In his excellent book Choice, Robert Murphy beautifully described how Ludwig von Mises saw the power of ideas:

Recently, Paul Krugman went off on one of his usual rants, suggesting that the Libertarian Party’s opposition to environmental regulation was a recipe for disaster. 

Not so fast, says Tyler Cowen. The problem with the anti-regulation position is that it is not pro-pollution enough. Cowen explains: 

Stop me if you’ve heard this one before, but Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are lowering mortgage standards.  On Monday, the two government-backed housing giants revealed a new program designed to boost mortgage origination among first time buyers and those with low to medium incomes.

Since 1980, during the Carter Administration, America’s K-12 education system has come under increasing control by the dictates of the federal Department of Education (DOE) with failing results, taxing states and filtering the money through Washington to return a portion of it back to the states. In 2002, the Bush Administration approved the No Child Left Behind (NCLB) Act creating punishing amounts of federal paperwork and bureaucracy for local schools, requiring

Last week on September 9th, a gas pipeline in Alabama began leaking, significantly shrinking the supply of gasoline in the Southeast, including the state of Georgia. This pipeline alone is estimated to supply the East Coast with up to 40 percent of its gasoline. Pipeline volume has still not returned to normal, although normal levels are said to return “fairly soon.”  

Economists have a grumbling and cynical stereotype. This might be because even the most basic economic principles are ignored by those who should know better and vehemently denied by those who don’t.

Case in point: a restricted supply of gasoline is expected across the Eastern United States because of a busted pipeline, and state governors enact price ceilings to keep the price of gasoline artificially low.

In Alabama, Governor Bentley forbade “unconscionable prices for the sale of any commodity” in his State of Emergency proclamation.

The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) decided yet again today to hold off on raising the target federal funds rate. Not much changed in the language of the FOMC statement, with the Fed believing that the labor market continues to strengthen and that economic activity is picking up. The FOMC continues to see economic activity expanding, the labor market strengthening, and thus a stronger case for an increase in the federal funds rate.