The Devil’s Dictionary of Economics
Search For: (All Definitions Starting with the Letter: P)
Definition Total: (23)
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| Palin, Sarah |
“I think we’re going to have to examine our tag line, ‘dangerously inexperienced,’” a top McCain official said wryly. “Alaska is a state???” stammered the normally articulate Obama. I can think of three reasons why Palin was wisely chosen and two why she was not: 1) McCain can focus on foreign policy and delegate domestic policy to Palin. Since the V.P. outranks federal department heads, they cannot feel slighted. But Obama cannot focus on domestic policy and delegate all those unconditional meetings with terrorists to Biden, because foreign heads of state will feel slighted. I said elsewhere that unconditional meetings are good policy, but that is only true if one is capable of meeting hard cases like Putin, which Obama clearly is not, as evidenced by his pick of Biden. 2) Soccer Moms would vote for Erzsébet Báthory if she ran for national office; all they really care about is breaking through that mythical glass ceiling. So McCain’s choice of a woman – any woman – picks up a lot of votes right there. 3) Biden is a long-winded jerk – a human attack dog – while Sarah is a nice person and a chick. The Republicans will win niceness points over the Democrats and – ironically, after the Bush years – be the party of pleasant, succinct and grammatically correct public statements. On the downside: 1) We know that Palin is a powder puff, but what if she turns out to be a powder puff with baggage? As I write this, it is too early to tell, though this article might point the way. 2) McCain might croak, at which point Palin will suddenly discover that presiding over a town of 8471 people is not exactly like being the commander-in-chief of a nuclear-armed superpower.
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| Party Like Its 1929 |
What we were doing in 1999, at the time that I published my book, Axiomatic Theory of Economics.
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| Patches |
On my trousers. A clear sign that we are in a recession, regardless of what George Bush's stooges - I mean economists - say. During good times, I would never have appeared in public wearing clothes that showed any sign of wear. Rick Newman has written an article listing five "reasons why consumers feel more depressed than conditions warrant,"ť including the freak-out factor, inflation distortion and the invisible hand. Basically, he believes that consumers are morons. Whatever else you may think of Axiomatic Economics, at least it does not assume that consumers are no smarter than Pavlov's dogs, as Keynesianism does.
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| Patriot Act |
See Stewart's Law
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| Paul, Ron |
An employee of Jeffrey Tucker and, therefore, also a liar. With their policy of filing false police reports against anybody who criticizes Austrian Economics, as president, Paul would have had to send all the jihadists back to Afghanistan to make room at Guantanamo for the newly-imprisoned economists. See Mises Institute.
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| Paulson, Henry |
“Today our primary focus is supporting Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in their current form as they carry out their important mission… Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac play a central role in our housing finance system and must continue to do so in their current form as shareholder-owned companies.” See Fascism.
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| Pavlov’s Dogs |
Consumers, if you believe Rick Newman.
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| Peak Oil |
Reaching the peak of production doesn’t mean suddenly running out. It just means that production will slowly decline from then on. Anyway, I don’t think any competent geologist would put his reputation on the line by saying that we have reached the peak of oil production – there are too many unknowns involving unexplored oil fields and experimental techniques for extracting oil from low-quality fields. See Alarmism.
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| Pento, Michael |
“If all a country needed to do was debase its currency, then Weimar Germany or Zimbabwe would be examples of a stellar economy. You can’t print your way into prosperity.” See Keynesianism.
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| Peters, Ralph |
“The Republicans
have abandoned their principles while the Democrats have abandoned their senses.”
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| Pivot Point |
The Average Period of Production.
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| Plain |
The appearance of Elliot Spitzer’s whore. It’s hard to visualize what she could do that would be worth $4300 an hour.
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| Platitude |
See Action Axiom.
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| Poseurs |
Most of the people attending gun shows. While they love to strut around in their “if you run, you’ll only die tired” black t-shirts, the concept of actually learning how to use a deer rifle in urban combat is way over their heads. If it’s not over your head, then see my Sniper Flash Cards.
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| Present |
In his three years in the Senate, Barack Obama's only achievement was showing up 130 times, saying, "I'm here! I'm Black! Isn't this just amazing?" and then rushing back to his office to look in the mirror to check if he'd gotten any better looking in the hour that he'd been away. See Tissue Paper.
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| Prince, Eric |
The “hero” of my short story, 200. As President Bush’s new Secretary of Transportation, he has some rather unique ideas on how to clear up traffic jams.
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| Probability, Meaning of |
The title of Chapter VI, Section 2 in Ludwig von Mises’ book, Human Action, which begins, “The treatment of probability has been confused by the mathematicians.” No, Ludwig, I think it’s you. Older brother Richard put your underwear on your head and pushed you out into the hallway when you were a child? And now this is how you’re going to get back at him?
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| Production Possibility Frontier |
In Section VIII of my 2004 paper, I write, “Garrison redefines the PPF to be sustainable combinations of investment and consumption, but says nothing about what is so unsustainable about a credit expansion. Since he defines consumption on the PPF (which is real) to be the same as consumption on the Hayekian Triangle (which is nominal), the unsustainability cannot have anything to do with the devaluation of the currency.”
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| Propaganda |
"Fight the Recession, Spend a Dollar!" proclaimed the billboard erected over Van Buren Street (the slum area of Phoenix, Arizona) during the 1992 recession. Observing this while pedaling to my minimum-wage job, I had two thoughts: 1) "It must be a misprint. Don’t they mean 'save?'" 2) "If the economic recovery is waiting on me to even have a discretionary dollar, then people had better get used to this recession."
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| Proportionate Effect |
The value of a phenomenon is subject to change each day by a random proportion of its previous day’s value. See my First-Unit Demand.
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| Prostitution |
The #1 priority of United Nations aid workers and peacekeepers. Not stopping it – running it. It is conceivable that a US president may one day feel that he must choose between declaring martial law and inviting the UN into the United States and his lawyers will advise him to take the latter course, feeling that it has fewer possible repercussions. They’re right, but only in regards to legal repercussions. If having foreign troops in the US kidnapping underage girls to put in their brothels rubs you the wrong way, it would behoove you to learn how to shoot and to do so now, while there is still time to train. See Sniper Flash Cards.
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| Psychology |
The last refuge of the incompetent.
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| Pythagorean Theorem |
Some Austrian economists refuse to read this website because they do not believe that mathematics can be used to predict human action. Well, that is just not true! For example, consider this true story:
An Indian chief had three wives, each of whom was pregnant.
The first gave birth to a boy. The chief was so elated that he built her a teepee made of deer hide.
A few days later, the second gave birth, also to a boy. The chief was very happy, so he built her a teepee made of antelope hide.
The third wife gave birth a few days later, but the chief kept the details a secret. He built this one a two-story teepee made out of hippopotamus hide. The chief then challenged the tribe to guess what had occurred. Many tried, unsuccessfully. Finally, one young brave declared that the third wife had given birth to twin boys.
"Correct," said the chief. "how did you figure it out?"
The warrior answered, "It's elementary. The value of the squaw of the hippopotamus is equal to the sons of the squaws of the other two hides.”
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