Clearing the Tabs May 31, 2026

Here are some things I've read so far this month or will be reading soon. A lot of people are staying at home looking for things to read, so I have broken this month into two parts again, expect a post on June 15. Also, just because I post something here does not mean I agree with it, it simply means it made me think and I think my readers might enjoy it.

For $15 in ride credit, download the Lyft app using my referral link.

It's the most affordable ride in town. Terms apply.

May 21, 2026

Learning from a Great Man: Bob Woodson, R.I.P.

Robert Woodson, RIP

May 22

An Ode to Little League

Bob Woodson Against the Grievance Machine
The Woodson Center founder believed America’s poor needed opportunity, responsibility, and hope — not permanent dependency and racial agitation.

The Bigger, Paradoxically Compassionate Meaning In Meta's Layoffs

May 25
The Architects of American Renewal
Our country still needs leaders who didn’t nurse grievances but chose the path of radical grace.

May 29
The Problem With Economics Is Macroeconomics

Clearing the Tabs August 31, 2023

Here are some things I've read so far this month or will be reading soon. A lot of people are staying at home looking for things to read, so I've broken this month into two parts again, expect a post on September 15. Also, just because I post something here does not mean I agree with it, it simply means it made me think and I think my readers might enjoy it.

For $15 in ride credit, download the Lyft app using my referral link.

It's the most affordable ride in town. Terms apply.

August 18

Adaptation Is The Answer

August 20
The death of the great American city
The flight of office workers to the hinterlands will have profound effects on society.

August 28
Absolutism In Climate Policies Is A Vice

August 29
Donald Trump (aka 'Tariff Man') Wants to Increase Your Taxes

August 30
The Bizarre Economics of 'Tax Expenditures'

Clearing the Tabs August 15, 2021

August 3

NYC’s new vaccine policy erases kids from public life

August 5
Proper Lockdown History Will Accentuate Left-Wing Disdain for Poor

August 7
Promoting Upward Mobility Is a Better Goal than Pushing Class Warfare in Hopes of Reducing Inequality

Comparing the world before 1900 to today

Taking Tax Breaks with a Grain of SALT
A Federalist Case for State and Local Deductions

August 8
Modern Economics: Mystical Academics Critiquing Mystical Academics

In South Dakota, the road signs lead to the Wall

Why G. K. Chesterton Liked America

August 10
Why I Am Not A Progressive
And Why, From Climate Change to Homelessness, Liberal People Are Giving Up

August 12

Mitch Daniels, risk-taker

The working poor need workhorse vehicles

Free Economics Course with John B. Taylor Offered Online

If you want to learn a little, or a lot, about economics, Stanford University and the Hoover Institution are offering us all a free opportunity to learn from one of the modern greats, John B. Taylor, creator of "The Taylor Rule." The course is free online and begins on July 1. You need to register. Link in tweet below:

Economics for Non-Economists. Ever wonder what drives our economy? My Stanford course Principles of Economics gives answers & is free online this summer. Register here https://t.co/5bZwlk24Hv, watch videos, take quizzes & earn Certificate of Accomplishment. Classes start July 1.

— John B. Taylor (@EconomicsOne) June 26, 2019

Clearing the Tabs 3-22-2019

Some things I've read this week or will be reading over the weekend.

March 17
The rise of free lunch economics and the growth of our national debt

If The University Admissions 'Scandal' Bothers You, So Does Human Nature

March 18
Understanding the Trade Deficit

March 19
Martin Wolf Isn't the Solution to 'Secular Stagnation,' He Is Secular Stagnation

Here is a guy in New Jersey who has stolen an ATM machine and he is trying to get it onto a city bus. Incredible.

Meanwhile In New Jersey...

pic.twitter.com/PRMkIKPtJR

— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) March 19, 2019 

March 20
New Academic Study: Payroll Tax Burdens Stifle Entrepreneurship

Clearing the Tabs 2-15-2019

Some things I've read this week or will be reading over the weekend.

February 9
Restoring the California Dream, not nailing its coffin

February 11
Own the Libs, or Let the Libs Own Us?

She’s No Alexander Hamilton

February 12
Five Reasons the Green New Deal Is Worse Than You Thought
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's Green New Deal isn't even serious about environmentalism, let alone economics.

February 13
This Train Won’t Leave the Station
If high-speed rail can’t make it in California, it can’t make it anywhere.

February 14
Arthur Brooks has begun season 2 of his outstanding podcast. Here is the first episode of the new season:

February 15
How the collapse of communities gave us Trump

Twilight of the Oligarchs?
Still capitalists at heart, tech titans cozied up to the progressive Left—until the contradictions became too obvious.
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This is a really interesting podcast interview by The Bulwark with Democratic Presidential candidate John Delaney. Delaney is a very cerebral, pragmatic thinker. I do not agree with him on much, but consider this: If Mr. Delaney's positions were the starting point, rather than the radical exception, for the Democrats, this would really improve both parties. I hope you will take some time and listen to this:

Barack Obama Still Getting Economics All Wrong

Barack Obama was off to a good start, in the sense that the answer was right in front of him. He "advocated for an "inclusive" market-based system." He's in luck, capitalism has been around for centuries. Nothing in the world has lifted more people out of poverty and cleaned our air and led to real human flourishing the way free-market capitalism has.

But then, Obama went further, "One, he said, that breaks up monopolies, encourages competition and maintains "some form" of progressive taxation." Oh no. Just when I had hope for him, he is still a redistributionist.

View this post on Instagram

In a speech on Tuesday, Former President Barack Obama advocated for an "inclusive" market-based system. One, he said, that breaks up monopolies, encourages competition and maintains "some form" of progressive taxation.

A post shared by Fox Business (@foxbusiness) on Jul 17, 2018 at 10:56am PDT

Correcting a Nobel Prize Winner

Richard Thaler won the Nobel Prize in Economics yesterday.

Earlier this year I was at Barnes & Noble and I happened to pick up the paperback edition of his 2015 work, Misbehaving: The Making of Behavioral Economics. I do not know if I ever formed an opinion of the book, it was a good read and the prose was nice and readable, but I just never knew what to make of the name-dropping and the semi-questionable methods he used at reaching conclusions. Scenarios such as "I have a college kid ten one dollar bills to see how much he would be willing to pay for a cup of coffee" are just too controlled for me. By the way, I made up that example, but it is not far off from the examples throughout the book. People like the book, so be it.

Anyway, while I was at it, as I always do, I point out errors in books, whether a library book or a book in a bookstore. Here are five errors that I caught. Further, I was surprised these errors did not get corrected after the hardback edition, for a book that sold so well. You're welcome.

p. 99 - "starting" should be "started"

p. 211 there needs to be an "a" in there

p. 232 "be" should be "been"

p. 314 "to issue" is only needed once

(lower right, pencil circle is thin and light)

p. 385 the year is wrong on that reference, it was written in 1985, not 1996

Former Professor of Mine Pens Editorial

I was about to leave San Antonio today after a long holiday visit. I flip to the editorial page of the San Antonio Express-News, and there before me an editorial by my "old" (maybe that should be "former") economics professor Cyril (Cy) Morong from my San Antonio College days. Aside from it just being kinda cool to see a former professor write in the newspaper, it also happens to be a good editorial.

Cy was a very interesting teacher, and I recall taking his class over a summer period, which means the class moved quickly, and many times did not lend itself to the thoughtful discussion that economics classes used to be about. We had a textbook for Cy's class, but we also had a supplemental reader, and I still own my copy and I still read it. In fact, the opening of the book will be featured as part of something else I am working on this year...more on that later.

Here is the editorial from this mornings paper: