Daily economy news from the American Institute for Economic Research: data, stories, research, and articles touching on economics, politics, culture, education, policy, opinion, technology, markets, healthcare, regulation, trends, and much more.
Let’s Cut the Budget Nonsense
“The Biden administration’s goal seems to be to spend lots of money on new unnecessary programs or failing existing programs, and to pay for it with yet more debt and with novel taxes likely to fall more heavily on middle class Americans and small businesses than on big corporations or the rich.” ~ Robert E. Wright
Signs of Hope
“The happy reality that entrepreneurship and bourgeois commerce continue to flourish was driven home to me by my rather unremarkable remodeling project. I have reason for optimism.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
Politics, Not Markets, Makes Banking Unstable
“Banking reform should rank high on our list of policy priorities, but moving away from fractional reserves shouldn’t be a part of the conversation.” ~ Alexander William Salter
Lessons from the Phillips Curve
“The exploration of the Phillips Curve has taken many different paths and yet somehow ended up in the same place. The world could have been spared much of this meandering with a more firm grounding in what theory does and does not tell us.” ~ Joshua R. Hendrickson
Why Progressive Taxes Are Especially Harmful to Productivity and Harm the Poor
“‘Progressive’ taxes impose a particularly strong disincentive for more productive work. Depriving the economy of greater productivity curtails the alleviation of poverty, and as a result disproportionately harms the poor.” ~ Brian Balfour
How Does a Region Rust Away?
“Where people cannot get jobs or find homes, they pick up and leave. Where they find homes and jobs, they stay. This is not an excuse for complacency. Many of the policies that drove industrious work away from the Rust Belt remain politically popular at a national level.” ~ David Gillette & Thaddeus C. Meadows
A Revolution in Public Transportation From A Town You Wouldn’t Expect
“It’s taken more than a hundred years for low-density cities to recognize that public transportation works far better in a point-to-point model, using private-public partnerships.” ~ Craig J. Richardson
When Can Waffle House Raise its Prices?
“Instead of being evidence that markets are ‘no longer controlled by competition,’ firms raising prices together is evidence of supply and demand at work.” ~ Brian C. Albrecht
Monetary Policy and that Old-Time Fiscal Religion
“Nominal income targeting can potentially restore the old-time fiscal religion. Like the classical gold standard, this approach stabilizes total spending in the economy, rendering counter-cyclical fiscal policy unnecessary and ineffective.” ~ Bryan P. Cutsinger & Louis Rouanet
A Review of Wynton Marsalis’s Moving to Higher Ground
“It is the individual speaking her innermost feelings. In the words of the famous jazz composition by Norman Mapp, ‘jazz ain’t nothing but soul,’ and in our world now, we need that individual voice and soul more than ever.” ~ Daniel Asia
Money and Inflation Are Still Related
“M2 in 2020 and 2021 increased by the largest percentages in the last 60 years. To the surprise of the Federal Reserve (although not everyone), inflation resulted.” ~ John Devereux & Gerald P. Dwyer
When It Comes to Big Tech and Monopoly Power: Patience is a Virtue, Antitrust is a Vice
“Whether it’s Lina Khan at the FTC or Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren in Congress, antitrust advocates should take a hard look in the mirror. The only true monopoly within the US marketplace is where these politicians are fulfilling their posts.” ~ Kimberlee Josephson
Do Not Tarry In Eliminating Tariffs and Other Protectionist Measures
“Like Adam Smith, I’d prefer that trade be liberalized gradually as opposed to not at all. But perhaps unlike him, if I were put in front of a button to eliminate immediately all species of economic protectionism, I’d press it with gusto.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
Economic Development Deals Are a Curse, Not a Blessing
“Bribing businesses to locate in your state is not free enterprise; it’s a form of cronyism. It turns what should be a competitive process between firms into a political competition between states. The first step toward winning is to stop losing.” ~ Stephen C. Miller
DC’s Dim-Witted Lightbulb Moment
“In Mercantilist Europe, and in the ever-murkier swamps of Washington, DC, cozy relations between industry and government result in such price-fixing contrivances and anti-public conspiracies being issued by regulation as well.” ~ Laura Williams
Fed Raises Rate, But Signals Potential Pause in May
“In 2021 they were looking for help from recovering supply chains. Now, they are looking for help from tight financial markets. It’s time FOMC members help themselves — or, God help us all.” ~ William J. Luther
Words & Numbers: Peter C. Earle On The Death of Silicon Valley Bank
“Peter C. Earle, AIER Research Faculty and former Wall Street trader, joins AIER Senior Editor James Harrigan and Antony Davies on the Words & Numbers podcast to talk about what happened to Silicon Valley Bank.” ~ AIER
Moral hazard is a fact of life. The Fed should focus on inflation.
