EconLog Archive
Public Health
Henderson Review of Deborah Birx’s Silent Invasion
The book’s subtitle is overly long, and so is the book. We learn over and over her view, which she seemed to have expressed almost daily at White House meetings, that the key to reining in the pandemic was social distancing, testing, masking, limiting the size of indoor gatherings, and—occasionally—lockdowns. Unfortunately, given the book’s length, .. MORE
Finance
Am I a “liquidationist”?
Here’s the Financial Times: As bank runs spread, it has become clear that anyone who questions a government rescue for those caught underfoot will be tarred as a latter-day liquidationist, like those who advised Herbert Hoover to let businesses fail after the crash of 1929. Liquidationist is now challenging fascist as the most inaccurately thrown .. MORE
Political Economy
Stewards of the Earth for Whom? And Theological Musings
It is a strange idea that we are the stewards of the earth. It is not clear who is “we” and which part of that “we” is a steward of which part of the earth; or which part of “we” is the owner of what the other part merely stewards. As the term has no .. MORE
Politics and Economics
I’ve Changed My Mind
I’ve been at odds with many people on the right, many on the left, and many in the approximate center for some time now. But various things I’ve learned have convinced me that many of them were right and I was wrong. Here are some. Bomb fentanyl factories in Mexico I’ve run into a number .. MORE
Books: Reviews and Suggested Readings
Tolstoy on Written and Unwritten Rules
I’ve written before about finding the ideas of economics in works of fiction. I’ve also described how I find F. A. Hayek’s distinction between law and legislation to be a key insight in understanding how the world works. In this system, legislation is the written, articulated, deliberately constructed rule book, while law is the unwritten, .. MORE
Finance
Josh Hendrickson on the (other) alignment problem
As you may know, I’ve long advocated the abolition of federal deposit insurance. I believe that a free market would provide people with safe places to store wealth, such as narrow banks and MMMFs that invest in T-bills. But my proposal is not politically feasible, at least for the foreseeable future. Josh Hendrickson has a .. MORE
Energy, Environment, Resources
Which is Better, More or Fewer People?
Is it better to have more or less population in your country and the world? I ask the question in a short article in the Spring issue of Regulation. I review a few economic and philosophical arguments on both sides of the debate. On the one hand, we have known a certain type of currently .. MORE
Cross-country Comparisons
Not enough housing? Let the market in.
In 1980, Margaret Thatcher’s Conservative government passed its famous Housing Act. This gave five million council house tenants in England and Wales the ‘Right to Buy’ their house from their local authority at a discount reflecting rent previously paid. For Thatcher, it was the perfect mix of ideological and practical politics. It made ‘public’ assets .. MORE
Family Economics
Incentives and Marriage
Economics emphasizes the power of incentives in influencing how people behave. When I began to read economics, I found this focus on incentives very plausible, because I had seen firsthand a very strong example of how the incentives created by a system of rules was clearly influencing the way people made a major life decision .. MORE
International Trade
Yellen: Sanctions Kill Iranians and Don’t Work So Let’s Impose More
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said on Thursday the United States was looking at ways to strengthen its sanctions against Iran, but acknowledged the sanctions had not resulted in the behavioral or policy changes Washington desires from Tehran. This is from David Lander and Kanishka Singh, “Yellen: Iran’s Actions Not Impacted by .. MORE
Price Controls
Newsom Pulls a Nixon
Newsom pushes through a bill that penalizes oil companies for “price-gouging.” California lawmakers voted on Thursday to advance a bill that would penalize oil companies for “price gouging” — a first-of-its-kind legislation pushed forward in recent months by Gov. Gavin Newsom (D). The SBX1-2 bill, sponsored by state Sen. Nancy Skinner (D), received the approval of the California .. MORE
International Trade
The return of industrial policies
During the latter part of the 20th century and the early 21st century, a consensus emerged that industrial polices were counterproductive. This view was a part of what was known as the “Washington Consensus”. Unfortunately, economics goes through cycles as one fad after another becomes fashionable, at least until society painfully relearns the fundamental principles .. MORE
Incentives
More Wisdom from Thomas Sowell
The symposium on Thomas Sowell’s work went very well. A great group of people from whom I learned a lot. Here are more of my favorite quotes from Sowell. The first three are from his 2009 book Intellectuals and Society. Why the transfer of decisions from those with personal experience and a stake in the .. MORE
Political Economy
The Story of Ray Epps and the Mob
Participating in a mob carries a risk similar to that of reveling in being part of the majority (or “the people,” or the righteous). The risk is that the mob or the majority can turn against you. It happened to some Red Guards in Mao’s time, and it is occasionally happening in America too, arguably .. MORE
Taxation
The Worst of the Biden Tax Increases
What is the worst of President Biden’s latest proposed tax increases? It’s hard to say. There are many strong candidates. So rather than choose the worst, I’ll choose what I think are the two worst: the increase in the corporate income tax rate from 21 percent to 28 percent and the increased tax rates .. MORE
Uncategorized
How Milton Friedman Responded to Some Hostile Audience Members
The horrible treatment of a speaker at Stanford Law School by some law students and a dean a couple of weeks ago reminded me of something that happened over 50 years ago. In November 1971, when I was attending the University of Western Ontario in London, Ontario, my newfound friend Harry Watson (who, sadly, died .. MORE
Finance
Do banks create money?
Matt Yglesias has a new Substack on money and banking, with the following title and subtitle: How banks create money out of nothingThe Fed’s two missions are intimately linked Given that most colleges have a course on “Money and Banking”, the claim in his subtitle is not particularly controversial (although I don’t entirely agree.) But .. MORE
Economic Education
Are You Getting Gouged at the Marina?
Savannah Smith and Art Carden At a marina in the Florida Keys, Rec-90 boat fuel was $5.16 per gallon in December. At a gas station just up the road from the marina, it was $4.20 per gallon. Why does boat fuel cost about a dollar more per gallon at the marina than at a nearby .. MORE
Books: Reviews and Suggested Readings
Where to start reading about women in the classical liberal tradition?
There are two core questions when it comes to thinking about women in the classical liberal tradition. First, what have women contributed to classical liberalism as a body of thought? Second, what does classical liberalism as a set of ideas have to say about the question of women’s rights? I recently received an email asking .. MORE
Labor Market
The 1619 Project on Hulu Vindicates Capitalism
Here’s the whole article I wrote with Phil Magness, published in the Wall Street Journal on February 20 (February 21 print edition.) ‘The 1619 Project’ on Hulu Vindicates Capitalism Its examples of racism are all the result of actions by governments. Hulu’s series “The 1619 Project” blames economic inequality between blacks and whites on “racial .. MORE
Finance
A tale of two banks
What does it mean to say something is risky? How would we know? Would a failure confirm the view that a particular activity was risky? Consider two people gambling at roulette. Joe puts $100 on each number from 1 to 35. Jane puts $3500 on number 36. Both have bet $3500, and both bets have .. MORE