Social activists now regard the minimum wage as another welfare program that can reduce the costs of programs like Medicaid and food stamps, and can reduce inequality. But the minimum wage is very poorly targeted for these purposes.
Let's take a sober and even-handed look at what economics and empirical studies have to say about minimum wage hikes. Krugman and Biden claim there's no evidence these hikes affect employment. But they are being misleading.
A state's borders should change over time to reflect demographic and ideological realities. By denying this, political leaders are effectively saying that the rights of minority populations don't matter.
We're now hearing many calls for more antitrust legislation applied to Big Tech because these firms are allegedly monopolies. But old-fashioned antitrust was a disaster, as will be new efforts against tech companies.
Mainstream economists claim China needs more consumption and a bigger welfare state. They think China's high savings rate is a bad thing. These economists are wrong.
A divided America remains a wealthy America, and a postsecession America would be wealthy enough to retain a defensive military. Moreover, it's even cheaper to maintain an effective nuclear arsenal than to keep up a large conventional military.
It's conservatives, not libertarians, who are naïve about big media power.
Negative rates are a huge transfer of the wealth of savers and real wages to the government and the indebted. A tax on caution. The destruction of the perception of risk that always benefits the most reckless.
"I am not against bank notes as such … I want to give everybody the right to issue his own banknotes. The problem then would be to get other men to accept such private banknotes; maybe nobody will take them."
Behavioral economists and psychologists define as irrational anything that doesn't fit into a narrow model of behavior. Anything "irrational"—like buying the "wrong" stock—must be fixed with government regulation.
