Daily Archives: September 22, 2008


Capitalism and Skepticism

Follow this link to the article by Christopher Carroll. Christopher Carroll is Professor of Economics at the Johns Hopkins University.

Richard H. provided the pointer to this article. He provided the following excerpts from the article:

Why does the economy perform so badly under Republican Presidents?

Maybe (…) capitalism works better when it is being held accountable to some external standard than when it is left to its own devices.

[T]he reigning Republican orthodoxy is a kind of smug pseudo-Friedmanism which believes that markets left to themselves can do no wrong; perhaps it is time for another breath of fresh air.

Of course,I find this article intriguing because it corroborates a number of things I have been saying and believing for some time.

Any system you can describe in words is just a model of the real world.  As such, there will necessarily be real world situations that are not covered by the model. You have to be able to adapt to these complexities that are not covered by your model.  You have to adapt faster than you can fix your model to explain the anomalies.

In my mind, this is one of the differences between science and engineering. In engineering, you have to make decisions even though you do not have all the information you would like to have. You try to build in margins of safety in order to protect yourself against Murphy’s Law. The believers in unfettered capitalism think that Murphy’s Law has been suspended like much of our Constitution.  Unfortunately, Murphy’s Law comes from a higher authority.


McCain’s Campaign Manager Lobbied For Fannie Mae

and Freddie Mac.

Follow this link to the New York Times article that gives some details of the $2 Million salary that was paid to Rick Davis because he had influence with John McCain.

I have frequently noted that Republicans know what damaging charges to make against their opponents because it is frequently something that the accuser has done.  This shows that they know the difference between right and wrong when they do wrong.  That is exactly how they know that the accusation, if true, would have been damaging.  When will they learn that making such charges just gets people to investigate if the charge is something they, themselves, have done?