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 Everyday Price Index Hits All-Time Record in March 2024
“It is increasingly clear that the choice to stop rate hikes at the 5.25 to 5.50 policy rate range was at best premature and may ultimately prove insufficient.” ~Peter C. Earle
The Middleman Is a Public Servant
“Letting people make their own choices is an important part of respecting one another as free equals… We don’t help people by prohibiting the choices they actually make.” ~Art Carden
Look With Two Is
“Look at institutional arrangements as they actually play out, making the comparison by looking through two Is: information and incentives.” ~Michael Munger
Preserve Architectural History with Incentives, Not Bans
“Removing government from the process by changing dated zoning regulations is the best path forward to solving the housing shortage. A small piece of the puzzle should be historic landmarks and district reform.” ~Jason Sorens and Thomas Savidge
Should We Panic Over Excessively Low Global Temperatures?
“We simply have no way to trace out more than a minuscule fraction of the economic consequences, positive and negative, of government efforts to alter a phenomenon as massive as the earth’s environment.” ~Donald J. Boudreaux
Uncle Sam, Addicted to Debt, Faces Future Military Bills
“When the inevitable crisis hits, it will be even more difficult to reach a rational solution. Better to start now with the misnamed Defense Department.” ~Doug Bandow
EPA Phase Out of Gas-Powered Cars Has Ominous Historic Echoes
“Forcing automobile companies to expand production of their least-profitable product lines at the expense of their best-performing ones is economic madness.” ~Jon Miltimore
The Fed and Political Independence: It’s Complicated
“We should focus less on who’s allowed to run the Fed and more on what the Fed’s allowed to do in the first place.” ~Alexander W. Salter
AI Opposition: Economic and Philosophical Sophistry
“Economic growth is by far and away the most far-reaching and compounding good mankind has ever experienced — the very phenomenon responsible for modern infrastructure, schools, and health care.” ~Jack Nicastro and Samuel Crombie
Is Learning Standard “White” English Oppressive for Black Students?
“The ‘anti-racist’ writing notions abounding today disempower black students…and actually get in the way of constructive actions. Obsessing over ‘white privilege’ doesn’t help black students succeed.” ~George Leef
How the Subsidy Straw Is Sucking The Colorado River Dry
“A trifecta of farming-sector entitlements have incentivized producers to grow thirsty plants, underpriced water extraction, and created moral hazard….Subsidies have made water 10 times cheaper in Arizona than in Michigan.” ~Peter Clark
20th Century Ideology, Modern Mixed Economies
“Neither the Chinese communists nor the Russian communists ever redistributed significant resources from the able to the needy. If anything, they did the reverse.” ~John Goodman
Quality Boosts in Sports Collectibles
“An hour of labor today might not buy many more baseball cards than an hour of labor a generation ago, but it would be a mistake to conclude that living standards haven’t changed much because the quality has improved so much.” ~Art Carden
Principleless, Panicked and Power-Hungry
“The authoritarian response to COVID amounted to the biggest inroads on our civil liberties in two hundred years… the judges were as frightened and panicked as most everyone else.” ~James Allan
US Manufacturing is Doing Just Fine
“Faced with the increased prosperity that has correlated with lowered trade barriers, making the case that trade liberalization has led to widespread harm is no easy task.” ~Colin Grabow
Eating The Rich Won’t Feed the Beast
“The hungry behemoth that is the US federal government is already eating the rich… Jeff Bezos’ great fortune would finance the government for… less than a week. ” ~Joakim Book
Assessing Bidenomics: The Fatal Conceit of National Commercial Policy
“Roughly 50 cents out of every dollar of economic activity in the US is controlled by a government, rather than an entrepreneur, consumer, or investor. That is bad news for efficiency and growth. It’s also bad news for liberty.” ~Nikolai G. Wenzel
Government Project: The Eternal Folly of Central Planning
“Edward Banfield’s careful case study of the Casa Grande project, based on his review of the detailed government records, is a sobering critique of government planning and social engineering.” ~Mark Pulliam
AIER Everyday Price Index Hits All-Time Record in March 2024
“It is increasingly clear that the choice to stop rate hikes at the 5.25 to 5.50 policy rate range was at best premature and may ultimately prove insufficient.” ~Peter C. Earle
The Middleman Is a Public Servant
“Letting people make their own choices is an important part of respecting one another as free equals… We don’t help people by prohibiting the choices they actually make.” ~Art Carden
Look With Two Is
“Look at institutional arrangements as they actually play out, making the comparison by looking through two Is: information and incentives.” ~Michael Munger
Preserve Architectural History with Incentives, Not Bans
“Removing government from the process by changing dated zoning regulations is the best path forward to solving the housing shortage. A small piece of the puzzle should be historic landmarks and district reform.” ~Jason Sorens and Thomas Savidge
Should We Panic Over Excessively Low Global Temperatures?
