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Of Property Rights, Civil Society, and Shampoo - Econlib
Who defines and enforces property rights? If you are the average person, an undergraduate student, or even a mainstream economics professor, that answer is easy: the government. Look it up! Municipal and county governments determine the deeds to your property and various usage rights including wetland setbacks and easements. State governments create regulations that affect […]
Fiscal Dominance Brings Financial Repression - Econlib
“Fiscal dominance” refers to the state’s expenditures (fiscal policy) dominating monetary policy. Instead of the legislature (Congress in the US) controlling government expenditures while the central bank (the Fed) tries to control inflation, the latter helps finance expenditures and Congress obtains more leeway to run deficits. Fiscal dominance is the opposite of central bank independence. […]
We Have Never Been Woke, Part 9: Why Have Elites Never Been Woke? - Econlib
(This post is part of a series that began with this post.) The overarching theme of Musa al-Gharbi’s book is examining the gap between the ideas most supported by those who are woke and the actions of those same people. While al-Gharbi isn’t overtly hostile to woke ideas as such, he is troubled by how […]
Obedience School - Econlib
A central argument of this book is that episodes involving mass violence that contribute to an atmosphere of social unrest and political instability are likely to increase national elites’ willingness to invest in primary education in order to prevent future threats against the state… they lead elites to conclude that repression and redistributive concessions alone […]
Humans Are Overrated (with Christine Webb) - Econlib
Are humans the most intelligent species, or just the most arrogant? NYU primatologist Christine Webb, author of The Arrogant Ape, believes that human exceptionalism is a myth that does more harm than good. Listen as she speaks with EconTalk’s Russ Roberts about how research has skewed our understanding of animals’ capabilities, the surprising inner lives of animals, and how a shift from dominance toward connection with the larger living […]
Poverty IN America - Econlib
Book Review of Poverty, By America, by Matthew Desmond.1 I had not planned to read this book. I found the author’s essay on the history of American capitalism for the New York Times Magazine‘s 1619 Project badly wanting, so I passed over Poverty, By America, until one of my students (a sociology major) asked me […]
Is Capitalism Making Us Lonely? - Econlib
One common criticism of capitalism is that it has sparked an epidemic of loneliness. This is often attributed to the individualistic nature of capitalism, and to the fact that markets have replaced a variety of more personal and communal connections with commercial activities. Karl Marx indeed expected that this trend will go as far as […]
Protectionism and Public Opinion - Econlib
We’ve long been told that if there’s one issue economists agree on… it’s free trade. Maybe economists still agree, but protectionism is all the rage in the policy world today. What gives? In this episode of EconTalk, Russ Roberts brings back trade historian Douglas Irwin for a rich, illuminating discussion on tariffs, trade policy, and […]
What Would Success Look Like? - Econlib
President Trump fired the Bureau of Labor Statistics commissioner, Erika McEntarfer, after July’s jobs report showed very little job growth over the past quarter. Initially, the President accused her of “rigging” the numbers to make him look bad. More recently, members of his administration have tried to reduce the criticism to just that of substantial […]
We Have Never Been Woke Part 8: Totemic Capital and Consecrated Elites - Econlib
My last post in this series on We Have Never Been Woke by Musa al-Gharbi ended by mentioning another form of symbolic capital very valuable to symbolic capitalists, particularly with the advent of victimhood culture – what al-Gharbi calls totemic capital. As he describes the concept, In sociological terms, a totem is a sacred symbol that […]
Milei's Message for Economists - Econlib
Soon before the election that made Javier Milei president, 108 economists around the world (including prominent names like Thomas Piketty, Gabriel Zucman, and Jose Ocampo) signed an open letter warning about the dangers of “non-traditional” economic thinking. Even at the time, the letter was cluttered with flawed thinking. The letter then bemoans that “the laissez-faire […]
Will the Fed Lowering Rates Reduce Government Borrowing Costs? - Econlib
Short version: no. In my recent post on central banks and independence, I cited Harvard economist Jason Furman in discussing how lower central bank rates won’t necessarily translate into lower private borrowing costs: The Federal Reserve only sets a handful of interest rates, and those are limited to rates between banks—the discount rate (the rate […]
A Collectivist Judge Is a Contradiction in Terms - Econlib
It is a bit of a mystery why people who claim to be American-style conservatives do not embrace Friedrich Hayek, the economist and legal theorist who was awarded a Nobel Prize in economics in 1974. The mystery dissipates when one realizes that most self-identified conservatives are in fact as collectivist as the self-defined progressives (“liberals” […]
