Topic: Economic Education

Economic Education, Environmentalism, Government

The Texas Freeze: A Reality Check

– February 24, 2021

“Can the Texas experience lead this nation to a better recognition of reality? Can it help politicians and administrators give priority to the concrete problems of today rather than the vague and speculative problems of the future?” ~ Jane Shaw Stroup

Authoritarianism, Crisis, Economic Education

Why I Believe that Covid Derangement Syndrome Is Real

– February 23, 2021

“I believe this syndrome to be real and deserving of a name that grabs attention. Such attention-grabbing is warranted, because I further believe that this syndrome poses a dangerous risk to humanity that dwarfs the risk posed by SARS-CoV-2.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux

Authoritarianism, Economic Education, Socialism

Socialism-in-Practice Was a Nightmare, Not Utopia

– February 23, 2021

“When the French sociologist, Gustave Le Bon published The Psychology of Socialism in 1899, he feared that, ‘One nation, at least, will have to suffer it [the establishment of a socialist system] for the instruction of the world. It will be one of those practical lessons which alone can enlighten the nations that are bemused with the dreams of happiness displayed before our eyes by the priests of the new [socialist] faith.’ Is it really necessary to go through it all again? Let us hope not.” ~ Richard M. Ebeling

Economic Education, Energy, History

W. S. Jevons (1865) on the Limits to Renewables

– February 22, 2021

“William Stanley Jevons was the first intellectual to question the ability of renewables to serve as primary energies for industrial society. The deep, thorough insight of the father of energy economics remains relevant today.” ~ Robert L. Bradley Jr.

Economic Education, Environmentalism, History

Economic Impromptus from the Ordinary Business of Life: A Trip to the Park

– February 22, 2021

“As I never tire of telling my students–though they probably tire of hearing it–economics is everywhere. The cool thing is you don’t even need to know where to look.” ~ Art Carden

Crisis, Economic Education, Regulation

Prices Help Us Bear One Another’s Burdens

– February 19, 2021

“When it comes to getting supplies to where they are most urgently needed, prices are absolutely necessary. Strangers on the other side of the world might not be texting to ask if they can help us specifically, but when they confront higher prices for water, gas, and building supplies and decide to make do with a little less, they are helping us in our time of need and bearing our burdens with us.” ~ Art Carden

Central Banking, Currency, Economic Education

The Banking System and the Evolution of Money

– February 18, 2021

“Many of the public policies that shackle the financial sector are designed to do so, because they help governments accomplish some other political objective. Engaging these political considerations, and how they impinge on banking and finance, is critical if we want to understand the history of monetary institutions, especially in the United States.” ~ Alexander W. Salter

Economic Education, Government, Regulation

Exploring Deeply the Economics of Price Controls

– February 17, 2021

“Governments are fond of dictating maximum prices and minimum wages. To the economically ignorant, these policies appear humane and worthwhile. But when examined through the lens of economics, these policies are clearly revealed to be harmful to the very persons they are ostensibly meant to help.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux

Authoritarianism, Crisis, Economic Education

Kevin Durant’s Genius Vivifies the Abject Stupidity of the Lockdowns

– February 16, 2021

“This tragic imposition of command-and-control by politicians means progress against career-ending injuries for athletes will likely slow, the discovery of what will eventually render the internet primitive will similarly be rendered a more distant object, and then progress against diseases that still kill us will have been relatively suffocated. All so politicians could ‘do something.'” ~ John Tamny

Crisis, Economic Education, Science

A Pandemic of Ignorance

– February 16, 2021

“Putting the lessons of political economy together (especially along with some elementary knowledge of statistical tricks) would have allowed Americans to better assess policymakers’ claims about Covid-19 transmission and the best ways to mitigate it and hence peacefully to resist unprecedented policies of dubious constitutionality and little scientific merit.” ~ Robert E. Wright

Economic Education, Free Markets

Do We Really Need All These Barbecue Restaurants?

– February 16, 2021

“Markets provide people with what they actually want as tested against their willingness to pay rather than what the Bernie Sanderses of the world know to be best for us. This is a feature, not a bug.” ~ Art Carden

Economic Education, Economic History, Policy

Minimum Wages Had a Eugenic Intent

– February 15, 2021

“Let’s say that instead of a $15 an hour minimum, Congress pushed a $15 maximum wage/salary. The rich would simply stop working, while everyone else would likely lose professional aspiration. This is not complicated to understand. So too with a wage floor: it cuts the poor out of the market just as the eugenicists said it would.” ~ Jeffrey Tucker