All Posts

Archive for All Posts

Is Gustav Good for the Economy?

In a previous post, I explained why the conventional GDP accounts–based on Keynesian macroeconomics–lead to all sorts of absurd analyses and policy recommendations, such as viewing a falling dollar and consumer spending as boosting growth. We see similar confusion whenever it comes to disasters such as earthquakes and hurricanes, when analysts say, “Although the loss […]

A Seinfeldish Question for Today

Why do they call it Labor Day, if nobody’s working? Shouldn’t they call it Leisure Day? What’s the deeeeeal, with that?

Were the Early Christians Socialists?

Explanatory note: On this blog, I will focus on economic and financial matters, ranging from the household to a global scale. As the blog’s subtitle suggests, my worldview is informed by my belief in Jesus and individual liberty, meaning I am a harsh critic of coercive government policies. I assume that most readers of this […]

Why Government Regulations Keep Us Less Safe

I am a very “extreme” (I prefer the term “consistent”) advocate of free markets. Not only do I think the private sector should provide 100% of the schooling services in a country, but I also think the government shouldn’t be in the business of guaranteeing product safety. For a quick exposition of my views relating […]

Is Home Equity a Form of Saving?

In a recent NYT article Tyler Cowen wrote: The fundamental problem in the American economy is that, for years, people treated rising asset prices as a substitute for personal savings. The thinking went something like this: As long as your home’s value rose every year, you didn’t have to set aside so much from your […]

Does Tyler Cowen Really Not Endorse ABCT, Or Is He Just Yanking My Thread?

In a previous post, I explained that Tyler Cowen unwittingly proved the predictive power of Austrian business cycle theory (ABCT) several years ago, in a post titled (a la OJ Simpson) “If I believed in Austrian business cycle theory…” But oops Tyler did it again in his recent New York Times article. Seriously, there are […]

McCain Picks a Woman VP!!

Wow, this presidential season is just showing how awful I would be as a campaign manager. Back in January I thought it was a foregone conclusion that Hillary Clinton would not only be the Democratic nominee, but the next president. And three months ago I was sure Obama was going to clean McCain’s clock,* but […]

If Obama Wins, Can You Ask for a Raise?

Von Pepe (not his real title) emailed me and declared: “But, I am thinking that [redistributive] tax policy has CAUSED more income inequality. The highly productive have such high taxes that they demand much higher wages (which later gets redistributed). So, as taxes go higher the wealthy’s wages go much higher.” He then went on […]