Category Archives: Economics

World War 2, Fiscal Austerity, and Economic Growth

I was wrong last night. I was attempting to argue a point about stimulus spending and whether or not government spending actually helped an economic recovery. To offer some support for my position, I tried to relay from memory a point that David Henderson made over at EconLog. To wit, Keynesian economists predicted that the end of government spending after World War 2 would precipitate a massive rise in unemployment and a return of recession.

The Minimum Wage and Retirees

The minimum wage isn’t bad because it hurts employers. It’s bad because it hurts non-traditional employees. We’re not all alike and it shouldn’t be our government’s policy to criminalize those who have different preferences about how they’d like to be paid.

The Minimum Wage Hurts Inexperienced Workers

The minimum wage isn’t bad because it hurts employers. It’s bad because it hurts those who want to be their employees. Imagine you’re either a recent college graduate or soon to be a college graduate. You’re armed with a degree in English, History, Business, Electrical Engineering, or, well, it almost doesn’t matter. You’re armed with a degree. But so are hundreds of thousands of other recent graduates from across the country.

I had to cut your hours because of the minimum wage

The minimum wage isn’t bad because it hurts employers. It’s bad because it hurts the employees that employers can no longer afford to pay.

Minimum Wage Hurts the Marginal Employees the Most

The minimum wage isn’t bad because it hurts employers. It’s bad because it hurts marginal employees.

I like carry-on luggage fees

I like the idea of Spirit Airlines charging for carry-on luggage. Luggage belongs in the cargo hold, not the passenger compartment. Spirit is quite clear about their reasons — and I agree with every one of them. Passengers who don’t like it can feel free to fly with another airline.

The Myth of the Gender Gap, in Pay

[C]ontrolling for personal choices eliminates up to three-quarters of the wage gap [between men and women].

How to Do Real Social Justice and Feed Africa's Millions

For the last couple of years, I’ve been unhappy with the ”short term missions” model that many churches use. It seems to involve a lot of good feelings about going somewhere else to experience ”true poverty”, working there for 1-3 weeks, coming home, showing lots of pictures of really poor people, and talking about the …

Capitalism Will Feed the World's Poor

I talked earlier this week about capitalism and its blessings, in regard to cleanliness. Consider this, about the blessings of capitalism in regard to food.

What’s so tragic about this is that we know from experience how to fix the problem. Wherever the rural poor have gained access to improved roads, modern seeds, less …

Capitalism: The Anti-Pollutant

Back on Earth Day, Don Boudreaux wrote a nice letter to USA Today.

On this Earth Day, Bjorn Lomborg scrubs with facts the noxious notions and emotions that pollute public discourse about the environment (”Earth Day: Smile, don’t shudder,” April 21). Especially useful is his point that the world’s number one environmental killer …