Topic: Economic Education

theamericans

What Self-Ownership Means and Why It Matters

– December 23, 2018

It’s not that we as a humane culture reject the idea of self-ownership. It’s that we don’t take it very seriously in our politics. Everyone believes it; no political system practices it.

READ MORE
2018awards

AIER’s Best of 2018

– December 20, 2018

This year AIER has published a constant stream of outstanding content from some of the best writers in the social sciences. The range is remarkable: current commentary, deep research, historical material, pure theory, logical analytics, and so much more.

READ MORE
retailmall

Will Reducing Transaction Costs Be the End of Retail?

– December 19, 2018

Will large, vertically integrated firms as we have known them disappear?

READ MORE
thegang

AIER, This Year and Next

– December 19, 2018

The atmosphere at AIER makes for a welcome contrast with the civic culture of division and anger that dominates politics and mainstream news. We are focused on the long term, and on truth and integrity as the desiderata of intellectual value.

READ MORE
broker-buy-customers-1368687

Millennials Want to Buy Homes, but Student-Loan Debt Is Not Letting Them

– December 13, 2018

This makes millennials the first generation in a while to be forced to postpone saving for homes simply because their student loans take up so much of their income. No wonder the growing debt related to higher education has now achieved “crisis” levels.

READ MORE
papertowels

They Are Coming for Your Paper Towels

– December 12, 2018

They want us to use rags, sponges, and mops again for all our small spills in the kitchen? Forget it. We don’t want cross contamination. We don’t want stinky sponges around our food. We don’t want to drag out buckets and rags just to remove that spilled milk on the counter. We don’t need a new paper-towel tax; such a thing might inspire riots in the streets, and should. Our hands will be cold and dead before they pry the paper towels from our fingers.

READ MORE
borderwall

A Border Wall Will Worsen the Drug Problem

– December 11, 2018

The increased violence near the US borders is the result of the current drug prohibition and will likely inflame with further prohibitory measures. 

READ MORE
farmersmarket

How Self Interest Builds Prosperity and Community

– December 10, 2018

Markets guided by prices daily lead each of us to share happily and abundantly with each other despite the reality that we are, to each other, mostly strangers. Familiarity, affection, and brotherly love are virtuous feelings but these feelings do not contribute as reliably to our material well being as does market exchange.

READ MORE
scolding

The Political Economy of Virtue Signaling

– December 9, 2018

Since neither politician, activist, nor voter are held responsible for our actions when a policy goes wrong, blame (or praise for that matter) is also highly distributed. This distribution of blame then diminishes the responsibility of those who might plausibly be held most culpable for the bad consequences.

READ MORE
sharingeconomy

All Markets are Sharing Economies

– December 3, 2018

Market prices weave consumers together with each other, and with producers, into a humane and peaceful community of sharers.

READ MORE
arrogance

Humility Is Extremely Scarce in Politics

– November 30, 2018

The truth is that when you live, as I do, in Arlington ,Virginia , and work near Washington, D.C., you know all too well that humility is a very scarce commodity.  

READ MORE
perfectcompetition

The Theory of Perfect Competition Is Wholly Misleading

– November 27, 2018

The theory of perfect competition should be utterly rejected, both as a theory of competition (which it is not) and as offering an appropriate standard against which to judge real-world markets (which it does not).

READ MORE