Economists Robert Shiller and George Akerlof would have us believe that the market sells us things we don’t really want. That’s not true, but even if it were, the proposed solution — government — is even less likely to give us what we want.
Thanks to easy credit, automobiles have become very complex and luxurious, and brimming with safety features. The cost of producing these cars, however, won't keep prices from falling once the bubble bursts.
ZIRP has created massive asset bubbles throughout the world economy, but also has a diabolical impact on ordinary people who are largely disconnected to the bubbles.
The sugar industry and the corny syrup industry have been fighting in court. But don't be fooled. Ultimately, the two industries are happy to help each other out in order to keep their own crony-capitalist arrangements in place.
The true lessons of Thanksgiving are that private property, the market economy, and personal responsibility lead to prosperity, while government intervention makes us all poorer.
Amazon has developed a new way to help people do easy work for a little extra cash. The jobs involve repetitive tasks that computers can't do. But, since the jobs pay below minimum wage, we're told the whole thing should be outlawed.
The Fed's Federal Open Market Committee renewed its commitment to easy money this week. The Fed will pretend to be committed to raising rates while doing nothing, and its ongoing war against deflation will continue to make us poorer.
Government planners are fond of dreaming up new ways to force people out of their cars. But automobiles have long been a boon to ordinary working people who can access less expensive goods and better jobs because of them.
Neoclassical economists make too many assumptions and decree that the desires of consumers must conform to some external definition of what's "rational." But consumers like to decide for themselves what they want, and when they want it.
No amount of fantasizing can make fundamental economic realities go away, no matter how much we put our faith in central banks, government regulation, or technologies of the future.
