Topic: Economic Education

Cryptocurrency, Currency, Economic Education

AMPLs and YAMs aren’t Monies; They are Gambling Technologies

– August 30, 2020

“It’s hard to see why AMPL or YAM could ever replace a dollar. While the price of these tokens is relatively benign, their quantity fluctuates wildly. So the total purchasing power of AMPLs (or YAMs) held in one’s wallet is quite volatile despite the purchasing power of a given AMPL (or YAM) being stable. Put plainly, these aren’t dollar substitutes.” ~ J.P. Koning

Economic Education, Environmentalism, Property Rights, Regulation

Is the Amazon Really a Market Failure?

– August 27, 2020

“A government strong enough to assign and enforce private property rights in remote areas wouldn’t have a problem with (excessive) deforestation in the first place. A government weak enough – or uninterested enough – that it’s unable to do so, couldn’t credibly abstain from chopping down trees, or promise that its citizens won’t do so either.” ~ Joakim Book

Books, Economic Education, Free Markets

The Power of “No”

– August 27, 2020

“Once we abandon a false and failed zero-sum worldview and realize just how much abundance is available for everyone, we will embrace winning friends, influencing people, and recognizing others’ right to say ‘no’ to any offer.” ~ Art Carden

Crisis, Economic Education

Lockdowns and Mask Mandates Do Not Lead to Reduced COVID Transmission Rates or Deaths, New Study Suggests

– August 26, 2020

“The paper’s conclusion is that the data trends observed above likely indicate that nonpharmaceutical interventions (NPIs) – such as lockdowns, closures, travel restrictions, stay-home orders, event bans, quarantines, curfews, and mask mandates – do not seem to affect virus transmission rates overall.” Stephen Miller

Economic Education, Regulation

When the Minimum Wage Rises, A Million More Fall Below Minimum

– August 26, 2020

“Past increases in the federal minimum wage always resulted in many more people pushed into jobs paying below minimum and usually losing whatever benefits they previously enjoyed. Far from being an effective and humane way to raise the lowest incomes the unintended consequence of increasing the federal minimum wage has, in fact, been to force hundreds of thousands more Americans into substandard jobs and make the poorest workers poorer.” ~ Alan Reynolds

Authoritarianism, Crisis, Economic Education, Government

Biden’s “Passion and Purpose” is More Political Paternalism

– August 25, 2020

“It is so essential for those who value and understand the classical liberal meaning of personal liberty, economic freedom, voluntary association, impartial rule of law, and the importance and role of a constitutionally limited government, to explain to and persuade our fellow citizens that what the Democrats and the Republicans are currently offering us is not the path to a promised ‘social justice’ heaven on earth, or a way for people or a country to be ‘great.’ But, rather, they lead to paternalistic tyrannies that once fully in place will be extremely difficult from which to extricate ourselves.” ~ Richard M. Ebeling

Crisis, Economic Education, Government

Opposed to Government Intervention, Crisis or Not

– August 25, 2020

“No matter what legislators do, even when they’re incredibly well-intentioned, the machine within which the decisions are made is by nature political and, hence, subject to special-interest influences, knowledge limitations, and path dependencies.” ~ Veronique de Rugy

Authoritarianism, Crisis, Economic Education

The End of Consensus

– August 24, 2020

“We think of social media with its inescapable cacophony as a force dividing us. But the problem is our assumption that ‘united’ means ‘doing and thinking the same thing.’ Ironically, exactly this networked technology enables us to think and do different things while remaining connected rather than isolated, and therefore, be greater than the sum of our parts. Old ideas about our politics finding a single consensus are the true dividers.” ~ Max Gulker

Crisis, Economic Education, Free Markets

Employment Options, Not Labor Unions, are the Real Source of Bargaining Power for Workers

– August 24, 2020

“If America really is filled with underpaid workers, before letting politicians and pundits who express this belief put other people’s money where their mouths are, let them put their money where their mouths are by launching new businesses that can profitably employ today’s underpaid workers. If these politicians and pundits are correct, they have nothing to lose and – along with American workers – everything to gain.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux

Authoritarianism, Crisis, Economic Education, History

Let’s Follow the History of Science Instead

– August 24, 2020

“A politician who really had the public’s interest at heart would, instead, say: ‘Times are tough. Some Americans have died from a natural cause and more are likely to. Unfortunately, there is not much we can do because viruses live by their own rules, not ours.'” ~ Robert E. Wright

Crisis, Economic Education

Save Yourself: Stop Believing in Lockdown

– August 23, 2020

“As Voltaire wrote during the Enlightenment — when society still had time away from the screen to reflect on philosophy, morality, and fundamental truth — ‘those who can make you believe absurdities, can make you commit atrocities.'” ~ Stacey Rudin

Crisis, Economic Education, Economic Trends

Older Americans Should Be Anti-Lockdown Activists

– August 22, 2020

“The best policy on dealing with a virus – bolstering immunities among young people while protecting the vulnerable – is the freedom to behave rationally. Any other policy risks the kind of carnage we see all around us today, even as the virus has wickedly and profoundly affected our oldest Americans.” ~ Jeffrey Tucker