Those of us who are mature, sophisticated, and all grown up know that without government regulation we would all live in slums and be poisoned by the food we eat. Or so Huffington Post writer Carl Gibson would like you to think in his hit piece on Ron Paul’s free market ideas. In this article,…
It’s that time of year! Earlier today, the Heritage Foundation released it’s highly-anticipated 2012 Index of Economic Freedom. As expected, the United States fell even lower on the index, landing between Ireland and Denmark at tenth place.
Now I have no quibbles with the way the index is compiled. Indeed, I highly recommend it to…
There seems to be a growing trend in economics news: discredit Austrian economics. Slate did it about a week ago, and The Huffington Post, not to be outdone, did the same thing. The themes are similar, Austrians are kooky and wrong. Unfortunately, the authors fail to comprehend what Austrians are saying.
“For them [Austrians], one…
Saving our economy is only a minimum wage hike away, according to James Galbraith. Galbraith is not the first to commit such a basic economic error, as we have pointed out. In Galbraith’s words:
“Raise the U.S. minimum wage. By a lot — let’s say, to $12 an hour, from the current rate of $7.25.”…
It seems hardly a day goes by when the financial press fails to warn us about the looming dangers of deflation, despite the fact that the last period of price deflation in the United States was during the mid-1800’s. In fact, the threat of deflation is extremely slight given Bernanke’s well-documented deflationphobia.
This USA Today…
Ron Paul’s economic philosophy and book End the Fed got some crucial publicity and thoughtful debate on Saturday. Simon Johnson, MIT economist and former IMF chief-economist, wrote in the New York Times economics blog that more people should take Dr. Paul seriously. Unfortunately he advises Dr. Paul promote some very anti-free market, and counter-productive measures.…
Krlatham’s piece on this Slate article is excellent, and exposes most of the strawmen and mischaracterizations in Yglesias’ article. However, the article was so badly misinformed it deserves a few follow-up comments.
“He was referring to so-called “Austrian economics,” an idiosyncratic passion of his and a set of beliefs that put him at odds with…
Think Progress economist Matt Yglesias is decidedly not an Austrian, and thinks only cranks are. Or, thats what one is led to believe after reading his recent article in Slate. Yglesias uses Slate’s soap box (as other anti-Austrians have in the past) to make a mockery of Austrian economics, presenting straw man after straw man…
On the eve of the new year, this NYT article asked 6 well-known economists—Greg Mankiw, Christina Romer, Tyler Cowen, Robert Frank, Robert Shiller, and Richard Thaler—their views on the economy. The article is too long to examine all their responses, but this post examines some of the problems with Romer’s views. Like a doctor, Romer…
Sometimes economists make analogies to make policies coherent. I find this by line particularly appetizing, imagining Bernanke as a soufflé chef trying to keep his light dessert fluffy. According to Menzie Chinn and Jeffry Frieden, the solution is just to whip in a little inflation to keep that soufflé/economy healthy.
The basic idea they convey…