Scot Wick Blog

  From The Birth of Plenty. William Bernstein. 2010. Kindle online sample. Section 1. From book sample: Captain George Proctor of the HMS Centurion had every reason to thank watchmaker JOHN HARRISON, WHO HAD ACCOMPANIED HIS H-1 MARINE CHRONOMETER—A LARGE AND EXTREMELY ACCURATE CLOCK USED TO COMPUTE LONGITUDE—on its first sea trials in the late spring of 1737. As the faint line of the English coast rose above the horizon, Centurion’s navigator, relying on traditional dead reckoning, calculated that the ship was sailing in safe waters south of Dartmouth. Harrison disagreed. His clock placed them about eighty miles from Dartmouth, in hazardous waters just off the Lizard, a peninsula at the far southwestern tip of England. Taking no chances, the captain turned east and confirmed a few hours later that Harrison’s computation had been dead on. … Proctor’s caution would have been readily understandable to any seafaring contemporary. Thirty years earlier, Admiral Sir Clowdesley Shovell, ma...

  Rent Seeking Is Government/Business Collusion Benefiting Special Interests And Hurting The General Interest First, watch this short video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=95pyLE_ZsDg Mostly summarized from article: Rent Seeking, David R. Henderson, econlib.org People are said to be rent seeking when they try to obtain benefits from the government to give them special privileges, especially to help increase their or their organization’s income. They typically do so by getting a tax break, subsidy, regulation, or import protection for a good they produce. … Companies seek tax breaks from state governments when building a new factory. Companies get subsidies from government for politically favored products such as those for creating solar energy. Licensed electricians and doctors lobby to keep regulations in place that restrict competition from unlicensed electricians and doctors. Steel producers seek tariffs and quota restrictions on imports of steel. … Rent seeking expenditures cau...

  From article John Dewey American philosopher and educator. James Gouinlock. December 23, 2022. John Dewey, (born October 20, 1859, Burlington, Vermont, U.S.—died June 1, 1952, New York, New York), American philosopher and educator He was a cofounder of the philosophical movement known as pragmatism, a pioneer in functional psychology, an innovative theorist of democracy, and A LEADER OF THE PROGRESSIVE MOVEMENT IN EDUCATION IN THE UNITED STATES. … Dewey graduated with a bachelor’s degree from the University of Vermont in 1879. After receiving a doctorate in philosophy from Johns Hopkins University in 1884, he began teaching philosophy and psychology at the University of Michigan. There his interests gradually shifted from the philosophy of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel to the new experimental psychology being advanced in the United States by G. Stanley Hall and the pragmatist philosopher and psychologist William James. Further STUDY OF CHILD PSYCHOLOGY PROMPTED DEWEY TO DEVELOP A...

  Mostly summarized from Gregory Mankiw’s Principles of Economics, 5th Ed. PART 8 The Data of Macroeconomics Chapter 24 of 36 Measuring The Cost of Living Section 12 of 15 … Correcting money value for inflation is particularly important when considering interest rates. The interest rate concept involves comparing money value at different time points. When you deposit savings in a bank account · you give the bank money now · the bank pays you interest and your deposit amount in the future Conversely, when you borrow from a bank · you get money from the bank now · you pay to the bank interest and your loan amount in the future … To understand the transaction between you and the bank, it is essential to acknowledge · future dollars will have a different value from today's dollars · the money value must be corrected for inflation Suppose Sally Saver deposits $1000 in a bank account that pays an annual 10 percent interest rate. A year later, after she has made $100 interest, she withdra...

  Mostly summarized from Gregory Mankiw’s Principles of Economics, 5th Ed. PART 8 The Data of Macroeconomics Chapter 24 of 36 Measuring The Cost of Living Section 11 of 16 … Price indexes such as the consumer price index (CPI) are used to correct for inflation effects so dollar figures from different times can be compared. When a dollar amount for a good or service is automatically corrected for price level changes by contract or law the amount is labeled indexed for inflation. Between firms and unions, many long-term contracts include indexation of wages to the CPI. This contract provision is called a cost-of-living allowance (COLA). A COLA automatically raises wages when the CPI rises. Indexation is also included in many laws. Social Security benefit payments are adjusted yearly to compensate for price increases. The tax rate brackets of the federal income tax are indexed for inflation. … …