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.

Division of Labor Makes Us Wealthy…And Fragile

“Our dependence on the ability to serve others in highly specialized ways is contingent on the rest of the system working constantly and efficiently. Our shrinking command of general competence puts us at greater risk.” ~Michael Munger

Proletarian Capitalism

“Simply by repurposing existing personal property, Uber, Airbnb, and other sharing-economy innovations enlarge humanity’s stock of productive capital. And in doing so, these innovations also create more capitalists.” ~Donald J. Boudreaux

High Costs, Greenlash Hit Europe

“Like any other good, environmental protection has an opportunity cost. Surveys indicate that the majority of Europeans support green laws; however, a majority is also increasingly worried about the cost.” ~Nikolai Wenzel

DOJ Makes Our Skies Less Friendly

“The damage done by allowing ‘anticompetitive’ mergers dissipates over time, but the benefits of erroneously prohibiting beneficial ones are lost forever.” ~Tarnell Brown

Fed Admits It Was Wrong – Kind Of

“So rather than starting to tighten policy in the fourth quarter of ‘21, as Powell described, the Fed was implicitly loosening policy through May of ‘22.” ~Thomas L. Hogan

Cherry-Piketty Data

“Whether the distribution is problematic and calls for correction is one question, but measuring the extent of inequality and whether it is getting worse is an entirely different issue.” ~Robert Mulligan

Bitcoin Scoops Up Stranded and Excess Power

“Overbuilt facilities generate excess capacity, waste resources, and are only needed in extreme events. A consumer-of-last-resort could secure electricity grids and monetize their resilience.” ~Joakim Book

Wendy’s Won’t Use Dynamic Pricing – But Should They?

“The discount shelf in your lower supermarket is emblematic of the same process as well, albeit in the opposite direction. Variable pricing permits improved resource allocations, including of labor, by responding to real-time conditions.” ~Peter C. Earle

Beware of the Ceiling

“Alas, most voters are ignorant of Econ 101. They don’t realize that price ceilings actually decrease buyers’ access to goods whose prices are kept artificially low by government diktats.” ~Donald J. Boudreaux

Is Inflation on the Rise Again?

“The Fed should be looking ahead and adjusting monetary policy in light of its forecasts. Instead, its eyes are fixed on the rear-view mirror.” ~William J. Luther

How Rich People Create Poverty

“The real gains come from people moving to where their labor is more valuable  — and that’s in high-income countries like the United States. The problem is, we rich Westerners won’t let them come.” ~Art Carden

Teaching the Butterfly of Liberty

“Casa Escuela is but one of many global examples of grassroots, local, civil society efforts to bypass the state educational establishment, with its bloated bureaucracy, mediocrity, and hardcore socialist thought.” ~Nikolai Wenzel

Who is the Greatest Economist of All Time?

“No matter what your specialization, whether in economics or in any other field, Cowen has written a book which is trying to convince you to break out of your specialization and rediscover the broader world of ideas.” ~James Hartley

Congress Overspends, but the Fed Inflates

“At most, large deficits impelled the Fed to support the market for government debt by purchasing more debt than it should have. The central bank, not the fiscal authorities, is the residual determiner of aggregate demand.” ~Alexander W. Salter

Hayek and the End of Truth 

“The underlying purpose of linguistic sabotage, logical incoherence aside, is to justify the power of a few. The actual meaning of an oxymoron like collective freedom, Hayek said, ‘is not the freedom of the members of society but the unlimited freedom of the planner to do with society what he pleases.'” ~Juliana Geran Pilon

The Carbon Offset Dilemma

“One really has to question the motives of climate activists who oppose the expansion of natural gas and nuclear power. Do they want to see realistic and sustainable environmental improvement or are they after some other kind of payout?” ~Paul Mueller

Division of Labor Makes Us Wealthy…And Fragile

“Our dependence on the ability to serve others in highly specialized ways is contingent on the rest of the system working constantly and efficiently. Our shrinking command of general competence puts us at greater risk.” ~Michael Munger

Proletarian Capitalism

“Simply by repurposing existing personal property, Uber, Airbnb, and other sharing-economy innovations enlarge humanity’s stock of productive capital. And in doing so, these innovations also create more capitalists.” ~Donald J. Boudreaux

High Costs, Greenlash Hit Europe

“Like any other good, environmental protection has an opportunity cost. Surveys indicate that the majority of Europeans support green laws; however, a majority is also increasingly worried about the cost.” ~Nikolai Wenzel

DOJ Makes Our Skies Less Friendly

“The damage done by allowing ‘anticompetitive’ mergers dissipates over time, but the benefits of erroneously prohibiting beneficial ones are lost forever.” ~Tarnell Brown

Fed Admits It Was Wrong – Kind Of

“So rather than starting to tighten policy in the fourth quarter of ‘21, as Powell described, the Fed was implicitly loosening policy through May of ‘22.” ~Thomas L. Hogan

Cherry-Piketty Data

“Whether the distribution is problematic and calls for correction is one question, but measuring the extent of inequality and whether it is getting worse is an entirely different issue.” ~Robert Mulligan

Bitcoin Scoops Up Stranded and Excess Power

“Overbuilt facilities generate excess capacity, waste resources, and are only needed in extreme events. A consumer-of-last-resort could secure electricity grids and monetize their resilience.” ~Joakim Book

Wendy’s Won’t Use Dynamic Pricing – But Should They?

“The discount shelf in your lower supermarket is emblematic of the same process as well, albeit in the opposite direction. Variable pricing permits improved resource allocations, including of labor, by responding to real-time conditions.” ~Peter C. Earle

Beware of the Ceiling

“Alas, most voters are ignorant of Econ 101. They don’t realize that price ceilings actually decrease buyers’ access to goods whose prices are kept artificially low by government diktats.” ~Donald J. Boudreaux

Is Inflation on the Rise Again?

“The Fed should be looking ahead and adjusting monetary policy in light of its forecasts. Instead, its eyes are fixed on the rear-view mirror.” ~William J. Luther

How Rich People Create Poverty

“The real gains come from people moving to where their labor is more valuable  — and that’s in high-income countries like the United States. The problem is, we rich Westerners won’t let them come.” ~Art Carden

Teaching the Butterfly of Liberty

“Casa Escuela is but one of many global examples of grassroots, local, civil society efforts to bypass the state educational establishment, with its bloated bureaucracy, mediocrity, and hardcore socialist thought.” ~Nikolai Wenzel

Who is the Greatest Economist of All Time?

“No matter what your specialization, whether in economics or in any other field, Cowen has written a book which is trying to convince you to break out of your specialization and rediscover the broader world of ideas.” ~James Hartley

Congress Overspends, but the Fed Inflates

“At most, large deficits impelled the Fed to support the market for government debt by purchasing more debt than it should have. The central bank, not the fiscal authorities, is the residual determiner of aggregate demand.” ~Alexander W. Salter

Hayek and the End of Truth 

“The underlying purpose of linguistic sabotage, logical incoherence aside, is to justify the power of a few. The actual meaning of an oxymoron like collective freedom, Hayek said, ‘is not the freedom of the members of society but the unlimited freedom of the planner to do with society what he pleases.'” ~Juliana Geran Pilon

The Carbon Offset Dilemma

“One really has to question the motives of climate activists who oppose the expansion of natural gas and nuclear power. Do they want to see realistic and sustainable environmental improvement or are they after some other kind of payout?” ~Paul Mueller