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.
How Two Corn Cobs Upended A Foreign Aid Model in Zimbabwe
“It may not be the silver bullet to defeat food insecurity across Africa, but it shows that solutions to thorny problems can start with something as simple as two corn cobs, rather than expensive approaches that result in lifelong dependency on other nations.” ~ Craig J. Richardson
But Who Will Build the Roads: A Parable
“Maybe, others one day will join the call once they hear how much cash could be recouped and costs and delays avoided by returning to the path once heavily traveled, the one where travelers, not Leviathan, decide how best to travel hither and thither.” ~ Robert E. Wright
What Accounts for All This Stuff?
“For anyone who is aware of the indescribable complexity and enormous productivity of the global market economy, nothing does more to drain credibility from capitalism’s critics than these critics’ apparent ignorance of this complexity and productivity.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
Obstacles to Freedom Can Be the Way to Freedom
“If we set our purpose to learn from obstacles, today, there is no better opportunity to choose freedom over violence. Thankfully, Read, Aurelius, and Emerson point the way; the more significant the obstacles, the greater the potential change.” ~ Barry Brownstein
Rising Use of the Fed’s Discount Window Raises Questions
“The fact that the amounts being borrowed at the discount window are rising in an oscillatory fashion with progressively higher ‘highs’ and higher ‘lows’ hints, while not conclusively, that the amounts being borrowed are increasing as the Fed increases rates.” ~ Peter C. Earle
Davos and the Holy Grail of Equity
“At what point will their good intentions lead to tyranny? Did we learn nothing from the pandemic, when government overreach led to economic, health, and educational disasters?” ~ Caroline Breashears
A Dispatch From the Corporatized Dystopia: Bring on the Chains!
“If there’s still money to be made, consumers are voting for more, and it is not my prerogative, nor yours, or Bernie Sanders’, or anyone else’s to suppress those votes.” ~ Art Carden
Letting Chinese Nationals Buy Real Estate is a Human Rights Issue
“The inability to seize some of the wealth of a small minority of Chinese people makes the world a slightly better place than it otherwise would be.” Vincent Geloso
Enrollment Declines Increase Pressure on ‘Woke’ Higher Ed
“Lower enrollment and tuition dollars will force university leaders to make tough decisions on what they value the most. Will they roll back DEI offerings, or will funding toward research and education see the effects?” ~ David Waugh
Beware the Soft Landing Narrative (Video)
“Earle thinks a more charitable version of the Fed’s handling of monetary policy over the last three years might emerge, resulting in less public skepticism about the limits of monetary policy.” ~ AIER
Debt Ceiling Theater, The 2023 Revival
“We deserve exactly the government we have insisted upon for all these years. We also deserve the heavy price that will come for our own irresponsibility in repeatedly re-electing this troupe. No partisan theater will ever sugarcoat that.” ~ Antony Davies & James R. Harrigan
Take Your Foot off the Gas
“If environmental zealots in the Biden administration were to get their way, then something would have to answer the call for such a huge increase in electricity demand. Do they have an answer for this challenge?” ~ Jon Sanders
On the Primacy of the Consumer-Welfare Standard
“Production is a means; consumption is the end. The consumer-welfare standard is nothing more, nor less, than an understanding and acceptance of this fundamental economic reality.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
Yes, Twelve Dollars Is a Good Price for Two Batteries–Under the Right Conditions
“Economists are wary of the word ‘need;’ whether you need something or not is context-dependent, and I’m always amazed at how much my kids’ ‘needs’ change when they’re paying with their money rather than mine.” ~ Art Carden
The Power to Regulate Is the Power to Control
“The ‘chilling effect’ of government censorship by corporate proxy has Americans on an icy slope that bottoms out in the sort of political slavery feared by the Founders and Framers.” ~ Robert E. Wright
DEI Ruins Excellence in Orchestral Programming
“We should allow a free marketplace of ideas to decide, through the messy process of hearing music over and over again, with different ears and at different times, what should stand the test of time. ” ~ Joshua Nichols
In Retrogress
Bad and disproven economic ideas have an uncanny longevity. While knowledge tends to be cumulative in most intellectual fields, the accumulation of knowledge in economics and finance seems to follow a more cyclical pattern. In this edition of the Harwood Economic Review we examine some recent examples of those, and discuss why ideas akin to spontaneous generation or phlogiston theory are periodically reinvigorated and applied in policy measures.
