Depending on one’s point of view, Bernie Sanders either held his own or boosted his chances against perceived front-runner Hillary Clinton in Tuesday night’s Democratic presidential primary debate. His message clearly resonated with the live audience, particularly his statements about raising the minimum wage to $15 per hour, global warming, and government-mandated paid childcare leave.

I’ve noticed that the following Rothbard quote tends to circulate periodically amongst free-market groups:

“It is no crime to be ignorant of economics, which is, after all, a specialized discipline and one that most people consider to be a ‘dismal science.’ But it is totally irresponsible to have a loud and vociferous opinion on economic subjects while remaining in this state of ignorance.”

I moved to Auburn, Alabama, in January 2013. I love Auburn.

The Fed’s responsibilities keep expanding. A 1977 update to the Federal Reserve Act included the goals of “maximum employment” and “stable prices”. Many economists, even in the mainstream, criticize this dual mandate as a difficult, if not impossible, balance. They point to Short-run Phillips Curves that show a tradeoff between inflation and unemployment rates. Expansionary monetary policy may encourage employment, but it runs the risk of above-target inflation. Contractionary monetary policy may rein in inflation, but at the detriment of employment levels.

There appears to be a mistaken belief on the Left that any government action is either done in the interest of “the people” or in the interest of corporations and rich oligarchs. So the naked corporate welfare to Archer Daniels Midlands is called out, as are the sports stadiums being paid for by taxpayers and of course the banker bailouts as well.

Much of the political thinking about violence in the United States comes from unfavorable comparisons between the United States and a series of cherry-picked countries with lower murder rates and with fewer guns per capita. We’ve all seen it many times. The United States, with a murder rate of approximately 5 per 100,000 is compared to a variety of Western and Central European countries (also sometimes Japan) with murder rates often below 1 per 100,000.

Now for some more serious Nobel Prize news. Some Austrians were hoping for William Baumol and Israel Kirzner for the economics of entrepreneurship, but the committee went with a safer choice and recognized Princeton’s Angus Deaton for his work on measuring consumption and inequality. You can find lots of discussion in the usual places; Lynne Kiesling has useful comments here.

Robert Shiller’s column in last Friday’s New York Times illustrates the foolishness of the new “behavioral” approach to economic policy.

Ben Bernanke is officially a celebrity.  The New York Post’s venerable celebrity gossip section Page Six carried news of former NYC Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s fete for Ben in honor of the publication of his memoir Courage to Act.