It seems to me that there are a lot of myths going around out there about Iraq’s oil. People on the right want to say that Iraq should use its own oil money to finance its own reconstruction and security, and even possibly to help defray the American costs of the war. People on the [...]

This weekend, the Iraqi people go to the polls to choose their leaders. Let us all hope and pray that the elections are safe and secure and that, by some miracle, the leadership they choose is both powerful enough to maintain order and control and generous enough not to use that power to suppress opposition. [...]

I’d like to touch briefly on a comment to Scott’s last post. The commentator states: “The obvious proxy for the cost prohibitive mechanism is outcomes. If people of different groups are able to achieve similar outcomes, we can rest assured that the doors are open. The problem is that the reverse logic doesn’t hold — [...]

First off, we all seem to agree that social mobility is a problem that needs to be addressed. Scott actually called me on something, so let me clarify on what I mean by “social mobility”. Scott asked the question is it better to live in a society where everyone is ok but social mobility is [...]

Man, I don’t even know where to start on this topic. Well, okay, I do, but it’s not a product of any original thought on my part. I should start by linking to two articles, one in the Economist (sub. req.) and an op/ed by David Brooks in the NYT/IHT. One or both of [...]

The Democratic Party is pretty down in the dumps lately. George Bush and the Republican Party have routinely beat them, despite fighting a war no one was really crazy about, fumbling an economic recession, and insisting on a fiscal policy that any right-minded economist in the country will tell you is a long-term recipe for [...]

I still believe the key here is social mobility - making sure that those who start on the bottom can rise if they so deserve. Take India. Income disparity there is, by all accounts, abysmal. But the real problem is that for a variety of cultural (caste system) and economic (poverty) reasons, social mobility is [...]

First off, some folks are always going to be richer than other folks, and I really have no problem with that, for many of the reasons Hiren states. But, capitalist systems have their flaws and I believe that one of the main jobs of government is to overcome flaws in the market place (i.e. overcoming [...]

The White House released its new budget numbers today, projecting a $400 billion deficit for next year. Nevertheless, the Bush Administration insists that it will be able to fulfill its campaign pledge to cut the budget deficit in half over the next five years. To quote from the New York Times: “The White House defended [...]

Income disparity and social mobility are two separate issues, which in no circumstances should be lumped together as if they are truly parallel concepts. Income disparity pertains to the relative distribution of wealth across the population in a given society. Social mobility relates to the ability of a lower income (I will use “income” for [...]