“We simply have no way to trace out more than a minuscule fraction of the economic consequences, positive and negative, of government efforts to alter a phenomenon as massive as the earth’s environment.” ~Donald J. Boudreaux
Uncle Sam, Addicted to Debt, Faces Future Military Bills
“When the inevitable crisis hits, it will be even more difficult to reach a rational solution. Better to start now with the misnamed Defense Department.” ~Doug Bandow
EPA Phase Out of Gas-Powered Cars Has Ominous Historic Echoes
“Forcing automobile companies to expand production of their least-profitable product lines at the expense of their best-performing ones is economic madness.” ~Jon Miltimore
The Fed and Political Independence: It’s Complicated
“We should focus less on who’s allowed to run the Fed and more on what the Fed’s allowed to do in the first place.” ~Alexander W. Salter
AI Opposition: Economic and Philosophical Sophistry
“Economic growth is by far and away the most far-reaching and compounding good mankind has ever experienced — the very phenomenon responsible for modern infrastructure, schools, and health care.” ~Jack Nicastro and Samuel Crombie
Is Learning Standard “White” English Oppressive for Black Students?
“The ‘anti-racist’ writing notions abounding today disempower black students…and actually get in the way of constructive actions. Obsessing over ‘white privilege’ doesn’t help black students succeed.” ~George Leef
How the Subsidy Straw Is Sucking The Colorado River Dry
“A trifecta of farming-sector entitlements have incentivized producers to grow thirsty plants, underpriced water extraction, and created moral hazard….Subsidies have made water 10 times cheaper in Arizona than in Michigan.” ~Peter Clark
20th Century Ideology, Modern Mixed Economies
“Neither the Chinese communists nor the Russian communists ever redistributed significant resources from the able to the needy. If anything, they did the reverse.” ~John Goodman
Quality Boosts in Sports Collectibles
“An hour of labor today might not buy many more baseball cards than an hour of labor a generation ago, but it would be a mistake to conclude that living standards haven’t changed much because the quality has improved so much.” ~Art Carden
Principleless, Panicked and Power-Hungry
“The authoritarian response to COVID amounted to the biggest inroads on our civil liberties in two hundred years… the judges were as frightened and panicked as most everyone else.” ~James Allan
US Manufacturing is Doing Just Fine
“Faced with the increased prosperity that has correlated with lowered trade barriers, making the case that trade liberalization has led to widespread harm is no easy task.” ~Colin Grabow
Eating The Rich Won’t Feed the Beast
“The hungry behemoth that is the US federal government is already eating the rich… Jeff Bezos’ great fortune would finance the government for… less than a week. ” ~Joakim Book
Assessing Bidenomics: The Fatal Conceit of National Commercial Policy
“Roughly 50 cents out of every dollar of economic activity in the US is controlled by a government, rather than an entrepreneur, consumer, or investor. That is bad news for efficiency and growth. It’s also bad news for liberty.” ~Nikolai G. Wenzel
Government Project: The Eternal Folly of Central Planning
“Edward Banfield’s careful case study of the Casa Grande project, based on his review of the detailed government records, is a sobering critique of government planning and social engineering.” ~Mark Pulliam