Negative Inflation Targeting: A Proposal of a Non-Distortionary Monetary Policy

Abstract: This paper aims to propose a non-distortionary monetary policy objective consistent with the Austrian business cycle theory. Since the price level should fall in the growing economy in the Hayekian framework, introduction of a negative inflation target combined with the Taylor rule is suggested as a non-distortionary monetary policy. To keep the money stream stable, the optimal inflation target would be equal to the opposite of the growth rate of the economy.

Tomáš Frömmel is a Ph.D. student in the economics department at the University of Economics, Prague.

“Closing the Gender Gap” at Any Cost Threatens the Academic Integrity of STEM Education

The National Bureau of Economic Research recently published a study which concluded that the grading policies for STEM classes contribute to the gender gap in the STEM field.

The study finds that STEM classes, on average, assign lower grades compared to non-STEM classes and that this tends to deter women enrolling. Women — who value higher grades more than men — are apparently put off by the lower average grades in STEM subjects. This is despite the fact that “women have higher grades in both STEM and non-STEM classes,” according to the study.

The US’s Latest Bombing Shows the US Lost the Iraq War

The US government tells us that Iraq is harboring anti-US Iranian forces and must be bombed. Yesterday, the US bombed Baghdad International Airport, killing seven people, including an Iranian general and two Iraqi politicians. Meanwhile, US marines invaded Iraqi sovereign territory — in a move euphemistically called “arrest raids” — in an effort to capture an Iraqi member of parliament and a militia leader.

But how is it that Iraq is so full of anti-US politicians and militia leaders working with Iranian forces?

Socialism and the Anarchy of Production

ABSTRACT: The goal of this article is to extend the argument about the possibility of economic calculation under socialism first advanced by Ludwig von Mises (and later extended by Rothbard) to a related topic, the possibility of developing a comprehensive plan of production as a whole when all of the means of production are owned by a single entity. A division of ownership of the means of production permits a division of intellectual labor, a necessity when the scale of production is large.