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Some Links - Cafe Hayek
TweetJack Nicastro is correct to point out that “Trump must choose: tariffs or lower prices.” A slice: Though the details of Trump’s tariffs remain uncertain, he promised in his inauguration speech to establish an “External Revenue Service [ERS] to collect all tariffs, duties, and revenues,…massive amounts of money” from foreign sources. The Secretary of the […]
Quotation of the Day... - Cafe Hayek
Tweet… is from page 302 of Thomas Sowell’s 2002 collection, Controversial Essays: Because of the neglect of history in our educational system, most people have no idea how many of the great American fortunes were created by people who were born and raised in worse poverty than the average welfare-recipient today. DBx: Yes. And note […]
Some Links - Cafe Hayek
TweetThe Wall Street Journal‘s Editorial Board decries the blatant lawlessness of the final hours of Biden’s reign of error. Two slices: President Biden’s parting shot to democratic norms was announced Monday at 11:38 a.m., or 22 minutes before his constitutional term ended at high noon. Citing “unrelenting attacks” on his family, Mr. Biden issued pre-emptive, […]
Quotation of the Day... - Cafe Hayek
Tweet… is from chapter 1 of William Graham Sumner’s splendid 1885 book, Protectionism: the -ism Which Teaches that Waste Makes Wealth (footnote deleted): What then is a protective tax? In order to join issue as directly as possible, I will quote the definition given by a leading protectionist journal, of both free trade and protection. […]
Some Links - Cafe Hayek
TweetWall Street Journal columnist Allysia Finley writes that “in California, human beings come last.” Two slices: As Los Angeles burned, Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration plotted an elaborate rescue mission—for a supposed endangered form of trout. “One of our biggest concerns,” a state Department of Fish and Wildlife manager told the Los Angeles Times last week, […]
Quotation of the Day... - Cafe Hayek
Tweet… is from page xi of George Selgin’s excellent forthcoming (in April) book, False Dawn: The New Deal and the Promise of Recovery, 1933-1947: Of course, the New Deal didn’t end the Great Depression: despite the occasional op-ed or blog post saying otherwise, no competent economic historian thinks so. Nor could any American adult alive […]
Quotation of the Day... - Cafe Hayek
Tweet… is from page 61 of the print-edition version, in the January/February 2025 issue of Reason, of Johan Norberg’s excellent essay “The Real Threat Is An Isolated China” (emphasis added): The country [China] desperately needs a new engine of growth, and that can come only from innovation and disruption. But that is exactly what control […]
Some Links - Cafe Hayek
TweetWall Street Journal Editorial Page personalities offer their thoughts on the return of Trump. Three slices: Matthew Hennessey, deputy editorial features editor: Growth matters. Americans are naturally optimistic. They believe in their bones that tomorrow will be better than today. But they will rescind the GOP’s majority in 2026 if it doesn’t cut taxes, reduce […]
Quotation of the Day... - Cafe Hayek
Tweet… is from page 334 of the “Random Thoughts” section of Thomas Sowell’s 2010 book, Dismantling America: It is amazing to me that there are people who still take seriously claims by some politicians that they are against “special interests.” All politicians are against their opponents’ special interests and in favor of their own special […]
A Country Is Not A Company - Cafe Hayek
TweetHere’s a letter to the Wall Street Journal: Editor: Robert Rubin identifies three reasons why running a government differs from running a business (“The Limits of ‘Running Government Like a Business’,” January 18). But he misses a fourth reason, one especially important given Donald Trump’s obsession with tariffs and reducing America’s so-called ‘trade deficit’ – […]
Some Links - Cafe Hayek
TweetGeorge Will decries the accelerating monarchialization of the U.S. presidency as he applauds jurisdictional competition. Two slices: Four years ago, Casey Burgat of George Washington University and Matt Glassman of Georgetown University wrote in National Affairs that the presidency “changes more abruptly than other governing institutions.” A “strong disruptive incentive” grows stronger as presidents, impatiently […]
Quotation of the Day... - Cafe Hayek
Tweet… is from page 60 of the print-edition version, in the January/February 2025 issue of Reason, of Johan Norberg’s excellent essay (forthcoming on-line) “The Real Threat Is An Isolated China”: [M]ore than a million American jobs depend directly on exports to Chinese consumers. About 0.5 percent of the U.S. work force would lose their jobs […]
Some Links - Cafe Hayek
TweetScott Winship asks and answers: “Should we believe the economic data or Americans’ ‘lyin’’ eyes? The answer is yes.” Three slices: So, are Americans “right to believe their lyin’ eyes,” as Cass claimed in a recent op-ed titled, “Three Cheers for Economic Pessimism”? This formulation begs the question of whether American beliefs about the economy conflict […]
Quotation of the Day... - Cafe Hayek
