• Does Austrian economics understand financial crises better than other schools of thought? But… ack! Austrian economics: School of economic thought originating in Austria in the late nineteenth century which focuses on the concept of opportunity cost.
  • How to teach math? Lockhart’s lament versus Cliff Mass.
  • My Boss, Justice Stevens:

    ONE of Justice Stevens’s trademarks is the courteousness with which he treats the lawyers who appear before the Supreme Court. When he wants to elicit information or make a point during oral argument, he typically interrupts the lawyer with the gentle preface, “May I ask you a question?”

    During William Rehnquist’s tenure as chief justice, a lawyer was arguing in the court for the first time. When asked a question by Justice Anthony Kennedy, the nervous lawyer started her response with, “Well, Judge — ”

    Chief Justice Rehnquist interrupted her. “That’s Justice Kennedy,” he said.

    Shaken, the lawyer continued. A few minutes later, she responded to Justice David Souter by saying, “Yes, Judge.” Chief Justice Rehnquist corrected her again: “That’s Justice Souter.” A couple of minutes later, she called Chief Justice Rehnquist himself a judge.

    The chief justice leaned forward, his deep voice now at its sternest, to say, “Counsel is admonished that this court is composed of justices, not judges.”

    Before the lawyer could say anything, Justice Stevens interjected: “It’s O.K., Counsel. The Constitution makes the same mistake.”

    — JEFFREY L. FISHER, associate professor at Stanford Law School and clerk from 1998 to 1999

  • More on BC’s Carbon Tax Shift: This policy is the purest instance of a tax shift that I’ve ever seen. It’s an exceptionally faithful implementation of tax shifting—a policy innovation Sightline has been promoting since 1994 and especially since our 1998 book. (A small brag: Gordon Campbell read the book that year and told me he was going to shift taxes in his second term as premier. I didn’t hold my breath, but now he has delivered.)
  • Mangia, Mangia! How to eat in Italy.
  • Working Financial Literacy in With the Three R’s
  • In Medicine, the Power of No
  • Recommended for the next time I’m in Nashville: The Nash Trash tour and the Doyle & Debbie Show.
  • Fuel Leak Threatening Great Barrier Reef. All of our environmental idiocy in one place: “The ship, which was nine miles outside its authorized shipping lane, was hauling 72,000 tons of coal.”
  • David Frum, A Buckley For Our Time: “Frum is on a mission to penetrate Fox World with a message from reality.”