ParisTampaBlog

In a recent article in Bloomberg Businessweek Andy Grove says that the way to make American jobs is not start-ups, as Times op-ed writer Friedman would have it, but tariffs! This is how he puts it, “Levy an extra tax on the product of offshored labor. (If the result is a trade war, treat it [...]

I voted for President Obama. At the time probably because of what I saw as his reasonable stance on most things, in particular for what he wrote in the two autobiographical works published well before the presidential campaign, and for the many thoughtful and persuasive talks and speeches he has give during the recent past, [...]

Mostly he didn’t need to. He knew then that Harvard was only getting in the way of his learning. Much as the public school gets in the way of kids learning.  And they drop out. How many of you ever think of the fact that our public school system is just one huge entitlement paid [...]

The subject of President Obama’s most recent address was immigration. The Times in an editorial about this speech had two things to say, two things that I might have said myself, and almost with the same words. Although I don’t always agree with the Times editorial positions in this case I did. Two things, one, [...]

Just as the French last week the Greeks are striking, and definitely not for the first time. The reasons of course are mostly the same as before, in this case the proposed austerity measures of the government, a draft law that would raise the retirement age, reduce monthly payments to pensioners, and facilitate layoffs. Louisa [...]

Arnold Kling on his blog Econ Log writes: “There seems to be more awareness now of what I call the two weeds that have grown in Progressive soil: entitlement spending; and compensation of unionized public sector workers. Greece seems to be an object lesson in what can happen if these weeds are left untrimmed for [...]

Here I give you a few bits of wisdom concerning child rearing from a Saturday Essay, The Breeders’ Cup, in the Wall Street Journal of June 19th. “If you enjoy reading with your children, wonderful. But if you skip the nightly book, you’re not stunting their intelligence, ruining their chances for college or dooming them [...]

One has trouble, I have trouble understanding General McChrystal’s agreeing to be interviewed by the reporter for Rolling Stone Magazine. Why? Because the General is our President’s man in charge of the war in Afghanistan, now in its ninth year and without an end in sight. And the President’s man doesn’t do Rolling Stone interviews. [...]

Why did I never hear about this before now? What is it? According to Wickipedia “The Dunning–Kruger effect is a cognitive bias in which “people reach erroneous conclusions and make unfortunate choices but their incompetence robs them of the metacognitive ability to realize it.” “Metacognitive,” that’s knowing about knowing. People are not aware, all people, [...]

Last week BP’s embattled chief executive, Tony Hayward, was criticized for attending a yacht race (while, of course, his oil continued to gush into the Gulf waters). This week, in the picture below, we see President Obama at Ray’s Hell Burger in Arlington, Va.  enjoying a hamburger and fries with President Dmitri Medvedev of Russia. [...]