Economics and Social Policy - XXXVI

Welcome to the July 30, 2007 edition of E&SP. Late again.

Adam presents On the economizing of knowledge posted at Sophistpundit.

Yup, even the choice of search engines imposes costs. Interesting piece, follow the links back to the original article.

CA presents Compensation structure gone wrong posted at Atlantic Canada's Small Business Blog.

Compensation and incentives are notoriously difficult to set. As are annual performance goals – what happens when goals shift mid-year? Picking and then rewarding behavior that achieves the wrong thing is very expensive.

Alvaro Fernandez presents Yaakov Stern: Build Your Cognitive Reserve posted at SharpBrains.

Another interesting interview. Summed up, mental and physical inactivity is bad for you… but you knew that.

Thad Guy presents News Antidote posted at Thad Guy.

I could always use a news antidote. Especially when the news usually looks like this piece from the Onion (via Evangelical Outpost):



Study: Multiple Stab Wounds May Be Harmful To Monkeys


Dan Harris presents Noodles In China, New York City Rent Control, Legal Fees In Poland, And Zimbabwe. I Have A "Beef" With All That.

Capping prices below market levels generates only one thing. Shortages. Even for beef noodles in China. What’s interesting are the complaints from the Chinese about price controls and praise of the market.

Jeremy Hitchcock presents Taxpayer subsidizing posted at WTTF: Welcome to the Future.

Carbon offset trading. Subsidies for the politically connected.

Cade Krueger presents Taking Care Of Taxes And The Economy Through A Small Business Opportunity posted at Write To Right.

It’s always a good idea to take what legal steps you can to minimize your taxes. It’s just as important to actually create revenue streams, rather than concentrate on tax avoidance.

R.Pettinger presents Fat Tax: Why we should tax unhealthy foods posted at Economics Essays.

There are always good arguments for this type of social engineering. At the end of the day, the government will make a political decision about what constitutes “bad for you” food. These decisions will be both politically charged, and likely to incent bad behavior. As our understanding of what constitutes an appropriate diet changes, either the tax code will have to change to keep up, or we’ll be subsdising bad behavior. And don’t think that the providers of a food deemed healthy today, and tax free, won’t fight like the devil to keep it untaxed, even if the health benefits don’t pan out.

And since virtually no food is bad in moderate amounts, we should really only be taxing the incremental levels of fat ingested. Perhaps by making everyone microchipped to scan their daily calorie intake. That way, the tax could kick in only on the second cheeseburger.

Or why not tax people for not exercising? Say, $5.00 for a half hour of watching TV? Being sedentary imposes the same sorts of external costs, right?

Steven Silvers presents Despite the PR pundits, there’s not much to learn from the Whole Foods fiasco. posted at Scatterbox at stevensilvers.com.

But what there is to learn are things that you should have learned at your mother’s knee. By the time you’ve made CEO, your ethics (or lack of) are what they are.

Warren Wong presents The Gap Concept, How To Come Up With Good Business Ideas ,The Life Pursuit Of Money posted at Personal Development for INTJs.

It’s the personal finance section of today’s carnival.

Wenchypoo presents Who Needs Universal Health Care?, The Great Risk Shift--A Book to Avoid Out of Respect to Fellow Taxpayers , and Invasion of the Pod People, Round 2 (L-O-N-G) posted at Wisdom From Wenchypoo's Mental Wastebasket.

Wenchypoo’s on fire….

That concludes this edition. Submit your blog article to the next edition of Economics and Social Policy using our carnival submission form. Past posts and future hosts can be found on our blog carnival index page.

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