Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

Is This The Last New Year’s Eve Of Uber Surge Pricing

Timothy B. Lee offers several defenses of surge pricing by Uber and Lyft, including this. It might seem like an obvious point, but it’s often overlooked by people who complain about surge pricing. Surge pricing gives drivers an incentive to spend more time on the road than they otherwise would. It encourages them to re-arrange […]

A Different View On Oil Prices

Sober Look presents a different take on the effect of lower oil prices on US oil production than I did in my post yesterday. They quote Scotiabank suggesting that the Bakken and Permian Basin fields are producing below break even based on current prices, while Eagle Ford is still in the black. They posit slowing […]

Ebola Mindlessness

This has to go down as one of those “what were they thinking moments” The “purpose” of the memo states: “Come to an agreed State Department position on the extent to which non-U.S. citizens will be admitted to the United States for treatment of Ebola Virus Disease.” The document goes on to discuss – and […]

Surprise! Mortgage Standards Being Lowered

As you no doubt know, various government agencies have moved the ball pretty far down the field with respect to loosening down-payment requirements for loans from Fannie and Freddie. The return of the 3% down mortgage seems to be pretty much assured. Arnold Kling offered this with respect to a Calculated Risk post on the […]

How Long Do You Want To Live

How long do you expect to live? How hard are you going to work to extend your life span? Have you even thought about the subject? Well Ezekiel Emanuel has and he offers his conclusions in this Atlantic article. Seventy-five. That’s how long I want to live: 75 years. …But here is a simple truth […]

The NFL’s Real Problem

The eventual demise of the NFL isn’t going to come as the result of players abusing women, getting busted for drug possession, endangering children or any other desultory offense; it’s going to come as the result of this: The National Football League, which for years disputed evidence that its players had a high rate of […]

Why Airport Screening Is A Snap

The next time you’re in line just let this little video make your wait a bit more comfortable.