls can be useful for predicting election outcomes.)  It all depends on the framing.  Here’s another study that reached the same conclusion: We presented respondents with two different education plans, the details of which are unimportant in this context. What is […]

Some civil liberties types are whining about this issue: It isn’t illegal to withdraw money from the bank, nor to compensate someone in recognition of past harms, nor to be the victim of a blackmail scheme. So why should it be a crime to hide those actions from the U.S. government? The alarming aspect of […]

Poor Dennis Hastert.  He picked the wrong country to get born into. 1.  He picked a Puritan state in a Puritan country with a higher age of consent than any European country, save Ireland, Cyprus and Turkey. 2.  He picked a country where (according to Politico) the GOP cares so little for the lives of […]