The Devil’s Dictionary of Economics
Search For: (All Definitions Starting with the Letter: W)
Definition Total: (11)
Page: (1) of (1)
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| War |
According to the Bush/McCain theory of economics, this is what is going to get us out of the “mild recession” that we might be in. Hopefully before the election! See Waste.
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| War Crimes |
“There is no longer any doubt as to whether the current administration has committed war crimes… The commander in chief [George Bush] and those under him authorized a systematic regime of torture,” says Maj. Gen. Antonio Taguba.
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| Waste |
Explains the severity and recalcitrance of recessions. In my 1999 book (quoted at length in Section VI of my 2004 paper), I write, “boom times are characterized by a transfer of capital from smaller companies to larger ones, and the big ones waste it. Also, while small businesses cannot get credit during a boom, home loans and car loans are easy to obtain, so a lot of capital is converted directly into consumer goods.” See Section X of my 2004 paper.
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| Wealth |
Not the same thing as income. Friedrich Hayek and then (slavishly) Roger Garrison labeled their graphs as being one and also the other. See Section II of my 2004 paper.
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| Weapons of Mass Destruction |
In the worst-case scenario, mechanized infantry getting slimed by a few 5” artillery shells while crossing a tabletop-flat desert being whipped by 40-mph winds. Given the Iraqi artilleryman’s less-than-stellar accuracy, I doubt if the invaders would have even noticed. (Not only was George Bush lying about their existence of such weapons, the term “mass destruction” seemed just a tad overblown.)
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| What would you say if I told you that... |
Never once in my life have I heard this expression that it was not followed by a bald-faced lie. If they are going to tell a lie, they should just spit it out, instead of openly speculating on what you would say if they told their lie. See Like you say,…
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| White Knight |
The Koreans. "We're seeing the potential for maybe another white knight," says Ben Bernanke, referring to their offer to buy Lehman Bros. Next he’ll be telling us that the budget deficit is really not as bad as it appears – at least not as long as the Russians come through with their offer to buy back Alaska.
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| Whore |
1) What Elliot Spitzer spent $4300 an hour on, 2) Any economist who receives a government research grant. See Debreu, Gerard.
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| Why Economists Have Little Minds |
In his book, Why Elephants Have Big Ears, Chris Lavers writes, “I wanted early drafts of this book to be reviewed by scientists, writers, and enthusiasts who did not know me personally. The subject matter ranges across several disciplines, some of them no longer my own, so I felt that the manuscript needed serious criticism. I rattled off E-mails to some eminent authorities requesting their help, and it says a lot about the nature of my profession that I did not receive a single refusal.” Yes, and it says a lot about the nature of economics that no refereed journal has ever assigned my Simplified Exposition to a referee and no economist has ever written back when I requested that they review my book. I should have mailed it to Carrot Top – I would have gotten more of a response. Having determined why elephants have big ears, perhaps Mr. Lavers could now explain to me why economists have such little minds.
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| World Trade Center |
When the Israelis blow up an apartment building in the Gaza Strip with a GBU-24, does anybody say that they did that because it was a “symbol of freedom” for the Palestinians? No, obviously, they did it because the guy they wanted dead was home. Well, office buildings aren’t normally thought of as being symbolic either. (If the WTC was anything like the offices where I’ve worked, the only thing it was symbolic of was bad coffee.) If al Qaeda wanted to hit a “symbol of freedom,” they would have destroyed the Statue of Liberty. If they wanted mass casualties, they would have hit a sports stadium. I think our efforts at homeland security would be a lot more focused if we had a clear-eyed discussion of exactly why al Qaeda repeatedly (1993 and 2001) attacked that building, passing up softer targets and ones with more symbolic import or with more people inside them. Sun Tzu said, “Know your enemy and know yourself and you will be victorious in a hundred battles.” He would roll over in his grave if he heard George Bush spewing platitudes like, “they hate us because of our freedom.” See Chatter.
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| Wright, Jeremiah |
“I am not denouncing the church and I’m not interested in people who want me to denounce the church,” says Barack Obama, after acting like a politician by resigning from, but not denouncing, the Trinity United Church of Christ, which he has been a member of for twenty years.
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