Farewell to EconLog - Econlib
After almost 17 years of blogging at EconLog, I have decided to resign, effective today, and focus more on my Substack. It’s called “I Blog to Differ.” The big advantage of my Substack is that I have total control over subject matter and content. These 17 years, which include my last 9 as an economics […]
My Final EconLog Post - Econlib
I began my blogging career at TheMoneyIllusion in early 2009 and ended that blog last year. In January 2014, I started blogging here at EconLog and have greatly enjoyed the opportunity. This will be my final post. I wish to thank everyone who works at EconLog, and I wish the best to all of my […]
Hemingway, Love, and War (with David Wyatt) - Econlib
What can Ernest Hemingway teach us today about the morality of war, the eternal and transient nature of love, and how to write a masterpiece? Listen as author and teacher David Wyatt talks with EconTalk’s Russ Roberts about Hemingway’s epic For Whom the Bell Tolls. Topics include Hemingway’s role in the wars of the 20th century, the book’s context and themes, and its lasting influence on American literature and […]
My Weekly Reading and Viewing for August 24, 2025 - Econlib
Are the BLS and Other Government Statistical Agencies Partisan? Here’s What My Research Found by Vincent Geloso, The Daily Economy, August 18, 2025. Excerpt: There is little to substantiate the claim that the BLS produces low-quality data. The BLS (and every other statistical agency) frequently issues preliminary reports from surveys it conducts. As such, revisions […]
When the Big Apple Went Bust: Bankruptcy and Austerity in New York, 1975 - Econlib
In 1975, New York City’s government ran out of money. “On the simplest level” journalist Martin Mayer wrote, “the story of New York’s financial collapse is the tale of a Ponzi game in municipal paper – the regular and inevitably increasing issuance of notes to be paid off not by the future taxes of revenue […]
"They" not "It": Understanding Group Behavior Through Methodological Individualism - Econlib
In his 1992 article “Congress is a ‘They,’ not an ‘It’: Legislative Intent as Oxymoron” (International Review of Law and Economics 12 (2)), Harvard University political scientist Kenneth Shepsle opens: An oxymoron is a two-word contradiction. The claim of this brief paper is that legislative intent, along with military intelligence, jumbo shrimp, and student athlete, […]
Make Drug Approval Easier - Econlib
A few days ago, I listened to Russ Roberts’s EconTalk interview of cardiologist Eric Topol on the health issues involved with aging. For some reason, I’m getting increasingly interested in that issue. An interesting issue comes up at about 36:00 point. Topol states: We should be using better nanoparticles and keeping that mRNA from ever […]
We Have Never Been Woke Part 7: Victimhood Culture - Econlib
One of the questions that animated Musa al-Gharbi’s investigation into the causes and consequences of wokeness was why highly successful elites seem so eager to portray themselves as otherwise. As he puts it, Why is it that the “winners” in the prevailing order seem so eager to paint themselves as helpless victims, as marginalized, as […]
Meanwhile, in Mexico (cleared w BP ready to go) - Econlib
A report in the Financial Times indicates that Mexico is in the process of eliminating the checks and balances in its political system: But the bills passed in the past two weeks ultimately implement key elements of the former president’s agenda, including eliminating autonomous regulators and replacing them with ones under greater central government control. […]
Useful Counterfactuals on Trade - Econlib
Counterfactuals are a necessary part of any scientific analysis: If X didn’t happen, then Y would have. But counterfactuals, by definition, can never be known. They never occurred, so we can never truly know if the counterfactual would have happened. For example, there was much debate in the Truman Administration and the US military during World […]
Freedom as a Loophole - Econlib
The August 29 planned abolition of the de minimis customs exemption in the United States may come as a shock to those who believe that, as the physical universe is made of visible matter and dark matter, the political world is made of Democratic and Republican stuff, “the Left” and “the Right.” The restriction of […]
A Serious Look at Interest Rates - Econlib
These tweets caught my eye: I suspect that it would be possible to create some sort of argument that the AI boom is hurting the job market, but at the risk of being unserious I don’t find this one to be particularly persuasive. Suppose I made the following argument: Interest rates would be lower if […]
Fentanyl Elasticity: Cutsinger's Solution - Econlib
Question: Suppose the demand for fentanyl is perfectly inelastic, and that the users of fentanyl steal from others to acquire the money to pay for it. In an effort to crack down on fentanyl use, the government imposes harsher penalties on suppliers of fentanyl, reducing its supply. How will this policy affect the amount of […]
Tim Ferriss on Tim Ferriss (and much much more) - Econlib
Cold plunges. Exogenous ketones. Pu-erh tea–but hold the breakfast: it’s all par for the morning routine, at least if you’re entrepreneur, self-experimenter, and king of the lifehacks, Tim Ferriss. From how he manages the challenges of his celebrity to how he manages to stay in great shape; how he does–and when he doesn’t–harness the power […]
