Economic Policy and God

Ok, so those who know me know I am a Christian. Be that as it may, only recently have I started considering the reality that a sound economic structure can only be built with a strong moral foundation. Now don't get me wrong, I very strongly believe in the importance of morality in life, and in the absolute vitality of that morality being rooted in God's word, but while I have understood the "rightness" of various facets of economic thought (individual freedoms, property, self-determination, etc...) I had never really thought of economic thought as a whole in light of morality. Steve Landsburg, in his book "The Armchair Economist" addresses the idea that we can create all the positive (i.e. analytical) economic theories we want, but without a normative theory to instruct us as to the desirability of that result, all our positive theories are worthless. Without a moral foundation for what we do, economists are left merely saying "so we can get to any result a through z, but which one is best?" This particularly applies to macroeconomics.

Currently one of the faculty here at GMU is working on the economics of religion, using economic analysis to examine religious behavior, but I wonder what would happen if we used religious thought to analyze economics???

Some late-night thoughts.

Ok, so it’s pretty obvious that I’m not writing about social security tonight. In fact, I’m not writing about much of anything. Just wanted to write about an idea that is floating around in my head these days. See, last week I went to a presentation about theories of slippery slopes. This got me thinking – “how can we determine the direction the slope will take? More importantly, how can we influence that direction?” I think this will tie in closely with the Overton Window Theory of political possibilities. Could be some very interesting possibilities in this…. Just think, if you could determine the direction a “slippery slope” would take public policy, you would know the proper time to give the governmental structure a little push to achieve your desired result – using the gravity of the slope. Even more powerful, what if the very direction/angle of the slope could be manipulated?

The war is over people!

Ok, so I'm really tired of hearing people who are smart enough and informed enough to know better talk about the "war in Iraq" as if we are still actually fighting a war. Yes, we still call it a "war", but if it still truly is such... well, it's about the strangest war the earth has ever seen.
1)Both the governmental system and the military we set out to defeat have completely ceased to exist.
2)Iraqi support for international terrorist organizations has been removed - in fact, those same organizations are send men and material to Iraq.
3)What conflict there still is in Iraq is between the US military and Iraqi police on one side, and the various groups that have lost the tyrannical power they once held and foreign Islamic fighters on the other. That does not qualify as a war.
4)In war you either invade, prepare to invade, or defend you or an ally from invasion. This last is closest to what is actually the case. Let us not forget that our military is there with the invitation of the legitimate Iraqi government, which has publicly stated that they do not want our men and women in uniform to leave Iraq yet.
5)This is NOT Vietnam. In Vietnam the military was used to create leverage, but not too much leverage, for the politicians. Result; a frustrated military that was not allowed to use wise strategy and tactics to actually win the conflict. Our military was operating among a population that was indifferent or hostile and was unable to destroy enemy bases of support. None of this is the case in Iraq.
6)"All that money the President is wasting/spending in Iraq"... Guess what, a large portion of that money is coming from other military budgets. The Air Force is under tremendous pressure to make further cuts in the F/A-22 Raptor procurement. I talked to a submariner last night, and he says that when his boat return to harbor, others going out on patrol swipe all of their spare (and not-so-spare) parts because they can't get their own.
7)Exit strategy. We have one. Leave when the Iraqi police is able to handle violence as it occurs. Every day they become more capable and competent, every day the Muslim (yes they are) guerrillas become weaker.

'nough 'bout that for now. Rant on Social Security reform probably coming tomorrow.

Back in the swing of things - in more ways than one!

Oh what a time! Last night I decided to change my normal swing-dancing routine. So, instead of Glenn Echo tonight, I hit the Kennedy Center (Blue Sky 5 was playing) and the Chevy Chase Ballroom (NightHawks). Both were loads of fun, for different reasons. At the Ken Cen I was thrown in with a completely new group of dancers, some really good and some just about my skill, and we were dancing on the red carpet between the stage and the audience. Fun fun fun. Blue Sky 5 was a lot of fun, playing mostly classic jazz/swing tunes. Though I didn't know any of the people there, I still had fun dancing and met several follows (women) that I would enjoy dancing with again. In fact, at the Ken Cen website you can see a video of the performance, and us/me dancing! I show up best in the two songs starting about 56 minutes into the thing. Your link to the Ken Cen site. Click on the video from Feb 4, 2005.

