Author Archive
Ben Powell on the Minimum Wage, and Question From Uncle Bob
I hadn’t yet read this Ben Powell HuffPo piece on the minimum wage issue. A lot of it we have already seen before, but he gave some interesting facts I didn’t know. Yet here’s something that is really bothering me in our discussions. Ben writes: Informed apologists for minimum wage laws often cite David Card […]
Read moreMemories of Armen Alchian
Arman Alchien is one of those economists–like Wicksteed–that I would read a lot more of, if I were on a deserted island. (That’s a compliment to them, and a criticism of myself.) He recently died, as most of you know, and so a lot of people who knew him were giving their appreciations. One of […]
Read moreOthers on the Minimum Wage
==> David R. Henderson writes a neat summary and critique of the Card & Krueger work. (Daniel Kuehn doesn’t get it.) In the comments, Bill Woolsey leaves a fantastic summary of the various issues. ==> Don Boudreaux says that if we can raise employment costs by 24% with no dire effect on employment, would it […]
Read moreMore on the Minimum Wage
Some people thought I was reacting to comments on this blog, but actually, I am reacting to the peanut gallery on Facebook. I.e. I’m not here trying to convince a mainstream economist, rather I’m trying to convince someone who is sympathetic to Rothbardianism but thinks college professors don’t know what it’s like on the streetz.
Read moreKrugman: High Deficits Are Due to Either a Depression or a Recovery, But Never to My Policies
I keep waiting for time to “do this justice,” but that’s not going to happen. So let me quickly make my point: I was flabbergasted a couple of weeks ago to read Krugman dismiss the CBO report on the budget outlook in this way: Yesterday the CBO came out with its updated budget outlook — […]
Read moreLandsburg Frames the Minimum Wage Debate Very Strangely
Ahh, it seems Steve Landsburg is no longer cuddly. Instead of worrying about the unskilled inframarginal workers, he is now concerned about upper middle class college kids working at Wendy’s on their summer breaks. There’s nothing wrong with Steve’s post as far as it goes, but it would be like Obama proposing to increase the […]
Read moreHumorous Interlude
From a recent Tom Woods post: “Who will build the roads?” is the question that belongs at the top of every libertarian drinking game. If we didn’t have forced labor, the argument runs, there would be no roads. There’d be a Sears store over there, and your house over here, and everyone involved would just […]
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