Christopher Westley Archive

America's Jobs Disaster

October 26, 2009 8:20 AM by Christopher Westley

A healthy recovery this year, and even more a healthy economy in the future, cannot be measured simply on the basis of jobs figures, because not all jobs produce wealth. FULL ARTICLE

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An Anti-Bono Backlash?

October 10, 2009 11:56 AM by Christopher Westley

Quentin Letts on a "scruffy little man" who cheerleads for the forced redistribution of "our hard-earned cash to distant dictatorships." Peter Bauer would agree.

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Something to Chew On

September 4, 2009 3:11 PM by Christopher Westley

I'm no Crunchy Con, but I confess to being sympathetic to the organic food movement in the United States. Although I do not always buy organic, I am glad that the market caters to the segment of the population that does. Locally-grown and otherwise farm fresh meat, vegetables, milk, and eggs often taste better and are healthier than the output of the mega-farm operations in other parts of the country, although you pay a premium for them.

Friends of ours--farmers from outside of Birmingham--often complain to me about USDA regulations that favor their big-farm competition and force naturally grown and organic foods to become relatively more expensive, and I agree with them that the output from mega-farms is greater than it would be without government interference. Nonetheless, I am sure that, absent the USDA, we would still have a preponderance of large farm operations. By creating economies of scale and maximizing output, these operations have made food so inexpensive that we have moved from being a society that 30 years ago was concerned with hunger to one today that is concerned about obesity. This shift is welcomed. It is nothing short of miraculous.

But there are activists who would snuff it out if they could, and who would use the state to require locally-grown and organic food as the only food option. People like Boston University's Ellen Ruppel Shell are shocked--shocked!--that the poor pay less for food than they did in decades past, and would force them to pay more, even in serious economic times such as these. Indeed, they condemn any effort on the part of the market, not only in the area of food production, to exploit economies of scale and mass production techniques in ways that help the poor. Economic output with lower costs and higher quantities? How dare they!

Thankfully, Charlotte Allen has an eye on the situation, and in a recent article in the Los Angeles Times, she delightfully skewers such efforts. An excerpt:

Continue reading "Something to Chew On" »

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Putting a Labor Leader in Charge of the Money Supply...
2009.08.25 | Comments (8)

"No One Saw This Coming": Understanding Financial Crisis Through Accounting Models
2009.07.13 | Comments (7)

"The Financial Crisis and the Systemic Failure of the Economics Profession"
2009.07.08 | Comments (21)

Meanwhile, in Australia...
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This Craziness Will End
2009.06.02 | Comments (32)

Obama on Illusory Wealth
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Is Sully Too Old to Fly?
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Savings Is Not Just a Good Thing
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Buy a House, Receive Citizenship
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Following the Money
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