By Jason Gillman Jr. on Tuesday, April 01, 2008 1:16 PM

John Lott has a great piece posted on foxnews.com where he talks about how the media and the democrats like to claim there is a recession.

I should have written about this earlier, before I read Lott's piece, but I didn't. As he mentions, the real economic definition of a recession is two consecutive quarters of negative growth. Looking at statistics published by the Bureau of Economic Analysis, we haven't even had a negative growth quarter since Q3 2001 (and even then, in current dollars at the time it wasn't negative, that's in relation to year 2000 dollars). Read More »

By Jason Gillman Jr. on Friday, February 22, 2008 6:49 PM

I'm currently taking ECO 222 - Behavioral Economics. The class shows how different factors affect the market. For each of the experiments, we students act out a market scenario. Each experiment usually has 2 or 3 "Sessions" whereby different factors come into play. After we do this, we record the data and subsequently answer questions - our homework. It's actually quite an interesting way to learn the different aspects. One of our recent ones was concerning minimum wage. Read More »

By Jason Gillman Jr. on Thursday, January 31, 2008 9:43 PM

The purpose for patent protection, or any other intellectual property for that matter, is clearly an economic one. Individuals and organizations look to these protections as a way to gain economically, either by implementing their ideas themselves or by licensing their ideas to a third party. Seemingly unrelated, groups such as Central Michigan University's Student Government Association are fighting for an increase in public funding of universities. They argue that tuition will skyrocket or that important programs will be cut if this funding call is not heeded. Although at first glance it seems like the subjects of patents and public university funding are quite disparate, they do go hand-in-hand. Let's take a look. Read More »

By Jason Gillman Jr. on Sunday, January 20, 2008 8:24 AM

On Wednesday (23 January 20008 - for posterities sake of course) my girlfriend and I will be flying out of Detroit to Las Vegas for my buddy's wedding. She was curious as to what she could bring in her carry-on luggage in terms of liquids. I couldn't remember exactly what their rules were in regards to that exactly, so I told her to go check out TSA's website. I came up with the idea of "Random Ponderings" as a way to stir up some attention to an issue in more of an informal fashion. I also hope to get people to comment and submit their own ideas. It might be one question about the subject, or a multitude. I decided that the subject of Jenn's question would make a good first "Random Pondering". So here it is. Read More »

By Jason Gillman Jr. on Tuesday, January 08, 2008 1:22 AM

An article over at Michigan Taxes gives a perfect, up close and personal example of how Michigan's welfare state perpetuates waste and needless spending.

If it doesn't adequately show why the system needs to be completely overhauled, I don't know what will.

By Jason Gillman Jr. on Sunday, January 06, 2008 12:13 AM

Certainly I'm a day late and a dollar short when it comes to arguing against being a signatory to the World Trade Agreement. In my defense, however, I was 10 when we signed on, and I hadn't really thought much of it up to this point. However, that came to a change when I read this little gem of an article. The article talks about how Antigua complained to the WTO about Washington's prohibition of banks and credit card companies from processing payments to offshore online gambling outfits while not applying the same prohibitions to off-track bets. Now, you won't find any contention from me that government control over gambling is ridiculous. That isn't the rub here. The problem lies in the fact that Washington is voluntarily accommodating a ruling that the WTO made against in response to Antigua's claim. Read More »

By Jason Gillman Jr. on Monday, December 17, 2007 4:12 AM

A fox news story about how congress is fidgeting with a tax bill addressing the AMT really emphasized how the current tax system is, as we like to put it in the military, ate up. Former House Majority Leader Dick Armey, in a USA Today editorial, stated that the tax code is roughly 60,000 pages. From a power point that Deroy Murdoch had during a speech at Central Michigan University, I remember seeing a spike in the number of pages following the enactment of Roosevelt's New Deal policies - no surprise there. It's clear that something needs to be done. But what? Read More »

By Jason Gillman Jr. on Sunday, December 09, 2007 9:31 AM

This is the exact letter that I submitted to CM Life. It includes a link to the development plan that was being voted on that CM Life for some reason decided to edit out. Read More »

By Jason Gillman Jr. on Wednesday, December 05, 2007 2:59 PM

An energy-rationing bill has been introduced to address “global warming.” The “Climate Security Act” would impose caps on how much carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions can be allowed and would institute an elaborate program to “trade” allowances among the industries and business affected. Americans better hope that some members of Congress will ask if there truly is a threat of global warming and why a similar program in Europe has proven to be a resounding failure. If you really wanted to undermine the nation’s economy, you could not devise a better way. It is the Kyoto Climate Change Protocol on steroids. Read More »

By Jason Gillman Jr. on Sunday, December 02, 2007 12:12 AM

[Authors note: This is an entry that I made on RRFAAE back early on, so don't be offset by the date of the comment. However, everything still remains true] Slashdot is a site that I peruse a few times a day to get a rough idea what's going on in the technology world. After all, I have been dealing with IT for the last 8 years of my life or so. However, the problem is that the site brings out a lot of people who have a bit of a slant to the left in regards to economic issues. In some cases, they are completely off. Read More »

By Jason Gillman Jr. on Saturday, December 01, 2007 8:24 AM

I was over at my father's blog, Michigan Taxes Too Much, and read an article about how Michigan is trying to lure film makers to this state with tax breaks. I couldn't find anything about the 40% break that he heard about on the radio, but there are incentives, and more.... Read More »

By Jason Gillman Jr. on Thursday, November 15, 2007 9:27 AM

MichiganTaxes has informed us of new license plates that are due out soon! Read More »

By Jason Gillman Jr. on Friday, October 19, 2007 5:05 PM

Congratulations, it must be your birthday! State Representative Coleman Young has introduced HB 5210. This bill amends the Insurance Code of 1956 so that "good drivers" get at least a 10% discount on their insurance premiums. Read More »

By Jason Gillman Jr. on Friday, October 19, 2007 5:36 AM

Ah yes, civil rights. It's a subject that many educational institutions like to preach, sometimes through required (part way down in the article) courses/orientation.

Indeed, slavery and unequal access to public, taxpayer funded facilities are a no go. Everyone funds these facilities, and as a result should be able to have equal access to them. That was the intention of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. However, the act goes beyond securing proper liberties and starts messing with the free market - something the government has no business doing, either via legislation or federal rules.

For quick reference, I have included excerpts of the text, but they are not required reading. I merely included them as a quick way to verify the accuracy of my statements. Read More »

By Jason Gillman Jr. on Tuesday, October 16, 2007 3:05 PM

This was a piece I had originally written back in 2005 when I first worked for Air Wisconsin Airlines for myself. I then published it back in 2006 on my own blog. Now I present it to the readers here. Read More »

By Jason Gillman Jr. on Saturday, October 13, 2007 5:02 AM

On the 9^th of October, 2007, I had the pleasure of hearing Deroy Murdock, a well known columnist and political commentator, speak at Central Michigan University. He had some excellent examples of how free markets have made various countries, such as Ireland, Chile, and New Zealand, powerhouses in various markets. Mr. Murdock also mentioned that a country with a free economic system will generally bring about other freedoms. I figure I would go out on a limb and make my own arguments for how this might happen with our Federal Government. Read More »