EconLog Archive
Growth: Consequences
TANSTAAFL vs. Futurism
While writing my target essay for May’s Cato Unbound, I decided I ought to take another look at Edwin Dolan‘s TANSTAAFL: The Economic Strategy for Environmental Crisis.* First published in 1971, it is one of the earliest works of free-market environmentalism. The book’s full of good material, and was very original at the time. But .. MORE
Fiscal Policy
The Long-term Debt Issue
The NYT Room for Debate on the S&P downgrade includes some posts that I think contain some really misleading statements. The term “room for debate” is rather inapt, since we write on our own, with no opportunity to comment on others’ posts. The argument that a country with a fiat currency cannot default on its .. MORE
Taxation
The Uneasy Case for Progressive Taxation
I posted on David Cay Johnston’s article on taxation recently. I appreciate his acceptance of my apology and his willingness to discuss the issues. In his comment on another comment by Joe Barnett, Mr. Johnston defends “progressive” taxation, that is imposing a higher marginal tax rate on income as income rises. He writes: perhaps reading .. MORE
Business Economics
Mail Delivery: Drop Saturday or?
. . . Wednesday. I gave a talk at Hoover Institution’s retreat yesterday and in the Q&A, someone suggested cutting government spending by cutting Saturday mail delivery. After my talk ended, a woman came up and said that she thought cutting Saturday delivery was a bad idea. At first I thought she was objecting the .. MORE
Economic Methods
Home Prices During the Great Depression
Home prices did amazingly well during the Great Depression. According to Schiller’s index, it looks likes inflation-adjusted prices fell from about 74 to 69 between 1929 and 1933 – about a 7% decline. By 1940, they were up to about 82. The double-dip recession of 1937-8 shows up as a small downward blip in the .. MORE
Income Distribution
Women Won’t Marry Down
So Kay Hymowitz asserts. the biggest reason we probably won’t see a lot more college-educated women walking down the aisle with their plumber is one we don’t like to say out loud: they want to have smart kids. Educated men and women are drawn to spouses they think will help them produce the children likely .. MORE
International Trade
Mercantilism, “Chopsticks” and Otherwise
Last week at the APEE meetings in Nassau, I saw economist George Ayittey give a talk on why most African economies are in such sad shape. He blamed the things free-market oriented economists tend to blame: foreign aid, the absence of free markets, heavy government controls, etc. Then he turned to the role of China .. MORE
Fiscal Policy
My Perspective on the Budget Fight
I don’t think of the long-term budget fight as being between Democrats and Republicans or between rich and poor. I look at it as a fight between people with funded retirements and unfunded retirements. If I have saved enough to support my lifestyle in retirement, then I have a funded retirement. If my neighbor who .. MORE
Economic Growth
Mike Munger on Microfinance
A podcast with Russ Roberts, recommended. I am still trying to unpack the model Munger alludes to at the end, in which it does not pay women to become educated in countries where there is little physical capital. I am guessing that human capital and physical capital are complements in this model, so that if .. MORE
Behavioral Economics
Wittman-Caplan Debate Video
The video from my 2007 debate with my lovable nemesis Donald Wittman is now up. P.S. If you enjoy it, thank Liya Palagashvili and the GMU Econ Society.
Economic and Political Philosophy
Using Loopholes
Suppose an economist tells you about an obscure tax loophole: You can reduce your taxes without going to jail. You’ve never taken advantage of it because you’ve never even heard about it. But when you investigate his factual claims, they seem to check out. The people who’ve carefully studied the issue broadly agree with him. .. MORE
Family Economics
Nature, Nurture, and Me in the NYT
Check out Motoko Rich’s new piece on nature and nurture in the NYT. Academics often complain that journalists treat them unfairly, but once again, that’s not my experience. Highlight: Professor Heckman pointed to research showing that moving children from bad home environments to more loving and stable ones improves their cognitive performance and emotional health. .. MORE
Economics of Education
The Education Hierarchy and Signaling
Lorenzo links to a post by Xavier Marquez. Marquez talks about a personality cult as a signaling device in a dictatorship. One of Marquez’ commenters writes, suppose that instead of a single dictator, there is an elite class, which has general control over most cultural organs and elite institutions but whose political ascendancy is somewhat .. MORE
Finance: stocks, options, etc.
Tyler Cowen on the Euro
His NYT column is a must-read. The bottom line: the euro, in retrospect, appears to have been a misguided attempt to equalize the values for some very unequal assets, namely the bank deposits of strong countries and those of weak countries. Modern governments seem to play this role in the monetary system. For example, deposit .. MORE
Behavioral Economics
How Pacifist Was the Last Anti-War Movement?
Not very, unfortunately. Here‘s the WSJ on Heaney & Rojas: many antiwar Democrats saw the election of President Barack Obama as a sufficient victory for their cause and withdrew from the streets. The researchers conducted 5,398 surveys at 27 antiwar protests from January 2007 through December 2009. They also interviewed movement leaders and conducted ethnographic .. MORE
Taxation
David Cay Johnston Plays with the Facts
In the latest issue of our local left-wing weekly, the Monterey County Weekly, David Cay Johnston has an article, “Tax Facts Hardly Anyone Knows.” He lists and discusses 9 purported tax facts. Many of them are right. But I want to focus on one that, although correct, he presents in a misleading way, as if .. MORE
Economics of Health Care
Quibbling with Mankiw
In this talk, Greg Mankiw says a number of wise things. For instance, he says that in health care, the main issue is whether spending restraint is going to be conducted top-down from government or bottom-up from individual choice. But then he says that a compromise solution would be some sort of regulated competition among .. MORE
Political Economy
Two Systems
Here is an idea I am playing with. It is about two systems for obtaining, retaining, and enforcing status. I need to come up with names for the systems. How Status is System A System B Obtained market acceptance credentials Retained competition tenure Enforced choice authority This table is inspired by thinking about the question .. MORE
Central Planning
Finally, Some Justice
President Obama recently complained about the technological backwardness of the White House. According to news reports, he said: “The Oval Office, I always thought I was going to have really cool phones and stuff. I’m like, c’mon guys, I’m the president of the United States. Where’s the fancy buttons and stuff and the big screen .. MORE
Fiscal Policy
A Suggested Tax Calculator Tool
In a comment on this post, Daniel Kuehn explains what is going on with the new government tax receipt tool. It simply allocates Social Security taxes to OASDI and Medicare taxes to Medicare. What is left to allocate are income taxes, to other programs. For most people, the income tax has to look like quite .. MORE
Family Economics
Live Chat Highlight: A 4-Minute Reply to Will
Here’s my favorite part from today’s WSJ Live Chat: 1:58 Allison Lichter: On the Ideas Market blog, Will Wilkinson argues that your argument really only applies to a narrow range of people: middle-and-upper class couples who already have at least one child, are on the fence about having another one, have been overestimating the costs .. MORE