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.
When Ideological Bubbles Trump Economic Thinking
“That a Nobel Prize-winning economist can hold these naïve views and fail to use simple economic reasoning should give us pause about how ideology and echo chambers can dull our reasoning.” ~Paul Mueller
‘Consumer Reports’ Jettisons Objectivity on Climate Change
“Scaring the public into action simply does not work — indeed, Chicken Little can proclaim only for a short time that the sky is falling until people begin to see through the ruse that Chicken Little is really Chicken Liar.” ~David Legates and E. Calvin Beisner
April’s Disinflation Delivery
“In the first quarter of 2024, the US economy expanded at a rate of 1.6 percent per year. That’s hardly an impressive growth rate, but it’s significantly faster than money supply growth. Money looks somewhat tight.” ~Alexander W. Salter
Private Governance Will Make You Free
“Enforcement of these emergent rules can be accomplished largely by what Adam Smith called ‘propriety,’ rather than by armed employees of the state.” ~Michael Munger
Sloppy Utopia
“The book is irrelevant in the exact meaning of that word: It does not answer the question it sets for itself, does not rise to the task of chronicling the big economic changes of the extended twentieth century, does not adequately and accurately capture a believable grand narrative.” ~Joakim Book
AIER Everyday Price Index Rises for Fifth Consecutive Month
“April’s core CPI data represents the lowest of 2024 and may signal the resumption of disinflation, particularly where shelter costs are concerned. Despite some favorable signs, though, there remains a persistent inflationary pressure in certain categories.” ~Peter C. Earle
Japanese Immigrant Exclusion: 100 Years Later
“Scientists and academics nationwide embraced these outward intentions to divide the ‘desirable’ immigrants from those more susceptible to crime, disease, and incompetence.” ~Will Sellers
Is The Fed Manipulating the Market?
“We cannot just look at the Fed’s target rate to determine whether it is manipulating the market. We must consider its target rate relative to the natural rate.” ~Bryan Cutsinger
Substitution Effects and Steering-Wheel Daggers
“Because of substitution effects, we should always be aware that outcomes quite different from those that seem most obvious are possible. Mandating greater automobile safety might reduce traffic fatalities. Or it might not.” ~Donald J. Boudreaux
Unleashing Educational Freedom: A Blueprint for Future Generations
“We should ‘fund students, not systems,’ as DeAngelis loves to say, and empower parents, not politicians and bureaucrats.” ~Vance Ginn
Illiberal Youth Threaten Freedom
“Like National Socialist youth, individual rights mean nothing to young people today. The loss of talented people with different opinions was a plus for the Nazis.” ~Barry Brownstein
Importing Votes, Not Steel
“Cooperation between conglomerates can be swept aside by the government for political gain. Ultimately, it is the public who pays for these political plays.” ~Stefan Bartl
Climate “Reparations” Numbers Are Rigged
“Human living standards have improved in unprecedented ways over the past 300 years. These remarkable improvements in human welfare are not limited to wealthy, developed economies but are enjoyed around the world.” ~Paul Mueller
Every Village a Republic
“Article I, Section 10 might protect local communities from federal abuse, as intended by the Founders, but offers no tools to simultaneously protect ourselves from local tyrannies.” ~David Gillette and Thaddeus Meadows
Chairman Powell and The Fed’s Limits
“Congress should applaud Chairman Powell’s candor on uncertainty and strongly support his principle of operating the Fed within the limits of its mandate.” ~Alex J. Pollock
Bipartisan But Brutal: Lessons from the Chinese Exclusion Act
“This bipartisan consensus was not a middle ground, but rather a race to the bottom driven by the worst impulses of politicians and voters.” ~Vincent Geloso
The Magic Food Cupboard
“Every small aspect of the work that people do to deliver and stock those Whole Foods grocery shelves is noble, in its own way. Dismissing the parts as meaningless fails to understand the power of the larger system.” ~Michael Munger
The Bourgeois Deal Brought Us More than Pie in the Sky
“We didn’t need a worker’s revolution to get and enjoy pie in the here and now… Innovation and profit-seeking in a society that embraced the Bourgeois Deal made workers so much more productive that the pie grew. A lot.” ~Art Carden
Apple’s Big Business: Mises is Right, Sen Warren is Wrong
“The government’s ever-growing interest in deterring business expansion, along with granting federal agencies greater say over marketplace matters, is a complete disservice to our nation’s progress.” ~Kimberlee Josephson
Getting Monetary Policy Back on Track
“Experts seemingly identify much more closely with the central bankers — the practitioners of monetary policy — than with those forced to contend with the negative consequences of bad decisions.” ~Judy Shelton
Is Texas Really the Future of Freedom?
