Nicholas D. Kristof wants to improve our lot by attracting top talent to public education. And he has the proof that an excellent teacher will result in students earning an additional $500 per year. But his proof only works because he ignores the potential productivity lost when talent is drawn from other fields by his proposed $65,000 starting salary. Kristoff would do well by skimming Economics in One Lesson.
[This article is excerpted from chapter 14 of The Austrian School of Economics: A History of Its Ideas, Ambassadors, and Institutions (2011).]
Two days ago, at the Austrian Scholar Conference, we heard from Mustafa Akyol about the commercial heritage of Islam – a learned, eloquent, deeply informative, and inspiring lecture in every way. He has a new book that is coming out soon that covers the topic. If the book covers what his lecture covered, it will be a revelation.
Matt Zwolinski and some of the commentators on the new Bleeding Heart Libertarians blog take issue with the way I presented a libertarian approach to compassionate economic policy in this article. This is the kind of life that the blogosphere brings to the Great Conversation, and I’m glad Matt and his commenters picked up (and responded to) my article.
