So, New York State (who is that, exactly?) passes an historic increase in the minimum wage. It argues, implicitly, that raising costs to $15 per hour will benefit workers and not have the adverse consequences economists warn about. Of course, there are myriad adverse consequences, not just unemployment, so keep your eye on the ball. […]
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Posted in Classical Liberalism, Economic Illiteracy, ethical foundations, Extended Order, Government Thuggery, History, Immigration, Inequality, Institutions, media, Politics on Nov 24th, 2015
Of course, I will not share my thoughts at Thanksgiving … but here goes (start at 1:14 if you don’t like stories. One reason I love folk music is the stories): Please do NOT interpret this to suggest that I think this is an open and shut issue, or that there are not legitimate questions […]
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Sounds like a radical-contractarian to me! “With ______ , a business owner and the employees negotiate an agreement that works for them both. The agreement allows each party to prioritize what is important to them,” Hicks said in a statement. “This provision gives the parties the option, the freedom, to negotiate that agreement. And that is […]
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Posted in Disingenuous, Politics on Jun 3rd, 2015
I’ll withhold emotional commentary for now since it is not going to be charitable. The wonderful Coyote shares this with us, and I think my former student Nick F.’s insights on the race wars apply here too: The brief time I led the Equal Marriage Arizona efforts to amend the Constitution to allow gay marriage […]
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You will see in Wednesday’s post that the best argument GM can give for why they get so much in subsidies to produce a Volt is because, “the damn Koreans and Japanese do it more than we do.” Aside from the economics of that, pause for a moment to reflect on how we run our […]
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Tim Taylor summarizes the data from the Center for Responsive Politics: Total spending for the 2014 Congressional races looks like it will come in at about $4 billion, quite similar to the amount spent in 2012 and 2010. In the context of a high-income country with a population of nearly 320 million, this is not […]
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Of course, he did not go far enough on Cuba, but that’s like getting angry at … well, you find an apt analogy. I am ready for an “opponent” of mine to say, “but then you just approved an Executive Order and aren’t you really against overreaeches of power?” You DO have a point. But […]
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In accepting subsidies for economic development, we read: We are deeply grateful to the Governor and our state delegation for their support and recognition. We also understand our efforts have only just begun and look forward to continuing to work with the state to build a new economic future for our region. Really? Thanks to […]
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Posted in Politics, Taxation on Nov 20th, 2014
I have read dozens of times, and have even espoused the view myself, that the American electorate gets ill at the idea of the government directly taxing THEM. Sure, when taxes are proposed on “other people” like “the rich” the electorate does not seem to have a problem with it, but when we are talking […]
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Posted in Economists, media, Politics on Nov 15th, 2014
Here, without my comments.
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