“Texas does several big things really well, and I’m rooting for them to improve elsewhere. But let’s not pretend Texas is the free-market archetype for the country.” ~Jason Sorens
Unlimited Growth, Forever
“Every popular scare of the past has been side-stepped, improved, or solved, by one or another human effort, usually serendipitously and rarely at all with well-meaning bureaucrats directing the process. ” ~Joakim Book
The Ratchet Effect on the Fed’s Balance Sheet
“The ratchet effect has locked us in a world with a massive Fed balance sheet — and the insidious problems of runaway deficit spending and easy bailout monetary expansion that come with it.” ~ Paul Mueller
Florida’s Faux-Meat Ban Slaughtered Free Enterprise
“The public interest is served when fraud, deception, and misleading labeling are prevented. Unfortunately, the Florida legislature has gone far beyond this, at the behest of the ranchers’ lobby.” ~Paul Mueller
Does Market Concentration Signal Monopoly?
“The Coasean theory of the firm is noticeably absent from antitrust discussions. Failure to understand that firms arise to lower costs can lead to incorrect conclusions.” ~Jon Murphy
Stakeholder Statism is Coming
“ESG follows the trajectory of efforts by the progressive left to replace a free, voluntary, and competitive society… with centrally ordered institutions… to engineer their preferred society.” ~Richard M. Reinsch
Failed Proof that Every Vote Counts
“Many candidates who have vociferously insisted that ‘every vote counts’ push policies that deny vast numbers of Americans the right to get what they would vote for if given the choice.” ~Gary Galles
Take National Security Off Auto-Pilot
“We have squandered our own scarce resources, bred animosity overseas, and frequently made existing conditions worse.” ~Andrew Byers
They Can Afford It!
“Even companies with unusually high net worth cannot, in fact, afford to pay workers more than those workers contribute to the companies’ bottom lines.” ~Donald J. Boudreaux
A Marxist Economist Explains Why Socialism Could Never Create a PS5
“A clip going viral on social media reveals that this marvelous invention could only be produced in a capitalist system.” ~Jon Miltimore
Taxpayer Rights Revival in California
“With inflation shrinking the purchasing power of their dollar and faced with higher tax bills because of ‘bracket creep,’ taxpayers are starting to push back against wasteful government spending again.” ~Thomas Savidge
Economists’ Advocacy for a Carbon Tax Is Misguided
“The reality is that bureaucrats and politicians would likely choose a metric aligned with their self-interest or with the interests of those who currently hold power.” ~Kenneth W. Costello
Weaving Stable Neighborhoods
“It’s simply unconscionable that so many of us continue to invest our charitable time and treasure into projects that undermine social cohesion rather than building it.” ~Rachel Ferguson
Sanders’s 4-Day Week Will Kill Flexible Jobs
“Many Americans juggle multiple or part-time jobs to make ends meet. This policy would add another layer of complexity and constraint in a market that requires more flexibility, not less.” ~Vance Ginn
Inflation Declined in March, But Remains High
“Market participants continue to expect the Fed will cut its federal funds rate target this year — just not anytime soon.” ~ William J. Luther
US Economic Growth Plunges in First Quarter 2024
“Much of the post-COVID economic growth has been built atop the unsustainable pillars of fiscal and monetary stimuli.” ~Peter C. Earle