Economics

Archive for Economics

The Market Loves Jackie Robinson

My latest article at LibertyChat. An excerpt: There was another example of this pattern very soon afterwards in the movie. Jackie Robinson’s team (he was not yet with the Dodgers organization) was traveling on a bus and stopped for gas. He got off the bus and approached the bathroom at the station, but the white […]

The Difference Between Physics and Economics

Pay attention to the way he teaches the class about conservation of mechanical energy starting around 1:45. If an economist did something comparable in class, he would be killed in front of his students. But they would still clap.

In Which I Explain My Bargaining Power at Hair Salons

My latest Mises Canada article. An excerpt: [I]f the ignorance of alternatives on the part of female shoppers is the culprit here, including being “lulled into not doing anything about it,” then why is the gap in Speed Stick versus Lady Speed Stick 45 cents per ounce–as the article claims–rather than, say $10 per ounce? […]

About That Intriguing Solar Panel Map Floating Around Social Media…

Did you catch this neat-o graphic a couple of weeks ago? The total area of solar panels it would take to power the world, Europe, and Germany: If you wanna see what’s wrong with this kind of demonstration, see my post.

“But Without the State, Who Would Lay the Tracks?”

Radical libertarians who spend a lot of time online (or do I repeat myself?) have developed a joke where they will say in parody, “But who will build the roads?” (Some of the Images in this Google search are funny, but your mileage may vary. Pun intended.) For a more recent example of when I […]

Sneak-Peek Murphy Mises Academy Lectures on Free Trade

I was traveling and had to miss a lecture on free trade for the last Mises Academy class I taught, so I pre-recorded them. (Yes, as George Carlin would complain, this means I recorded them before I recorded them.) Now that the class has been closed for a bit, I thought it would be OK […]

Slavery and Reparations

My latest Mises Canada post. I make the standard point (i.e. that slavery and other racist institutions hurt white people too, on average), then make a point I haven’t seen others make regarding the latest call for reparations: A recent essay by Ta-Nehisi Coates makes the case for reparations to be paid to black Americans. The subtitle […]

More Than You Ever Wanted to Know About Inventory Adjustments in GDP Accounting

Whether it’s government debt-burdened grandchildren, marginally productive capital, or inventory adjustments in GDP accounting, I don’t rest until I have resolved the issue to my own satisfaction–even if the rest of the world has moved on by that point. Anyway, drawing on a neat idea from “Transformer” in the comments here, I discuss this issue […]