Tweet… is from page 468 of Gordon Wood’s splendid 2009 volume, Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815: Precisely because of the exuberantly democratic nature of American politics, the judiciary right from the nation’s beginning acquired a special power that it has never lost. By protecting the rights of minorities of all […]
Some Links - Cafe Hayek
TweetGeorge Will assesses Biden’s term in the White House with appropriate harshness – and also gives us a glimpse of how industrial policy really works. Three slices: After he lost 42 of the 48 states in 1932, Herbert Hoover wrote: “Democracy is a harsh employer.” Sometimes appropriately so. Joe Biden’s failed presidency is ending with […]
Some Links - Cafe Hayek
TweetWall Street Journal columnist Holman Jenkins writes that the L.A. wildfires are causing Californians finally to “wake up from the dream that green pork is a solution.” A slice: Last year, the premier journal Science put a nail in the question: 96% of policies supported worldwide as “reducing” emissions failed to do so, consisting mostly […]
Quotation of the Day... - Cafe Hayek
Tweet… is from page 277 of Historical Impromptus, a 2020 collection of some of Deirdre McCloskey’s work on economic history; this quotation, specifically, is from McCloskey’s March 10th, 1991, review, in the Chicago Tribune Book World, of Robert Reich’s The Work of Nations: We do not really know what the balance of trade is, nor […]
Pandemonium, Not Policy - Cafe Hayek
TweetHere’s a reply to a recent correspondent. Ms. C__: Thanks for your follow-up e-mail to my note. You write that I “wrongly scrutinize President Trump’s trade actions like an academic economist. He’s a successful businessman strategically deploying trade policy to bargain for America’s advantage over other countries.” With respect, you and Trump suppose that global […]
Capitalism Is Indeed Relentless (It Cannot Possibly Feel Remorse) - Cafe Hayek
TweetHere’s a letter to the Washington Post: Editor: Michael Ignatieff is correct that a resurgence of liberalism would make America a better place (“I was born liberal. The ‘adults in the room’ still have a lot to learn.” Jan. 15). But that liberalism should be not the modern sort of John Rawls and E.J. Dionne, […]
Some Links - Cafe Hayek
TweetThe Editorial Board of the Wall Street Journal is having none of Gavin Newsom’s and other progressives’ predictable but specious attempts to blame the L.A. wildfires on carbon emissions. A slice: Look out for “hydroclimate whiplash” coming to a media website near you. That’s the term the climate left is suddenly using to explain the […]
Quotation of the Day... - Cafe Hayek
Tweet… is from page 411 of the 2016 second edition of Thomas Sowell’s excellent volume Wealth, Poverty and Politics (original emphases): [E]ven if every American man, woman and child had equal individual incomes, that would still leave substantial inequalities in household incomes, because households that are in the top 20 percent of income recipients today […]
Quotation of the Day... - Cafe Hayek
Tweet… is from page 60 of the print-edition version, in the January/February 2025 issue of Reason, of Johan Norberg’s superb essay (forthcoming on-line) “The Real Threat Is An Isolated China” (link added): Trump has often complained that China is the biggest beneficiary of the iPhone, just because the devices are often assembled there. But when […]
Percentage of Nonfarm Workers in America Employed in Jobs Classified as "Manufacturing" - Cafe Hayek
TweetFor a variety of reasons, I want to post this graph here. It is constructed by me from the St. Louis Fed’s FRED Data from two different FRED files: total number of manufacturing workers in the U.S. (“MANEMP“) and total number of nonfarm workers in the U.S. (PAYEMS). I divided the former by the latter. […]
Some Links - Cafe Hayek
TweetWall Street Journal columnist Allysia Finley writes that “Gavin Newsom promised to ‘Trump-proof’ the Golden State. If only he’d fireproofed it instead.” Here’s more: Start with its environmental obsessions. The Los Angeles Department of Water and Power in 2019 sought to widen a fire-access road and replace old wooden utility poles in the Topanga Canyon […]
Some Links - Cafe Hayek
TweetScott Lincicome shares his big questions for 2025. A slice: We now know that this is basically what happened in 2024: China’s longstanding economic headwinds—demographics, productivity, debt, social/political control, etc.—combined with continued weakness in local property markets, depressed consumer sentiment, policy-driven industrial overcapacity, investor doubt, and heightened trade tensions to keep China’s economy in the […]
Michael Pettis Continues to Blunder - Cafe Hayek
TweetHere’s a letter to a long-time “unsympathetic but friendly” Café patron. Ms. C__: Thanks for sending Michael Pettis’s recent X-thread on trade. I’m afraid, however, that I don’t share your high opinion of his string of tweets. It’s a march of missteps. I haven’t the time to detail them all, so I’ll address just one […]
Quotation of the Day... - Cafe Hayek
