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.

AIER’s Editorial Policy.

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

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

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

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