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Wall Street Journal editor Matthew Hennessey rightly criticized Vice President JD Vance’s statement that the market is just “a tool, but it is not the purpose of American politics.” (“JD Vance Is Wrong: The Market Isn’t a ‘Tool,’” Wall Street Journal, May 26, 2025). Hennessey argues that markets are simply the way humans naturally trade .. MORE
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Cost-benefit Analysis
A recent article in the OC Register discussed a proposal to stop producing pennies: Consumers could get shortchanged by a new U.S. policy to stop making pennies by early next year. While the U.S. Treasury would save tens of millions of dollars by eliminating the 233-year-old 1-cent coin, an unintended consequence would be higher prices .. MORE
Regulation
When I started to write this article, I was ready to blame Krugman for not discussing this far more important economic restriction. Then I did some research. Research is most useful when it changes your mind, and my research did change my mind. It turns out that Krugman has been very good at laying .. MORE
Economics of Health Care
Is the Supreme Court Really That Divided? The Facts Say No. by Billy Binion, Reason, June 5, 2025. Excerpt: The gist is simple. That issue focused “on what appears to many to be an existential threat to democracy,” the magazine wrote, which is “the far-right shift of the Supreme Court, and the conservative movement’s .. MORE
Economic Education
For 35 years, I taught economics at the college level. When teaching the theory of supply and demand, I would explain how a temporary shortage of goods would lead to higher prices in the short run. The resulting excess profits would draw new firms into the industry, eventually bringing prices back down to their long .. MORE
Politics and Economics
I don’t want to sound too paternalistic, but one thing should be said: poor Elon Musk played a game he does not understand. “This is what victory feels like,” he shouted with overexcitement at Mr. Trump’s inauguration event (it is worth watching the one-minute video). He had contributed more than $250 million to the Trump .. MORE
History of Economic Thought
An Econlib article by Peter Boettke on “Virginia Political Economy: James Buchanan’s Journey” shows how political philosophy and economics were enmeshed in Buchanan’s work. It also reminded me of an interesting two-part video of an interview of Buchanan by Geoffrey Brennan. The two economists often worked together and were notably co-authors of The Reason of .. MORE
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Is the Supreme Court Really That Divided? The Facts Say No. by Billy Binion, Reason, June 5, 2025. Excerpt: The gist is simple. That issue focused “on what appears to many to be an existential threat to democracy,” the magazine wrote, which is “the far-right shift of the Supreme Court, and the conservative movement’s .. MORE
Incentives
Since Trump declared a global trade war on April 2, American firms have been scrambling to manage tariffs (as an aside, this puts a lie to the oft-repeated claim that only foreigners pay tariffs). I’ve written before on some of the hidden costs of tariffs. Another hidden cost appears in the form of Foreign Trade .. MORE
Books: Reviews and Suggested Readings
In a previous post, I described some cases of the use of discretion in law enforcement from Barry Lam’s book Fewer Rules, Better People. But while citing individual cases can be useful for illustrating an idea, coming to a decision on whether or when discretion should take precedence over legalism can’t be made by citing .. MORE
The Theory of Moral Sentiments, by Adam Smith Relationships between people of different generations make up some of the most meaningful connections life has to offer. They shape deep-seated beliefs, goals, and priorities. In The Theory of Moral Sentiments [TMS], Adam Smith describes the human actor as one who is guided by relational experiences. Do .. MORE
Modern economic growth—the simultaneous doubling of income and population in fifty or seventy years—has been capitalism’s greatest triumph.1 —C. Nick Harley Nothing is more fashionable than to run capitalism down. Capitalism is said to be gravely unequal and to have been based on the exploitation of the weak. It divides society into warring classes. Its .. MORE
Can the four-year degree be saved? Not for most learners, I would argue. Once less expensive alternative pathways become clearer and surer, a full-on degree will seem impractical… But why does the degree have to be the only product that colleges sell? And why can’t the American Dream be achieved by other college products, other .. MORE
A Liberty Classics Book Review of Studies on the Abuse and Decline of Reason: Text and Documents, by F.A. Hayek (edited by Bruce Caldwell). 1 According to F.A. Hayek, what are the theoretical and historical reasons for the tragedies of socialism that emerged in the 20th century? Hayek attempted to answer this question in what .. MORE
What does “you can’t unring these bells” mean? If it means that a norm that has been violated cannot be reestablished, this looks a lot like inevitability to me. I’m perhaps a little less literal-minded..
Kevin Corcoran, May 31