“To the shame of two generations of economists-turned-policy-advisors, moral hazard is a fact of life. We don’t need to add permanent dollar depreciation to this mess.” ~ Alexander William Salter
Let’s Cut the Budget Nonsense
“The Biden administration’s goal seems to be to spend lots of money on new unnecessary programs or failing existing programs, and to pay for it with yet more debt and with novel taxes likely to fall more heavily on middle class Americans and small businesses than on big corporations or the rich.” ~ Robert E. Wright
Signs of Hope
“The happy reality that entrepreneurship and bourgeois commerce continue to flourish was driven home to me by my rather unremarkable remodeling project. I have reason for optimism.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
Politics, Not Markets, Makes Banking Unstable
“Banking reform should rank high on our list of policy priorities, but moving away from fractional reserves shouldn’t be a part of the conversation.” ~ Alexander William Salter
Lessons from the Phillips Curve
“The exploration of the Phillips Curve has taken many different paths and yet somehow ended up in the same place. The world could have been spared much of this meandering with a more firm grounding in what theory does and does not tell us.” ~ Joshua R. Hendrickson
Why Progressive Taxes Are Especially Harmful to Productivity and Harm the Poor
“‘Progressive’ taxes impose a particularly strong disincentive for more productive work. Depriving the economy of greater productivity curtails the alleviation of poverty, and as a result disproportionately harms the poor.” ~ Brian Balfour
How Does a Region Rust Away?
“Where people cannot get jobs or find homes, they pick up and leave. Where they find homes and jobs, they stay. This is not an excuse for complacency. Many of the policies that drove industrious work away from the Rust Belt remain politically popular at a national level.” ~ David Gillette & Thaddeus C. Meadows
A Revolution in Public Transportation From A Town You Wouldn’t Expect
“It’s taken more than a hundred years for low-density cities to recognize that public transportation works far better in a point-to-point model, using private-public partnerships.” ~ Craig J. Richardson
When Can Waffle House Raise its Prices?
“Instead of being evidence that markets are ‘no longer controlled by competition,’ firms raising prices together is evidence of supply and demand at work.” ~ Brian C. Albrecht
Monetary Policy and that Old-Time Fiscal Religion
“Nominal income targeting can potentially restore the old-time fiscal religion. Like the classical gold standard, this approach stabilizes total spending in the economy, rendering counter-cyclical fiscal policy unnecessary and ineffective.” ~ Bryan P. Cutsinger & Louis Rouanet
A Review of Wynton Marsalis’s Moving to Higher Ground
“It is the individual speaking her innermost feelings. In the words of the famous jazz composition by Norman Mapp, ‘jazz ain’t nothing but soul,’ and in our world now, we need that individual voice and soul more than ever.” ~ Daniel Asia
Money and Inflation Are Still Related
“M2 in 2020 and 2021 increased by the largest percentages in the last 60 years. To the surprise of the Federal Reserve (although not everyone), inflation resulted.” ~ John Devereux & Gerald P. Dwyer
When It Comes to Big Tech and Monopoly Power: Patience is a Virtue, Antitrust is a Vice
“Whether it’s Lina Khan at the FTC or Sens. Amy Klobuchar and Elizabeth Warren in Congress, antitrust advocates should take a hard look in the mirror. The only true monopoly within the US marketplace is where these politicians are fulfilling their posts.” ~ Kimberlee Josephson
Do Not Tarry In Eliminating Tariffs and Other Protectionist Measures
“Like Adam Smith, I’d prefer that trade be liberalized gradually as opposed to not at all. But perhaps unlike him, if I were put in front of a button to eliminate immediately all species of economic protectionism, I’d press it with gusto.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
Economic Development Deals Are a Curse, Not a Blessing
“Bribing businesses to locate in your state is not free enterprise; it’s a form of cronyism. It turns what should be a competitive process between firms into a political competition between states. The first step toward winning is to stop losing.” ~ Stephen C. Miller
DC’s Dim-Witted Lightbulb Moment
“In Mercantilist Europe, and in the ever-murkier swamps of Washington, DC, cozy relations between industry and government result in such price-fixing contrivances and anti-public conspiracies being issued by regulation as well.” ~ Laura Williams
Fed Raises Rate, But Signals Potential Pause in May
“In 2021 they were looking for help from recovering supply chains. Now, they are looking for help from tight financial markets. It’s time FOMC members help themselves — or, God help us all.” ~ William J. Luther
Words & Numbers: Peter C. Earle On The Death of Silicon Valley Bank
“Peter C. Earle, AIER Research Faculty and former Wall Street trader, joins AIER Senior Editor James Harrigan and Antony Davies on the Words & Numbers podcast to talk about what happened to Silicon Valley Bank.” ~ AIER
Moral hazard is a fact of life. The Fed should focus on inflation.
“To the shame of two generations of economists-turned-policy-advisors, moral hazard is a fact of life. We don’t need to add permanent dollar depreciation to this mess.” ~ Alexander William Salter
