Social distancing is giving us a lot of time to think. And except for keeping each other safe from this disease, what could be more useful than trying to learn from the pandemic for the future. This is not a commentary on the abject failure of the Federal government to deal with the pandemic in […]
If you have read Stirring the Pot blog very much (thank you), you will have noticed two persistent themes — inequality and the environment. Examples of bogs on inequality include: Class Warfare? Shame on Us The Crisis of Our Age: Part II Welfare Economics Among those on environmental issues are: When Did We Stop Worrying […]
The third post for Stirring the Pot in August 2015 was titled Class Warfare and dealt with the problem of inequality in the United States. It is an issue that I have returned to several times since. Inequality continues to erode the social fabric of this nation and the situation grows worse with each passing […]
Before last weekend, the last time I had spent any time on Maine’s Southern beaches was a field trip for a geology class in my first year of college (don’t ask the year). Professor Hussey used the trip to immerse us in the patterns of coastal geology. In early April we spent a couple of […]
Mailboxes are flooded with direct mail fliers. The roadsides are littered with plastic signs. We are admonished to Vote Yes On Question 1 on November 7. This is one of the clearest examples of rent seeking behavior I have ever seen. It is text book quality. Rent seeking occurs when an economic actor, in this […]
The pain and suffering of the residents of coastal Texas and Louisiana fill us all with feelings of empathy and concern for their future. Most of us can only imagine losing all of our physical possessions and having to start over again. Hurricane Harvey brought an unprecedented rainfall event in U.S. weather history. So the […]
Republicans in Congress failed to fulfill their promise to repeal the Affordable Care Act (ACA), called by them “Obamacare.” The fight over the fate of the ACA reflected a narrow ideological battle over health insurance in the United States. At issue were different world views on who should provide health insurance (private firms, public programs, […]
A few years ago I was visiting the museum of a local Maine historical society. When the docent discovered I worked as an economist, he immediately wanted to show me their collection of early currency that had circulated in the community. His assumption was that an economist would, of course, be interested in money. I […]
The trouble with taxes is that no one likes to pay them. We want the services of government (good roads, public schools, national defense, a functioning court system, etc.) but would rather that someone else pay for these things. Yet taxation is necessary in modern society. Taxes are needed to fund what economists call public […]
For some Mainers, the answer might be to stock up on Allen’s Coffee Brandy and buy a few lottery tickets. Others would pay off some credit card debt or put the money in the bank. Some might buy blankets and towels to give to the local humane society to better care for furry friends. A […]
