This paper by Thomas C. Leonard is making the rounds on Facebook (HT to Steve Horwitz, who started this fire); I don’t know how I missed it when it was published in 2005. It is making me revise my understanding of the debate over minimum wages, for example. I have always thought that it’s a question of understanding economics versus not understanding economics. As Leonard argues, however, many eugencists understood that minimum wages would cause unemployment but saw this as a feature of the policy rather than a bug.

I’m pleased that we have run Frank Shostak’s piece this morning on inflation data, and it’s pretty alarming but it strikes me that the piece still understates the threat and the reality.

We have all heard that alcohol in moderation appears to offer health benefits , from reducing the risk of heart attack to even decreasing susceptibility to the common cold. And for the many people who consume alcohol, drinking sometimes has entertainment value, as well.

The headline is that the U.S. banking industry turned around in a big way in 2010 earning $87.5 billion, the highest since 2007. That’s a huge jump from 2009′s industry loss of $10.6 billion.

The illusion of wartime prosperity is rooted in how national income was calculated and in how the statistics were compiled.