tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30495100.post3070718277394500445..comments2024-01-29T17:58:00.974-05:00Comments on Galileo Blogs: Galileo Blogshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/02592692929747610846noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30495100.post-63966438867492447222007-01-31T12:13:00.000-05:002007-01-31T12:13:00.000-05:00Thank you. It is an interesting "real-time" econom...Thank you. It is an interesting "real-time" economics experiment. Some people say economics is not as scientific as other disciplines because hypotheses cannot be experimentally tested. That is not true. The ethanol boondoggle is unfolding real-time, and it is providing us with lessons about such economic principles as:<br />* Supply and demand, and how price controls violate this law, causing shortages<br />* How subsidies distort the natural flow of capital to its highest and best uses, and thereby destroy wealth<br />* The law of unintended consequences<br />* The problem of a mixed economy, whereby controls tend to breed more controls (and how governments can always choose to remove the controls, and thereby avoid the bad consequences).<br /><br />And many other ideas. Of course, the philosophical ideas are also interesting, such as in my Mexican tortilla post, where the Mexican government acts on the altruistic premise that it must provide enough reasonably priced tortillas to poor people!Galileo Blogshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02592692929747610846noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-30495100.post-37781317338684671442007-01-30T23:33:00.000-05:002007-01-30T23:33:00.000-05:00Excellent points. This ethanol frenzy is insanely ...Excellent points. This ethanol frenzy is insanely distortive. Now investment trends in Brazil are also getting skewed by the ethanol subsidies and regulations.AHWesthttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09829802681623277432noreply@blogger.com