It is easy to deride recent claims by certain economists that the federal government has no business offering aid to the victims of last month’s Midwestern tornado outbreak. As pictures of destroyed homes and devastated families flood the media, it is hard to imagine a person who is unwilling to offer whatever government aid is…
A recent episode of South Park got me thinking that Matt Stone and Trey Parker just may know basic economics. The episode attempts to explain the jewelry business. It depicts old people buying jewelry at ridiculous prices from a home shopping channel and then giving it as gifts to their children. The children immediately take…
Sometimes anti-government rhetoric can go too far, as Katrina vanden Huevel points out at The Nation. While it may be endearing and folksy to accuse the government of getting in the way of business and job creation, Huevel thinks it is dead wrong.
And common sense seems to be on her side. Look at all…
Would a 3rd Round of Fed Quantitative Easing be a charm?
Matthew O’Brien, writing last week for The Atlantic, certainly feels it would be. Those who share his sentiments were disappointed when Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke in his hearing before Congress stated “monetary policy is not a panacea”, which many have interpreted as a sign…
A price control is a legal price established by the government that forbids the selling of a good or service above some maximum or below some minimum price. It is an example of triangular intervention—the state coerces two parties to exchange at a certain price. The direct consequence of the effective maximum price control is…
