Topic: Economic Education

Economic Education, Government, Regulation

Bigger Can Be Better, When Governments Step Out of The Way!

– March 24, 2021

“If you take a hard glance at instances of big firms being accused of acting like monopolies, you will often find something similar to the Canadian telecoms case. This has an important implication for those who propose remedies to deal with ‘big firms’ (which they take to mean monopoly). Indeed, rather than placing the onus on governments to intervene to regulate these big firms, one is forced to assign blame to governments for protecting some big firms from the threat of competition.” ~ Vincent Geloso

Economic Education, Financial Markets, Media

The Business Economics of The Office

– March 24, 2021

“Though The Office may offer a somewhat exaggerated account of entrepreneurial alertness, economic calculation, and the vagaries of corporate management, the broader strokes of its characters’ endeavors are informative. Namely, these are concepts that lie in the pages of economics and business textbooks, accompanied by graphs that make the layman’s head turn. Yet, viewed through the lens of Dunder Mifflin’s trials and tribulations, these concepts become accessible––even subconsciously.” ~ Peter C Earle & Amelia Janaskie

Economic Education, Free Trade, Government

The Mischief of “Pecuniary Externalities”

– March 23, 2021

“Perhaps my long discourse on ‘pecuniary externalities’ strikes the reader as ponderous or even pointless. Ponderous it probably is, but pointless it is not. If the above reality were more widely understood, many fewer people would complain about foreigners using their exports as a means of ‘stealing our jobs.'” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux

Economic Education, Free Markets

Hard Work Isn’t Enough. You Have to Work Hard on the Right Things.

– March 23, 2021

“Markets make the costs and benefits very explicit, and while we see through a glass darkly by participating in the market process, it is better than seeing nothing at all. The market might be Plato’s cave, but the nonmarket alternative is not perfect light but perfect darkness.” ~ Art Carden

Economic Education, Free Markets, Government

The Right of Exit Is What Keeps Society Prosperous and Peaceful

– March 21, 2021

“If we’re willing to trust something as supremely important as our language to cooperation, how much more should we be willing to trust to cooperation our education, health care, wages, and the many other things we think are so important as to require coercion?” ~ Antony Davies

Economic Education, Financial Markets

Lose a Ton of Money Fast With “Hot Stock Tips”

– March 21, 2021

“It warms my heart when a student or alum tells me they’ve opened a Roth IRA or when I can advise a high schooler who has been saving up so he can buy a share of Amazon stock to put the money in a mutual fund instead. Managing your money wisely isn’t especially glamorous, but it certainly beats risking it all and ending up with nothing.” ~ Art Carden

Authoritarianism, Crisis, Economic Education

Stop the Cartoonish Excuses for Covid Restrictions

– March 18, 2021

“Pro-lockdown economists faux scientifically chant ‘Reduce externalities!’ Libertarians with a weak commitment to liberty self-righteously claim to be the true upholders of liberty by repeating nonstop ‘We must honor the non-aggression principle!’ But neither these economists nor these libertarians take the time to consider the complex real-world details from which individuals’ rights emerge and in which these rights are rooted and defined.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux

Authoritarianism, Crisis, Economic Education

Only Ending Lockdowns Can Stimulate the Economy

– March 18, 2021

“Regardless of what one believes about the health costs or benefits of lockdowns, preventing businesses from operating is clearly bad for the economy. Fiscal spending and monetary expansion cannot improve matters while these restrictions remain in place.” ~ Thomas L. Hogan

Economic Education, Fiscal Policy, Government

Contra Nicholas Kristof, Presidential Ink Will Never ‘Scrub’ Away Poverty

– March 17, 2021

“It cannot be stressed enough that if poverty were about money, then it would have been wholly erased long ago given the trillions spent on its mitigation. Admirable as Kristof’s idealism is, it’s just that. Nothing more. The perfect world he envisions cannot and will not be created by the stroke of a pen.” ~ John Tamny

Crisis, Economic Education, Free Markets

Vaccine Passports are Cronyism

– March 16, 2021

“Win-win outcomes arise from the capitalist mindset that others are peers whose freedom to opt-in or opt-out of any transaction we respect. Such a mindset orients us towards service and away from coercion. The crony mindset rationalizes exploiting the power of the state to profit by coercion and is anything but lovely.” ~ Barry Brownstein

Economic Education, Free Markets, Government

What Trash Can Teach Us About Economics

– March 16, 2021

“So, what does my trash teach us about economics? What is true of garbage, which should be a relatively straightforward service for a government to provide, is even more true of important and complex services, such as health care and education. Competition to serve customers is the best way to encourage human well-being.” ~ Daniel J. Smith

Crisis, Economic Education, Healthcare

Leave the Choice of Restrictions to the Market

– March 14, 2021

“Allowing vaccinated people the opportunity to return to a freer lifestyle has an added society benefit: It surely will increase vaccination acceptance rates. The alternative — forcing vaccinated people to continue to adhere to the strictest sanitary protocols — would surely reduce the number of people willing to be vaccinated. What’s wrong with allowing businesses to choose their approach to customer safety, and customers to choose which business they patronize? Nothing. Nothing at all.” ~ Ramon P. DeGennaro