From the pre-blog archives, I was reminded of the following article I wrote when a friend posted this article about New Zealand immigrants protesting in Australia. One person commented “Kiwi’s protesting because they can’t access welfare in another country. Sick.” In fact, these New Zealanders are complaining to the wrong government. The reason Australia restricted […]
Bringing home the baby – how we managed in those early days
I once wrote an email to my younger brother before he had his first kid. In it I told him some of the things we learned about caring for a baby and wished we’d been told beforehand. When friends and colleagues were expecting, I’d dig it up and forward it on with a comment such […]
The (relative) unimportance of inequality
The topic of income inequality has received a lot of media attention, primarily because it has been a feature of president Obama’s recent speeches, including this week’s State of the Union. It’s a shame, because as a metric it’s pretty lousy for both determining sound policy prescriptions and measuring their success. It’s easy to illustrate […]
Who killed bipartisanship in Washington DC?
Democrat Patty Murray, one of my own senators, and Republican Paul Ryan showed some rare leadership in negotiating a bipartisan budget that passed both houses of congress in December. It was far from a perfect piece of legislation and it was done under duress. However, it provides an example of the sort of leadership Washington […]
Minimum wage raises hurt the poor and unemployed
Minimum wages are back in the headlines as a result of initiatives in states, proposals in some cities, as well as efforts by President Obama to raise the federal rate. The way to think about whether or not raising the minimum wage is a good idea is to consider who is supposed to benefit from […]