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Author Archive | Nicholas Freiling

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Reality TV Inventor Loses Big to ‘Buy American’ Fallacy

By on February 12, 2012 in All Posts
Bad economics and reality television just made Donny McCall an overnight hero. Unfortunately for him, it’s all for naught. On a recent episode of ABC’s Shark Tank, a show that features a panel of super-rich investors negotiating investment proposals from entrepreneurs, Invis-a-Rack owner Donny McCall was denied $100,000 to help expand his business because of…
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Adam Smith

The Adam Smith Illusion

By on January 20, 2012 in All Posts, History
“The problem is not simply that Smith was not the founder of economics.The problem is that he originated nothing that was true, and that whatever he originated was wrong.” -Murray Rothbard Adam Smith (1723-1790), author of the iconic Wealth of Nations, is widely regarded as the “founder of modern economics”. His name is revered by…
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Romney

Romney is Wrong on Minimum Wage

By on January 16, 2012 in All Posts, Economic Theory
When asked about the minimum wage over the weekend, leading GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney gave the following response: “My view has been to allow the minimum wage to rise with the CPI [Consumer Price Index] or with another index so that it adjusts automatically over time. I already indicated that when I was governor…
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Buy American

Buy American! Or Not.

By on January 4, 2012 in All Posts, Economic Theory
We hear it all the time: “Buy American”. Indeed, presidential candidate Rick Santorum (who semi-won the Iowa caucuses last night) just received the endorsement of the Conservative Party USA because he apparently “understands that ‘Buy American’ is the key to reviving the US economy”. I am not going to guess as to Mr. Santorum’s motives…
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More Fallacious Views on Infrastructure ‘Investment’

By on January 3, 2012 in All Posts
Piggy-backing off libertas’ post from a few days ago, Think Progress has again made the fallacy of assuming that government expenditures on infrastructure is inherently beneficial to the economy. See quote below: With borrowing costs low and the nation’s unemployment rate high, infrastructure improvement projects can fix the major problems facing our nation’s roads, bridges,…
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DeLong’s ‘Circular Flow’ Falls Flat

By on January 2, 2012 in All Posts
Economist Brad DeLong wrote on his blog yesterday about Paul Krugman’s “A Note on the Ricardian Equivalence Argument Against Stimulus.”  While the post was quite complex and requires a previous knowledge of Krugman’s argument, he makes one claim I would like to point out. “He gets it completely wrong because Krugman knows very well who…
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Mission Impossible: War and the Economy

By on January 1, 2012 in All Posts
Arms Dealer: “Why should I help you?” Hunt: “If you don’t help me, we will be facing war.” Arms Dealer: “But war is good for business.” Hunt: “Nuclear war?” Arms Dealer: “…let’s talk.” I certainly did not expect to be writing about economics in response to seeing Mission: Impossible – Ghost Protocol last night (a…
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