Peter Gordon's Blog

The July employment report arrives on Friday and these things often move markets. They also move policy makers. Then there is all of the s...

Both houses of Congress have now passed and agreed on an Energy Bill and a Transportation Bill. In both cases, mega-bucks go to large number...

Now that Amazon's quarterly earning's report came in better than expected, some of the worriers can relax. The WSJ's "Ahea...

In a previous post, I noted that the top-75 U.S. cities' share of the total population peaked in 1940. This makes sense because people ...

International ties via voluntary commercial contracts evoke a warm glow in some of us. What can get in the way? Many things: distance, trade...

Irshad Manji writes "Is Islam to blame?" and chastises "moderate Muslim leaders" who have been silent through the carna...

Interesting discussion re mercenaries for the U.S. military at Marginal Revolution . Alex Tabarrok asks if U.S. business can do well outsou...

The Economist features "Survey of America: Degrees of Separation" in the July 16 issue. One of the topics taken up is the Bowli...

In 1963, Mel Webber published "Order and Diversity: Community without Propinquity." In this and related papers, he noted: "Th...

The morning after 9/11, I was at a meeting where no one really knew what to say. One learned man asserted that we will now embark on massiv...

Competition is a very good thing, in everyday markets as well as in political markets. The insights of public choice economics are clear onc...

From Forbes (July 25, 2006): "Don't Invest After Sex ... Investors exposed to oxytocin, a hormone commonly released during childb...

The segment of I-405 near my home is being worked on (at great cost) so that a diamond lane can be added. Why? "Carpooling good!" ...

In 1970 (and practically in another galaxy), the grad students that I knew were grappling with Burmeister and Dobell's Mathematical Theo...

I suppose that one must put up with public discourse that does not acknowledge trade-offs. How about forbearance for the discovery of big-t...

LA's new Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa is now in office and the LA Times reports that "Promises, Promises Could Cost LA Millions, Bil...

Here is an interesting take on Kelo (from Instapundit ): the decision is so bad that it will eventually have huge repercussions, including a...

Richard Epstein's analysis of Kelo vs. City of New London (today's WSJ) is not to be missed -- and repeated below. Jane Jacobs famou...

Some rightly worry that a government that cannot fix potholes is unlikely to fix the world. Others, such as Michael Ignatieff (in today'...

Everybody knows it but it can still hit you like a ton of bricks (just about literally). It's the volume of junk mail, especially what...