In the heat of the crisis back in 2011, I edited the book “Institutions in Crisis.” The emphasis was on the policy failings at the root of the European crisis, and how they were exacerbating the situation rather than bettering it.
Three years on much of the analysis still stands. In fact, a number of chapters have proven quiet prescient, for example:
Thanks to Walter Block who recently posted this photo on his Facebook page:
David Brat, the economist at Randolph -Macon college who defeated Eric Cantor in that GOP primary in Virginia, said recently that wage increases are only appropriate when a worker’s productivity increases. This is pretty standard economist stuff that any economics undergraduate learns. That is, a worker’s employment can only be sustained in the long run if his productivity is equal to or greater than the wage he receives. In the case of the minimum, wage, this makes it impossible to hire a person whose productivity is below the legal wage.
French Socialist President Francois Hollande won his election in 2012 on a platform to soak the rich and protect the generous welfare state. Now his Prime Minister Manuel Valls is warning that such policies could cause the French left to disappear unless Socialist party supporters start backing the government’s business-friendly reforms.
Ravi Wu reports the completion of several volumes in Traditional Chinese:
The belief that war, and government spending more generally, fosters economic growth by spurring innovation is one of those fallacies that won’t die, no matter how often it is challenged and refuted. Today’s New York Times gives us the usual spiel:
Murray Rothbard was a foremost defender of apriorism in economics and a critic of positivism, empiricism, and scientism (1, 2, 3). But he was not opposed to quantification, particularly in the study of economic history. In fact, he strongly supported the use of statistics in doing applied economics.
Jim Bovard talks with Jeff Deist about his incendiary career as a journalist, the American people as Mencken’s “Booboisie”, and why the Nanny State has him stocking-up on cigars.
Stephen Poloz, Governor of the Bank of Canada, thinks Canada may have a housing problem on its hands:
