Broback's Blog

In a stunning victory over the Republican incumbent House Majority Leader Eric Cantor, Economics professor(!) Dr. Dave Brat will face off against Sociology professor Democrat Dr. Jack Trammell in November. While the 7th district in Virginia certainly leans Republican, Brat may have a tough go of it. Why? The language problem. The language of sociology […]

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Note: This article refers to Professor Krugman, the economist and textbook author. Apparently there is a non-economist columnist with the same name. I apologize for the confusion. Four days ago, the LA Times posted an article with the headline: “VA investigation turns up widespread problems with wait times.” In the piece, the VA is quoted […]

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Did someone say “Days of Future Past”? The newest X-Men movie follows a story arc that I followed closely during the Reagan administration. Confident that this was an enduring story line that would stand apart as a classic, I started buying multiple issues way back when. See my three copies below. A 50 cent investment […]

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I was able to grab many of the posts surrounding the trip that I and a group of bloggers took on the USS Carl Vinson a few months back. Here they are. Analisa Farias (@analisafarias): Aboard the USS Carl Vinson Blogger Embark 2014 Bill Wohl (@billwohl61): The US Navy and Social Media / PR Best […]

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OK, a quick clarification — Virginia Postrel corrected me on this a few weeks back. Econ 101 is typically a Macro Econ class (or “Voodoo” as I like to call Macro…) It’s Econ 201 (Intro to Microeconomics) that really matters here. Flashback to Jan 6, 2014: “UAW sets up organizing committee at Tesla’s Fremont factory” […]

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In anticipation of our March 2014 Dent Conference, we made the drive from Seattle to Sun Valley Idaho. This year we had the luxury of being able to take our time and make lots of fun stops along the way. Also we were fortunate to be driving a shiny new Buick Enclave, which turned out […]

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Monopsony power (a supplier of labor who can set wage prices) is cited as a primary reason for labor price floor decrees, especially to justify minimum wage hikes or cartelization of workers. Monopsony provides a reasonable theoretical justification that effectively bypasses the issue of inefficiency (the theory gets to the “right” price) etc. The problem […]

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I’ve been meaning to write about this for a long time, and Alex Tabarrok’s post about the NPR piece: “Government’s Empty Buildings Are Costing Taxpayers Billions” has inspired me. Tabarrok says: The NPR article is excellent but it vastly underestimates the size of the problem. In addition to empty buildings, the Federal government owns/controls millions […]

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Tim Carney quotes NYT climate-change reporter, Coral Davenport who asserts: “The members know that serious climate change legislation stands no chance of passage in this divided Congress.” If the congress were not divided, what would happen? In 2009 the Democrats held the majority in the house and senate. Of course, they also held the presidency. […]

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For as long as I have been studying economics, economists have been proclaiming the act of voting is irrational. The conventional wisdom is that since the odds of your vote making a difference are essentially zero, it makes no sense to do it. But since people DO vote, many explanations have been proffered for for […]

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