Homines libenter quod volunt credunt
Posted in Economic Illiteracy, Economics Problems, Economists, Education on Jun 30th, 2016
Tyler over at Marginal Revolution finds that about 20 states require some teaching of economics in high school. Implicit in the post is that requiring economics is a good thing. And why not? After all, the state of economic literacy in America is strikingly low, even among people who have taken some economics, and teaching […]
Posted in Central Planning, Disingenuous, Economic Illiteracy, Economics Problems, Economists on Apr 21st, 2016
Note that Krugman here is talking about the “textbook Eco 101” approach and not, of course, the “better” Eco 108 non text-book approach we take! In any case, he is making a point that I try to make, endlessly so – that the world is a bit more complex than Eco 101-ism suggests it is. […]
Posted in Adaptation, Central Planning, Economic Illiteracy, Economics Problems, Environment, You Can't Have it Both Ways on Dec 16th, 2015
All of these accept the premise that future damages from anthropogenic warming will be serious, i find this to be a useful discussion strategy: Climate change will cause massive heat and drought and leave people in need of food. OK, compare then, the most effective and optimistic scenarios for reducing CO2 emissions and preventing warming […]
Posted in Economics Problems, Inequality on May 19th, 2015
The reason we are talking about inequality is because we are talking about inequality. I suppose the SJW can take credit for “raising awareness:” Misperceiving Inequality by Vladimir Gimpelson, Daniel Treisman – #21174 (POL) Since Aristotle, a vast literature has suggested that economic inequality has important political consequences. Higher inequality is thought to increase demand for government […]
Posted in Economic Illiteracy, Economics Problems on Apr 23rd, 2015
1. My default view of economic policy, even very effective policy, is that at best policy changes move us only a little bit of the way toward our stated goals as compared to an array of far larger and more important forces. These forces are often beyond our control, including biological ones, and include cultural […]
Posted in Economics Problems, Methodology on Dec 23rd, 2014
Ask almost anyone to define “capitalism” to you and you will inevitably get a blank stare. If you try and push the question I suspect you’ll get people answering something like the way people are asked to identify “porn” … they can’t, but they know it when they see it. Except, of course, with capitalism, […]
Posted in Disingenuous, Economic Illiteracy, Economics Problems, If I Really Hated the Poor ... on Dec 9th, 2014
There is a non-negligible cadre of students who think that when economists teach the economics of price controls or how the problem of knowledge makes central planning doomed to fail, that it’s all just at best an interesting opinion or at worst brute political bias. I’m not here going to comment on that. I’m sure, […]
Posted in Central Planning, Corporatism, Economics Problems, Economists, Special Privilege on Nov 17th, 2014
The most regular question I get from students who actually care about their education is why we tend to see so much bad policy, particularly if it is widely understood that messing with (nonexternality) prices is such a bad idea and industrial planning is such a bad idea. I typically stumble saying something to the […]
Posted in Economic Illiteracy, Economics Problems, Inequality, media, Methodology, Standards of Living on Oct 24th, 2014
If the income and wealth of every single American were to double over the next decade in REAL terms, then in a decade, the amount of measured poverty would remain unchanged. You’d also very likely see no change in inequality according to the way most people talk about it, i.e. “the income share of the […]
Posted in Economics Problems, Health Care, Unintended Consequences on Sep 22nd, 2014
In my inbox this morning is this working paper: Should Hospitals Keep Their Patients Longer? The Role ofInpatient and Outpatient Care in Reducing Readmissionsby Ann P. Bartel, Carri W. Chan, Song-Hee (Hailey) Kim – #20499 (HC HE PE)Twenty percent of Medicare patients are readmitted to the hospital within 30 days of discharge, resulting in substantial costs […]
