20 Questions to ponder over the holiday weekend.

November 25, 2019

While reading one of Donald Boudreaux’s more recent AIER articles, I couldn’t help but experience the sensation of Deja Vu. As I made it through his 20 questions, I felt like I was rereading several exchanges I’ve had with friends over the past several months. I am actually quite certain that if I scroll through some of older text messages, at least half of the questions have been raised and discussed across my circle of friends. 16 hits particularly close to home as I’ve recently relocated and had to spend the better half of a day at the OMV. I have included a few of my favorites below.

2. Why do so many American Progressives wish to put even larger swathes of our lives under political control given their belief that politics is so very easily corrupted by oligarchs and big-money donors?

13. Why do so many American conservatives boast about the strength of America and the resilience and greatness of her people but insist also that to allow these same American people to freely purchase goods and services supplied by low-productivity (and, thus, low-wage) foreign workers paves a sure path to America’s impoverishment and demise?

16. Why do so many Americans, across most of the ideological space, who have ever waited in a line at the Department of Motor Vehicles to renew a driver’s license or to register a vehicle, or who have suffered long delays in a cavernous passport-control room to reenter the country after traveling abroad, want to turn over to the same institution that is responsible for the inefficiencies regularly on display in those government offices more control over our lives?

Maybe Capitalism ain't all that bad

October 16, 2018

Donald Boudreaux’s article takes advantage of the 2018 Nobel Prize winning economist William Nordhaus’s recent notoriety to highlight one of the Nobel Laureate’s older works that attempts to measure the economic impact of technological innovation. The most interesting finding from the paper is that from the period 1948-2001 producers only captured 2.2% of the economic benefits while consumers received the lion’s share of 97.8%. Professor Boudreaux asserts that capitalism, rather than the innovator’s benevolence, is responsible for the split.

I’d be willing to bet the next time you read an article that highlights Jeff Bezo’s $147 billion net worth, it will fail to mention the $6.5 trillion of consumer value created.

Lagniappe: For those who want to read more of Donald Boudreaux’s work, check out his blog Cafe Hayek.

The Intelligent Economist: Top Econ blogs list

May 25, 2018

The Intelligent Investor's Prateek Agarwal compiles his list of top 100 Economics Blogs on his recent blog post. There are several interesting blogs that I am looking forward to exploring their content. I have included my top 4 below. Please use the comments section to share your thoughts on other blogs on the list or to recommend any omissions.

Lagniappe: Grumpy Economist post on California Solar Panel Mandate

Protectionism in the News

March 3, 2018

One of the advantages of having an unpopular president is that his bad ideas get the criticism that they deserve. Listening to the mainstream media call tariffs a tax on the American consumer was music to my ears. Not sure where these critics were when Trump imposed tariffs on solar panels and washing machines in January. With multinational corportations that source materials and manufacture goods all over the globe, it is impossible to impose restrictions in trade without creating some unintended consequenses.

Below I have included some articles that I particularly enjoyed reading that are critical of recent tariffs and protectionism in general. Please use the comments to share any other articles that you have come across and feel are worth sharing.