http://arstechnica.com/…

Game theory has provided researchers in a variety of fields, from psychology to economics, an opportunity to test human behaviors under controlled conditions. It allows big questions—are humans rational actors when money’s on the line, for example—to be tested in situations where behaviors that deviate from expectations are easy to detect. The Ultimatum Game is one example of these experiments, and it has been used to show that humans aren’t purely rational when it comes to monetary decisions, as they appear willing to make financial sacrifices in order to punish others in the name of fairness. A paper that will appear at PNAS this week takes things a step further and shows that people will still reject unfair monetary offers, even when the only one they punish is themselves.

The basic rules of the Ultimatum Game are simple. One person is given a stack of cash, and told to divide it between themselves and a second party. That second party is then given the chance to accept or reject the offer; if it’s rejected, neither of them get any money. Clearly, any of this free money should be better than nothing, so under assumptions of strictly rational behavior, you might expect all offers to be accepted.

They’re not.

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Is he really that blind to miss that all those bad ideas Bush had… Obama is expanding upon? That he’s in bed with the corporations just as Bush was… if not moreso.

Perhaps there needs to be a campaign to mail copies of Tom Wood’s Meltdown to everyone in the media.

The best of both worlds: continued artificial economic stimulation and regulations that don’t slow it down.

http://www.bloomberg.com/…

President Barack Obama, trying to bolster an economy he says still has a “long way to go,” announced 10 projects aimed at accelerating job creation, according to the administration.

The plans are meant to boost the effectiveness of a $787 billion stimulus measure sought by Obama and approved by Congress in February. The projects, including improvements to parks, highways and veterans medical facilities, will be the focus of recovery efforts during the next three months, an administration statement says.

The projects are intended create or save more than 600,000 jobs, about four times as many as were affected during the first 100 days since the rescue bill became law, the White House release says.

Construction equipment manufacturers Caterpillar Inc. and Deere & Co. are among companies that may benefit from federal contracts for some of the work.

The new projects are being framed as the beginning of a “summer of accelerated Recovery Act activity” by the administration and include new services at health centers in 50 states, work on 107 national parks, improvements at airports, highway locations and veterans’ medical facilities. They will also provide funding for schools to hire more teachers.

Vice President Joe Biden, who later today will present Obama with the administration’s latest economic stimulus goals, said a “good foundation” was laid in the first 100 days of the Recovery Act.

“We plan to build on that foundation and accelerate our efforts so we can accomplish even more,” Biden said in a statement. “We’re going to get more dollars out the door, more shovels into the ground and more money into the pockets of workers and families who need it most.”

Glad I can help out Caterpillar and Deere. And all those people to get busy work hanging out at 107 national parks. I’m glad that the government puts the cart in front of the horse by expecting a healthy economy to spring up from putting people to work rather then people fulfilling the demand of labor of a healthy economy.

Hazlitt’s Economics in One Lesson must be to the politicians like Slim Whitman’s Indian Love Call is to Martians.