Quoting harkin: The more I think about it, the more I like 'The Ponzi Scheme That Works!' as the new slogan for Obama's re-election, it's even better than 'Change You Can Believe In'.

I haven't watched this diavlog, and may not....holiday plans and visitors and all that getting in the way of my 'me' time. But I had to say this about your post.....well done and well thought out. You obviously read from a lot of sources and even remember what you read and even critique what you read. Recently, Jeff made a comment saying that I was usually careful with what I said/wrote, but you and someone else couldn't be counted on to be careful. I say, nonsense. Harkin is a very thoughtful guy.

High time that Bloggingheads featured some actual entrepreneurs, instead of the usual academics/think-tank theorists whose only success at job creation is hiring a cleaning lady. I especially enjoyed hearing Paul mock the attempts of Congress to "help" with science parks. It would be SO fun to see Paul annihilate one of the central planners from The Nation in 2010... Please?

such an awesome diavlog. thank you for putting this on!

Quoting harkin: Regarding the tech bubble, the best article I've read was one from around 2000 or so in Fortune or Forbes, I can't remember who wrote it but I want to say Warren Buffet, where the internet companies of the 1990s were compared to the automobile companies of the 1910s and 20s. The writing was on the wall that there was going to be a massive paring of the industry where what worked and what was timely survived while what didn't and what was untimely (together about 85% of the sector) would die off. It was a brilliant bit of foresight.

Interesting link at Infectious Greed to the article in The Economist titled 'Coming To America, The Ponzi Scheme That Works'. What made me link is that the title was so disingenuous, all Ponzi schemes work...for awhile, until reality sets in and the suckers can't keep up with the beneficiaries.

There was some nice multi-cultural feel-good mumbo jumbo and even some stark reality like the experiences of Ayaan Hirsi Ali, but most of what I read was nonsense or implied nonsense, including the premise that anyone against illegal immigration is

Two comments: 1. The case for low-skilled immigrants is just as strong as the case for entrepreneurish ones. I hope it's not a zero-sum game where the more high-skilled we let in the more low-skilled we shut out. 2. I liked the emphasis on "small is beautiful". Hayek's observation that knowledge is dispersed and diffuse and the fairly plausible hypothesis that it is getting more and more dispersed and diffuse should lead us towards less central-planning and more market coordination in the corporate world. In other words, smaller firms more interconnected and less giant corporate behemoths. In so far that too-big-too-fail monstrosities continue to arise, I can only explain this as a product of legislative distortions. Politicians are fixed in numbers and our institutions are slow to change. Moreover, most of the change in politics is away from decentralization and towards more concentrated Federal powers. If you stack this trend against the other trend of knowledge growing in size and variance, you see that political decisions will continue to be prone to engender colossal mistakes. 3. My advice to Obama would be "decentralize if you can". This is one reason why

Quoting Mari Dupont: High time that Bloggingheads featured some actual entrepreneurs, instead of the usual academics/think-tank theorists whose only success at job creation is hiring a cleaning lady. I especially enjoyed hearing Paul mock the attempts of Congress to "help" with science parks.

It would be SO fun to see Paul annihilate one of the central planners from The Nation in 2010... Please?

I thought they were both exceedingly tame. As in, don't say anything that would antagonize the establishment. The best way to make money today is to work in partnership with the political class.

I hear about the immigration problem a lot. Why not just ignore the law and stay here illegally? The chance of being caught is really small, and the penalties kind of low. Further, if you make a bit of money you may be able to get the support of your local governments to either acquire citizenship or to avoid the feds. I think one of the problem with immigration reform is that too many associate our immigrants here with poorly educated Hispanics. A few high-profile cases of White illegal immigrants, working very important jobs, would go a long way to build awareness of this issue in the minds of the American people.

Nice to hear 2 people who are in the business of creating businesses. Granted, I tend to listen to more to the cerebral professorial economic types but need more exposure to those who are "where the rubber meets the road." John