Individuals, Not Governments, Have a Comparative Advantage at Improving Comparative Advantages
“There is no plausible case to be made that for us Americans to improve our comparative advantages we need government to protect us from foreign competition.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
How Two Corn Cobs Upended A Foreign Aid Model in Zimbabwe
“It may not be the silver bullet to defeat food insecurity across Africa, but it shows that solutions to thorny problems can start with something as simple as two corn cobs, rather than expensive approaches that result in lifelong dependency on other nations.” ~ Craig J. Richardson
But Who Will Build the Roads: A Parable
“Maybe, others one day will join the call once they hear how much cash could be recouped and costs and delays avoided by returning to the path once heavily traveled, the one where travelers, not Leviathan, decide how best to travel hither and thither.” ~ Robert E. Wright
What Accounts for All This Stuff?
“For anyone who is aware of the indescribable complexity and enormous productivity of the global market economy, nothing does more to drain credibility from capitalism’s critics than these critics’ apparent ignorance of this complexity and productivity.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
Obstacles to Freedom Can Be the Way to Freedom
“If we set our purpose to learn from obstacles, today, there is no better opportunity to choose freedom over violence. Thankfully, Read, Aurelius, and Emerson point the way; the more significant the obstacles, the greater the potential change.” ~ Barry Brownstein
Rising Use of the Fed’s Discount Window Raises Questions
“The fact that the amounts being borrowed at the discount window are rising in an oscillatory fashion with progressively higher ‘highs’ and higher ‘lows’ hints, while not conclusively, that the amounts being borrowed are increasing as the Fed increases rates.” ~ Peter C. Earle
Davos and the Holy Grail of Equity
“At what point will their good intentions lead to tyranny? Did we learn nothing from the pandemic, when government overreach led to economic, health, and educational disasters?” ~ Caroline Breashears
A Dispatch From the Corporatized Dystopia: Bring on the Chains!
“If there’s still money to be made, consumers are voting for more, and it is not my prerogative, nor yours, or Bernie Sanders’, or anyone else’s to suppress those votes.” ~ Art Carden
Letting Chinese Nationals Buy Real Estate is a Human Rights Issue
“The inability to seize some of the wealth of a small minority of Chinese people makes the world a slightly better place than it otherwise would be.” Vincent Geloso
Enrollment Declines Increase Pressure on ‘Woke’ Higher Ed
“Lower enrollment and tuition dollars will force university leaders to make tough decisions on what they value the most. Will they roll back DEI offerings, or will funding toward research and education see the effects?” ~ David Waugh
Beware the Soft Landing Narrative (Video)
“Earle thinks a more charitable version of the Fed’s handling of monetary policy over the last three years might emerge, resulting in less public skepticism about the limits of monetary policy.” ~ AIER
Debt Ceiling Theater, The 2023 Revival
“We deserve exactly the government we have insisted upon for all these years. We also deserve the heavy price that will come for our own irresponsibility in repeatedly re-electing this troupe. No partisan theater will ever sugarcoat that.” ~ Antony Davies & James R. Harrigan
Take Your Foot off the Gas
“If environmental zealots in the Biden administration were to get their way, then something would have to answer the call for such a huge increase in electricity demand. Do they have an answer for this challenge?” ~ Jon Sanders
On the Primacy of the Consumer-Welfare Standard
“Production is a means; consumption is the end. The consumer-welfare standard is nothing more, nor less, than an understanding and acceptance of this fundamental economic reality.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
Yes, Twelve Dollars Is a Good Price for Two Batteries–Under the Right Conditions
“Economists are wary of the word ‘need;’ whether you need something or not is context-dependent, and I’m always amazed at how much my kids’ ‘needs’ change when they’re paying with their money rather than mine.” ~ Art Carden
The Power to Regulate Is the Power to Control
“The ‘chilling effect’ of government censorship by corporate proxy has Americans on an icy slope that bottoms out in the sort of political slavery feared by the Founders and Framers.” ~ Robert E. Wright
DEI Ruins Excellence in Orchestral Programming
“We should allow a free marketplace of ideas to decide, through the messy process of hearing music over and over again, with different ears and at different times, what should stand the test of time. ” ~ Joshua Nichols
In Retrogress
Bad and disproven economic ideas have an uncanny longevity. While knowledge tends to be cumulative in most intellectual fields, the accumulation of knowledge in economics and finance seems to follow a more cyclical pattern. In this edition of the Harwood Economic Review we examine some recent examples of those, and discuss why ideas akin to spontaneous generation or phlogiston theory are periodically reinvigorated and applied in policy measures.
Individuals, Not Governments, Have a Comparative Advantage at Improving Comparative Advantages
“There is no plausible case to be made that for us Americans to improve our comparative advantages we need government to protect us from foreign competition.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
