Topic: Economic Education

The Extent of the Market is Limited By the Imagination of the Regulators

– May 21, 2021

“The regulatory state substitutes the knowledge and beliefs of regulators for the knowledge and beliefs of entrepreneurs and innovators. This means entrepreneurs and innovators have to divide their time between actually developing their product and convincing regulators to say ‘yes.’ Regulators are understandably overcautious because of their incentives.” ~ Art Carden

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Being Careful With Numbers, Words, and Visions: Review of Thomas Sowell, Discrimination and Disparities

– May 20, 2021

“Discrimination and Disparities is classic Sowell, and people who are already familiar with his work will find a lot of claims he has made elsewhere. However, these will likely be news to people who haven’t already read Intellectuals and Society, Intellectuals and Race, or Affirmative Action Around the World. Discrimination and Disparities is an important contribution with something to say to everyone who wants to understand the debate.” ~ Art Carden

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Are You “Wasting” Paper?

– May 19, 2021

“Do we really want already-stressed out people adding to their cognitive load by thinking they might be sinning against Gaia or Greta Thunberg by printing or discarding a sheet of paper? As Bryan Caplan has pointed out, ‘Recycling is the philosophy that everything is worth saving except your time.'”~ Art Carden

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What the Heck Is Bitcoin All About?

– May 19, 2021

“Peter C. Earle, senior fellow at AIER joins Aleksandra Przegalinska for a conversation on the unknowns of bitcoin, crypto currency and blockchain technologies in the modern era.” ~ AIER

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Are Tax Increases Popular?

– May 19, 2021

“Voters seem to be on the right side on the big-picture question of ‘Should taxes be higher?’, but if they think tax increases are going to happen, it’s quite likely that they will support the most economically damaging types of class-warfare levies.” ~ Daniel J. Mitchell

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Lift Your Gaze, Please: the April Inflation Overshoot is Not the Problem

– May 18, 2021

“A betting man, if he wants to remain a betting man, updates his priors. So, I side with Jason Bloom at the asset manager Invesco: ‘There is so much dislocation in the economy from the reopening and base effects from a year ago that it will take at least six to 12 months before we get a clear view of the underlying inflation trend.’ I will make a different sort of prediction, though: no matter what the future holds, the Chickens will be there to squawk about it.” ~ Joakim Book

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Monetary Inflation’s Game of Hide-and-Seek

– May 18, 2021

“Whether the CPI records a higher or a lower rate of general price inflation, the more deleterious effects resulting from monetary inflation are those relative price and wage distortions, and resource, labor and capital misallocations and misdirection, that are hidden beneath the ‘surface’ of the general price level, but nonetheless set in motion the phases and consequences of the business cycle.” ~ Richard M. Ebeling

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A Conversation on the Importance of Entrepreneurship

– May 17, 2021

“AIER Authors Corner, Ethan Yang interviews Dr. Eammon Butler, joining us from Cambridge, UK. Dr. Butler co-founded the Adam Smith Institute, which was credited with advising the Thatcher government in its radical market-oriented reforms of British society.” ~ AIER

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Lumber, Labor, and Gas Markets Tell SAD Stories

– May 17, 2021

“As economists emphasize whenever price gouging rules kick in, ignoring what supply and demand analysis has to teach us usually means making the problem worse rather than better.” ~ Art Carden

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Understanding Big Tech Dominance Requires Economics, Not Conspiracy Theories

– May 17, 2021

“Intellectual property laws, not childish conspiracy theories, explain the persistent dominance of Big Tech and social media.” ~ Peter C. Earle

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Changing the World: A Comparative Look at Public vs. Private Aid in the 19th and 21st Centuries

– May 16, 2021

“Though international aid should definitely not be considered a primary strategy toward poverty reduction, it still has an important role to play in lessening the side effects brought on by poverty, such as hunger and disease. We must continue to develop and correct the ways that we are allocating funds to those in need, so that it fills hungry mouths rather than lining politicians’ pockets.” ~ Rachel Sharrett

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Setting the Table for Covid-X

– May 15, 2021

“Covid-19 struck a robust, arguably healthy economy; a less productive, more heavily-indebted, higher tax economy awaits Covid-X.” ~ Peter C. Earle

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