Terms  |
Definitions |
| Debacle, Major |
The occupation of Iraq, according to Joseph Collins of the National Defense University. At a total cost of three trillion dollars (according to Stiglitz and Bilmes), one can only wonder if we got our money’s worth. John Maynard Keynes would probably be pleased though, believing as he does that “wars may serve to increase wealth.” See Waste.
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| Debreu, Gerard |
His work was initially intended to exonerate Oskar Lange by making the free market appear hopelessly complicated. Today, Theory of Value is known and loved for giving three generations of government hacks the illusion of being real scientists. See Mathematical Economics.
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| Default |
After home loans, auto loans and then credit card debts are the next (and last) dominos in line. When people have no more credit, they will have to try something new: It’s called “living within their means.”
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| Defining Moment |
Getting one’s ass kicked, judging by how George Bush uses the term.
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| Demand Distribution |
“The graph of the distribution of points of indifference can be pictured as an aerial view of the people who value a phenomenon assembled along a line marked ‘money,’ where they are asked to stand by the number of monetary units that are equal to a unit of that phenomenon. If more than one person has the same valuation, they stand behind the corresponding number.” See my Simplified Exposition.
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| DeMint, Jim |
"As the blood of our young men and women fall on foreign soil in the defense of freedom, our own government appears to be leading our country into the pit of socialism."
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| Democracy |
Something that George Bush should avoid advocating, unless he is sure that the people will elect his stooge. (Don’t you hate it when you stage an election and then they all vote for a group like Hamas?)
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| Democratic Party |
“I am more determined than ever to carry on this carnage until everyone has had a chance to make their voices heard,” says Hillary Clinton, after beating Barack Obama 2 to 1 in West Virginia, which is full of middle-aged White voters who have never gone to college. Her political base: the people who made this country great, the salt of the Earth, the common clay of the new Democratic Party – you know, morons. (In fairness, I should point out that they themselves attribute their lack of a college education to affirmative action, which could be why they’re hesitant to vote for a Black man.) See Republican Party.
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| Depression |
I’ll know that we’re in one when sales of my Sniper Flash Cards go up because there is fighting in the streets. See Recession.
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| Depression, Great |
As an academic, this was Ben Bernanke’s specialty. From the looks of things, his specialty is getting into them. See Contraction.
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| Detroit |
Home to some of the most badly designed cars on the planet. If the Iranians ever get the bomb and intend to nuke an American city, may I politely suggest that they start with this one? See Bankruptcy.
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| Devil, The |
“Please allow me to introduce myself. I’m a man of wealth and taste.” See Sympathy for the Devil.
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| Diminishing Utility |
See Marginal Utility.
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| Discount Window |
Most economists agree that the Federal Reserve loaning money to investment banks and holding loan auctions to avoid shaming the recipients is far more important than the fact that they lowered the discount rate. This supports my Answer to The Question, rendering mute the Austrian/Keynesian debate over how to respond to this question.
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| Dissent |
To the Federal Reserve loaning money to investment banks and holding loan auctions to avoid shaming the recipients. "The danger is that... the recent credit extension... might induce greater risk-taking... [That] in turn could give rise to more frequent crisis... [It] might be difficult to resist further expanding the scope of central bank lending," says Jeffrey Lacker. "We run the risk of sowing the seeds of the next crisis... [when we] subsidize risk-taking by systematically important financial institutions," says Charles Plosser. "Likely to weaken market discipline," says Thomas Hoenig. See Discount Window.
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| Distribution of Wealth over the Capital Struc |
In Section IV of my 2004 paper, I write, “placing their [Austrians’] pivot point “somewhere in the middle” is a little vague, to say the least. But, if it is really true that a change in interest rates causes the DWCS to increase on one side of the boundary and decrease on the other, then the solution is simple: Just differentiate the DWCS with respect to r, set this derivative equal to zero and solve for t. Before we can differentiate the DWCS we must define it mathematically.” I then proceed to do something unheard of in economics: I actually define a mathematical formula, instead of just talking about it.
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| Dollar |
Cute rectangular pieces of paper that can be exchanged for food, gasoline, sex (just ask Elliot Spitzer) and other commodities – at least for now.
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| Doublethink |
Simultaneous belief in two contradictory ideas. See Austrian Economics.
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| Downside Risk |
A bar in Scottsdale, Arizona. A good place for picking up hot women in business suits with plunging necklines.
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| Draft |
Necessary to raise the one to two million troops needed for an invasion of Iran. Of course, John McCain believes (and being a former bomber pilot he would know – not!), that bombing alone will bring the Persians to their knees, if done in sufficient quantity. (Note.) In reality, the only country in history to ever capitulate because of bombing was Japan – and we nuked them. (The Germans saw Dresden burned but did not surrender until there were foreign troops in Berlin. We dropped more ordinance on the Vietnamese than we did on the Germans and they never surrendered.) Iran is a much bigger place than Japan and would require dozens of nuclear bombs to get the same effect, which is politically less feasible than a draft. So, when McCain sings, “bomb, bomb, bomb; bomb Iran!” you should be hearing, “draft, draft, draft; draft young Americans!” See War.
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| Drain America First |
The policy of spending $300 of taxpayer money to obtain a $150 barrel of oil from an inaccessible or low-quality American oilfield. Apparently, this provides us with “Energy Independence.” Why? It’s not like anybody is slant-drilling our oilfields. Ten, twenty or thirty years from now, when they become economical, that oil will still be there waiting for us. In the meantime, it’s cheaper to just buy it from the Middle East. “Republicans want to lavish Big Oil with subsidies in a time of record-breaking profits,” says Sen. Robert Menendez. See Note.
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| Driver, Shanta |
“Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton are beneficiaries of affirmative action and never would have attended Harvard and Yale law schools without affirmative action programs,” says the chairwoman of BAMN, which opposes Ward Connerly. Obviously, this is not true of Clinton, since she is White and there is no affirmative action program for women. But is it true of Obama? My college admissions application says “White, non-Hispanic.” If Obama took the low road and checked “Black,” then he is a beneficiary of affirmative action, just as Driver claims.
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| Dual Mandate |
The Federal Reserve has a dual mandate, to simultaneously raise the price of one item, stocks, and reduce the price of another item, consumer goods. Clearly, a helicopter drop of money is not going to both raise and lower prices at the same time. The obvious solution is to print money and give it to rich people, who will use it to buy stocks, while simultaneously taking measures to create mass unemployment in order to reduce working-class people’s demand for consumer goods. See Reducio Ad Absurdum.
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| Duncan, Richard |
Accurately described the problem and then proposed two interesting (and really bad) solutions. See my Review of Richard Duncan’s Dollar Crisis.
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| Dust |
No longer the biggest problem facing Las Vegas home builders. See Sub-Prime Mortgages.
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| Dynamite |
Used to be sold at grocery stores. Silencers could be purchased by mail for use in chicken coops. Homemade rockets and mortars were common science fair projects and lots of kids routinely kept a rifle in their school locker so they could shoot a rabbit for the pot on their way home. The greatest danger of commercial flight was if one’s plane ran into a drag race taking place on the runway. Are we a safer or a freer country today? Or did we attempt to trade our liberty for safety and get neither? See Franklin, Benjamin.
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