Topic: Economic Education

Martin Feldstein Is Dead, Long Live His Critique of Social Security

– June 15, 2019

Feldstein taught his students and readers to think about economic policy decisions in rigorous ways, backed by hard numbers.

Economic Education

The Hidden Costs of a $15 Per Hour Minimum Wage

– June 11, 2019

There are a lot of ways firms and workers can adjust to higher minimum wages without anyone actually losing his or her job.

Economic Education

Beware the Candidate with a Plan

– June 7, 2019

Without realizing it, and as brilliant as they may be, the candidates—like all of us—are still profoundly ignorant.

Economic Education

Democracy and the Toxic Metastasizing of a Sound Idea

– June 4, 2019

Because the American government is democratically elected, there’s a widespread presumption that the actions of this government are, as a rule, the best ones possible. Yet this presumption is mistaken.

Economic Education

What Preferences Do You Want?

– June 4, 2019

What preferences do you want? In traditional neoclassical economics, that’s a nonsense question, because preferences are taken as idiosyncratic, fixed, and exogenous. Of course, that’s only a modeling assumption; no one really claims that’s descriptively accurate.

Economic Education

Should Hikers Pay for Their Own Rescue?

– May 28, 2019

The danger that individuals often put themselves in comes at a public cost.

Economic Education

Graduates, Be Skeptical of Those in Power

– May 25, 2019

The truth is that even the best-intentioned government officials do not — indeed, cannot possibly — have the knowledge necessary to deliver on any grand promises.

Economic Education

Spring Cleaning for the Regulatory State

– May 23, 2019

Statutes and regulations continue to accumulate, layer by layer, until they suffocate not only economic opportunity, but also the effective administration of government itself.

Economic Education

Is Big Oil Really Manipulating Market Prices?

– May 20, 2019

Market manipulation would be so much easier if you didn’t declare what your price is relative to the station down the street. And yet, of all the things we buy on a regular basis, the price at the pump is the most visible.

Economic Education

The Love the Market Gives

– May 17, 2019

Every unforced decision to trade represents a spark of insight, a hope for a better future, and the instantiation of a human relationship that affirms the dignity of everyone involved. Sometimes that relationship is personal; it is even more awesome to consider the enormously complex impersonal relationships that make up the vast global networks of exchange that make our lives wonderful.

Economic Education

The Most Boring Article About Mainstream Media Curation You’ll Ever Read

– May 16, 2019

The problem is that we have discarded importance in favor of interesting.

Economic Education, Socialism

Create Socialism Over One Product, Then We’ll Talk

– May 15, 2019

If socialism can’t be made to work in such a small and simple case like this, why would one think that all these problems would go away once you expand the idea of common ownership to the whole of society and all existing goods?