At Chevy Chase I arrived early, and for a while was kinda worried that I was not going to have fun because the only people there/arriving were rather older than I and married. So I wasn't real confident in what the atmosphere would be like or in the prospects of dance partners. Turns out I needn't have worried. As 9 o'clock rolled around more people started showing up. I had a fabulous time dancing with a wide range of partners, some really good, some not so good. Some about my age, some a good deal older. Oddly enough (perhaps not) two of the best three follow I danced with the whole night were probably in their 50s - but my did they follow well! The band was a lot of fun - at least for me. Through the evening I heard a couple of people griping about the band, but I found their style of rock/blues/swing to be a whole lot of fun to dance to.

So I got home late, exhausted, and slept for a long time. Woke up today to absolutely beautiful weather! Like, I'm talking near sixty degree temperatures and a clear, sunny, sky.

Economics - oh yes, that's why I here, right? Things are actually going very well. My classes are hard, with me already having spent more than 8 hours on one homework assignment, but that just makes things exciting. We have had a couple of casualties from the program, but not as many as I expected. One was a friend of mine though...

I attended an interesting lecture last Thursday about the 'slippery slope' phenomenon, leaving with a great wonder about how one (anyone) can determine the "direction of fall" in policy, and even more so, how that natural slope can be influenced - even changed. This I must ponder at length.

Wonders of the library.

No, the subject line isn't sarcasm at all. This is a brief post written at the library computer instead of the longer post I wrote at home because the wireless network at the library is malfunctioning for the second day in a row. Since I have been home, of the probably 8 times I have come to use the library's network, it has been unavailable three of those days. Ok, I'm done griping.

This morning I was sitting in the dentist's chair (don't ask), and I suddenly thought how wonderful a market economy is to continually provide the necessary incentives for all the 'stuff' the dentist used on me to be developed. Dr. Bill and I briefly talked about the developmental history of dental drills, and there were satisfactory systems used long before the current high-speed pneumatic drills - which are quite satisfactory themselves. My dentist went on to explain how there is a new breed of drill hitting the market, improving on the current standard yet again. In a planned economy, does anyone truthfully think that innovation would continue after something was judged to be "highly satisfactory?" I didn't think so.

Random thought for the day... I have heard unconfirmed whispers about the Chinese military intending to forgo their historical emphasis on quantity in an attempt to focus on quality. My question is not just "can they do it?", but also " what economic effect will this reduction in the size of the PRC armed forces have?". Guess I have to add this subject to my list of defense/economics topics I want to research during the last few days of my inter-semester break.

One more thought for now. Read Zacheriah chapter 8. Pay special attention to the last verse. Isn't that cool?

It's writin' time!

One paper down, one to go. The math-econ paper I turned in last night took over 4 hours of work per page on average. Macro-econ is not so hard, just I hadn't worked on it between last weekend and late last night because of the math paper. So just a couple more hours on macro, and the game should be finished.

One thing I have truly been surprised at this semester is how graduate (PhD) work/study is not just harder than undgrad work/study, but fundamentally different. I have been pleasently surprised that just being in this atmosphere (or something) caused me to approach both of my papers in a different way - somehow more serious, as if either of these could lead to future pieces of sholarship.

My younger brother is in the midst of his first college finals week right now. Boy do I remember. Compared to how "on the ball" I felt my sophomore year, freshman year (esp. finals time) seemed like I was a walking zombie or something like that. Glad that's over, but remembering my experiences in undergrad made me wonder if the same sort of thing will happen here. Will be interesting to see.

Gonna got write...

HoooooooAHH!!!!

I DID IT! After working on it all morning, wrapping my brain into endless pretzel-shaped knots, I finally discovered how to work a constraint into my Math-Econ paper! It was so simple, and yes, following the general advice from my professor helped. I simply had to combine Men and Technology into one catagory, re-term a few other things, an voila! Of course the paper isn't done yet, but now I feel like I can actually do some math on how a military officer maximizes utility.

Hmmmm... Emergence...

Working on a paper right now for my Macro-Economics Theory class. Dr. Wagner wants us to explore some area that has traditionally been viewed as a straightforward interaction between marco-economic variable, but that we believe should be explored from a perspective of emergent macro theory. What is emergent theory? Well, in a nutshell, it is a fairly new and small school of thought that proposes that all macro variables (aggregate demand, inflation, money supply, etc...) interact with each other through a series of micro-economic market processes.

My paper? I'm exploring the micro-economics of how government military spending impacts aggregate demand. Any of you who know me had better not be surprised.