Stable/Genius: Stablecoins and Free Banking - Econlib
President Trump signed the Guiding and Establishing National Innovation for U.S. Stablecoins Act (GENIUS Act) into law on July 18th, promising to “cement American dominance of global finance and crypto technology.” In his post-signing speech, the president explained, “the GENIUS Act provides banks, businesses and financial institutions, a framework for issuing crypto assets backed one […]
Two Economic Ideas That are True and Nontrivial - Econlib
Timothy Taylor, at Conversable Economist, had a post on August 13 titled “What Economic Ideas are True and Nontrivial?” He starts with a famous story that Paul Samuelson told and I’ll quote it here: [O]ur subject puts its best foot forward when it speaks out on international trade. This was brought home to me years […]
Fascinating Interview of Anne Krueger - Econlib
I have for many years argued that Anne Krueger and Jagdish Bhagwati should be awarded the Nobel Prize in economics for their work on trade, protectionism, and economic development. Indeed, they should have shared the 2008 Nobel with Bhagwati’s student Paul Krugman. The extensive interview of Krueger in the latest issue of the Journal of […]
We Have Never Been Woke Part 5: The Cause of Awokenings - Econlib
As I mentioned in my last post, Musa al-Gharbi argues that the post-2011 Awokening – that is, the rise of social justice activism and the escalating adoption of social justice ideology among the symbolic capitalist class – was not an unprecedented event. He argues that Awokenings have occurred before and have taken largely similar form. […]
We Have Never Been Woke Part 6: Consequences of Awokenings - Econlib
Now that we’ve looked at Musa al-Gharbi’s description of what causes Awokenings to rise and eventually fall, what are the long term consequences of these movements? Given that Awokenings consist of wealthy and elite members of the symbolic capitalist class rising in support of antiracism, feminism, economic equality, and other social justice related causes, it’s […]
The Future of Art with AI - Econlib
AI art and music are quite amazing. In seconds, you can create fun images. To wit, below is a photorealistic image I created with ChatGPT of Adam Smith and David Hume having lunch and Hume sticking Smith with the bill: Or a cartoon image of my summer bowling league team, the Cosmic Colonels: Both of […]
Not in my back pocket (NIMBP) - Econlib
Most advanced countries are democracies. In most cases, these countries impose heavy taxes, with total revenues often falling between 30% and 50% of GDP. And yet, most people don’t like paying taxes. How can we explain this seeming contradiction? The mainstream view of both the economics profession and the general public seems to be that […]
Federalism and Housing Policy - Econlib
The Economist has an interesting article speculating that the red state advantage in housing affordability may be about to shrink: But what if red states’ cheap-housing advantage were to start shrinking? That may already be happening in places: a study by Edward Glaeser of Harvard University and Joseph Gyourko of the University of Pennsylvania published […]
My Weekly Reading and Viewing for August 17, 2025 - Econlib
Government Should Experiment with Eliminating Patient Barriers, Not with Covering Ozempic by Akiva Malamet, Bautista Vivanco, and Michael F. Cannon, Cato at Liberty, August 11, 2025. Excerpts: While Ozempic and other GLP‑1 drugs are great at helping patients lose weight(among many other promising uses), these impressive medications come with an impressive price tag. For those paying out […]
Today's Convergence of Political Systems - Econlib
In the 1960s and 1970s, a fashionable idea, at least among the Western intelligentsia, was the convergence between socialism (read: communism) and capitalism. Even less obvious than today was the true distinction between, on one side, a regime of individual and private choice and, on the other side, a system of collective and political choice. […]
Evaluating the US-Japan Trade Deal on Mercantilist Terms - Econlib
Short Version: it’s bad, even by the preferred metrics of protectionists. On July 23, US and Japanese trade negotiators reached a deal on tariffs, investments, and other international transactions. Much has been written about how bad the deal is from a standard economic perspective (see, for example, here). But President Trump and his administration, who […]
Learning to Think Like Someone Else (with David Marquet) - Econlib
Former submarine commander David Marquet joins EconTalk’s Russ Roberts to explore how distancing–thinking like someone else, somewhere else, or sometime else–can unlock better choices in business and life. They talk about leadership without giving orders, how to empower teams, and what it means to see yourself as a coach rather than a boss. Along the way, they discuss […]
My Weekly Reading for August 10, 2025 - Econlib
Child Protective Services Investigated Her 4 Times Because She Let Her Kids Play Outside by Lenore Skenazy, Reason, August 9, 2025. Excerpt: During this visit, the social services worker acknowledged that our home was clean, that the children were happy, well-fed, polite, and well-spoken, but said the children had to be supervised 100 percent […]