Economics

Archive for Economics

The Problem With School Vouchers

In his laudatory review of Jacob Huebert’s new primer on libertarianism, David Gordon quotes this: The independent schools would not be killed off by genuine market competition; they would be killed off by government privileges [i.e., approval by the government to receive voucher payments] to some schools — those willing to accept government control — […]

History Is a Blank Slate for Austrians and Keynesians

I’m not going to bother reproducing the charts here, but check out this Paul Krugman post. He first shows what Mark Zandi had predicted (before the fact, presumably) about the Obama stimulus package’s contribution to GDP growth, broken down by quarter. Then, Krugman shows actual GDP growth by quarter. Krugman claims that the actual performance […]

Economic Views in the Old Testament

Gene Callahan is making up a syllabus for his History of [Economic?] Thought class, and he asked me for the best passages representing “ancient Hebrew attitudes towards economic issues.” At first I flatly refused to answer, saying he should email Gary North or try to hunt down Israel Kirzner (I’m guessing he’s not on Facebook). […]

The Murphy Check-Deposit Index of the Economy

You know what I’ve noticed in the last month or so? Individuals and businesses are depositing my checks far more rapidly than they used to. For example, I pay my AmEx bill online, and in the past it typically took 2 full business days before the payment would actually hit my checking account. But the […]

Does a Bad Bet Become Good, When the Stakes Are Raised?

Suppose you were at the casino and you were playing the minimum $10 bet at a Blackjack table. You get a 6 and your heart sinks. The dealer gives himself an Queen and you feel particularly devastated. But then your next card is a 4. You are so giddy you’re about to double down. The […]

Is Social Security “Cashflow Negative” This Year? Yes and No

Yikes, there is a subtlety in the Social Security debate that just bit me in the buttocks. (Fortunately we all have health care now.) I am participating in another “Public Square” debate, like the one I did earlier on the New Deal. (The links to that earlier debate are dead; I don’t know what the […]

Hey Rich Guy, You Weren’t Going to Use That Money, Right?

I realize this is nothing new, but man I just can’t get over how little the pundits care about property rights. Did they miss a lesson on the schoolyard growing up? Here’s Krugman: …[I]t would be a terrible idea to make the high-end tax cuts permanent; that would be a huge drain on the public […]

Krugman’s “Call” Back in Early 2009

One of the great things about this piece (which I linked earlier) is that the guy, relying on comments at Krugman’s own blog, refreshes our memory on exactly what the Nobel laureate said back when the stimulus was being discussed. You see, if you had just been reading Krugman lately, you would have thought that […]