Tweet… is from page 43 of Anne Krueger’s 2020 book, International Trade: What Everyone Needs to Know: Those who believe that merchandise trade is more important than services trade are probably thinking of services such as haircuts, restaurant meals, and others that are provided primarily by low-skilled workers. In fact, however, many of the higher-wage […]
Economists Should Never Abandon Their Principles - Cafe Hayek
TweetIn the Spring of 2023 I had the honor of delivering, at the Richmond Fed, the annual Sandridge Lecture to the Virginia Association of Economists. The text of that lecture – the title of which is “The Role of the Economic Scholar in Highly Politicized Society” – is available here. And pasted below are two […]
Quotation of the Day... - Cafe Hayek
Tweet… is from Megan McArdle’s January 10th, 2025, column in the Washington Post: If you want to know who wields power in a society, there’s a simple and effective test: Who supports censorship? If you see someone advocating for more suppression of dangerous speech – be it heresy, hate speech or “misinformation” – you can […]
Some Links - Cafe Hayek
TweetGMU Econ alum Holly Jean Soto busts the myth of “greedflation.” Scott Lincicome identifies an interesting contrast between the facts and opinion about China. George Will decries the spinelessness of the modern U.S. Congress. A slice: The incoming president will be able, on a whim, to unilaterally discombobulate international commerce — and the domestic economy […]
The Fetish for Manufacturing Is Foolish - Cafe Hayek
TweetHere’s a letter to Yahoo!Finance: Editor: Uncritically reporting on Michael Pettis’s recent plea for higher tariffs, Jason Ma quotes Pettis’s assertion that America today is “suffering from … a declining manufacturing share of GDP” (“It’s different now: Tariffs can boost U.S. jobs, wages, and the economy, finance professor says,” January 6). Pettis is mistaken. For […]
Quotation of the Day... - Cafe Hayek
Tweet… is from a caption to an image on the final page – just before page 459 of the text – of the pictures section of Gordon Wood’s marvelous 2009 volume, Empire of Liberty: A History of the Early Republic, 1789-1815; specifically, the caption accompanies this painting – “Travel By Stagecoach Near Trenton, New Jersey” […]
The Economy of Dynamia - Cafe Hayek
TweetIn my latest column for AIER I report on the (semi-)fictional country of Dynamia. A slice: The low prices and high quality of the products manufactured by Westside and Woodlike attracted the attention of foreigners, whose demand for these companies’ outputs skyrocketed. Dynamia became a major exporter of specialty wood and faux wooden products. But […]
Some Links - Cafe Hayek
TweetThe Editorial Board of the Wall Street Journal relays the undeniable news that fiscal realities are not optional. A slice: Say what you will about 2025, the year is off to a rocky start for anyone who needs to figure out how to fund a government. Bond yields are rising across the developed world, raising […]
Quotation of the Day... - Cafe Hayek
Tweet… is from page 483 of volume 2 of The Collected Works of Armen A. Alchian (2006); specifically, it’s from Alchian‘s 1982 address (“Customs, Behavior, and Property Rights”) to the Peking Institute of Foreign Trade: Prices are competed to that level at which people want to buy exactly the amount which it pays to produce at […]
Sloppy Statistics Make for Sloppy Analyses - Cafe Hayek
TweetHere’s a letter to the New York Times. (For alerting me to Atkinson’s op-ed, I thank Jack Nicastro.) Editor: Robert Atkinson’s case for devaluing the dollar as a means of protecting America’s economy from China is stuffed with fallacies both factual and theoretical (“We Are in an Industrial War. China Is Starting to Win.” January […]
Some Links - Cafe Hayek
TweetGeorge Will decries the abuse of “national security!” as a pretext for expanding the government’s control over Americans’ lives. Two slices: More than 2,000 U.S. corporations have market capitalizations larger than U.S. Steel, which has fewer employees (21,800) than Krispy Kreme, which manufactures doughnuts. The U.S. military requires a minuscule portion (in 2017, 3 percent) […]
Another Strawman Slain - Cafe Hayek
TweetHere’s a letter to the Wall Street Journal: Editor: Jason Furman wisely explains that both the costs and the benefits of any proposed policy change must be taken into account in order to reach sound conclusions about that proposed change (“Left and Right Alike Are Blind to Tradeoffs,” January 8). Yet he slays a strawman […]
Some Links - Cafe Hayek
TweetIain Murray debunks three arguments for tariffs. Two slices: Moreover, tariffs are at least as much a threat to manufacturing as they are an opportunity. Much that America imports is not finished goods, but inputs, i.e. raw materials and parts, that domestic manufacturing needs to operate efficiently. With tariffs, fewer of these inputs will be […]
Quotation of the Day... - Cafe Hayek
Tweet… is from page 12 of Russell Sobel’s and Jason Clemens’s excellent 2020 book, The Essential Joseph Schumpeter: Profits and losses play an important role in an economy. As entrepre- neurs sift through the many possible new combinations of resources, it is the profit-and-loss system that informs and guides this process of discovery. It is […]