Category Archives: Uncategorized

There seems to be an ongoing fear in the psyche of Americans that an economy based on intensive government planning will inevitably outstrip a US economy that lacks such a degree of central planning. I first remember encountering this fear with respect to the Soviet Union, which was greatly feared as an economic competitor toContinue reading “China Worries: Echoes of Japan, and the Soviet Union”

I wrote a few days ago with some skepticism about the claim of a “national security” justification for President Trump’s steel and aluminium tariffs. When the tariffs were actually imposed, Trump decided to exempt Canada and Mexico. At a political level, the exemptions for Canada and Mexico make sense. As I mentioned in the earlierContinue reading “About those Tariff Exemptions for Canada and Mexico …”

The Institute for New Economic Thinking has posted video of a six-part series: “What Money Can’t Buy.”  The series revolves around philosopher Michael Sandel, who has thought about the intersection of economic motivations with other values as deeply as anyone. At times, Sandel discusses questions with prominent economists (Greg Mankiw, Richard Posner, Joseph Stiglitz, Lawrence H.Continue reading “"What Money Can’t Buy:" A Michael Sandel Video Series”

Many of the public policy disputes over education, whether at the K-12 level or at the higher education level, quickly turn into disputes over how much to spent, or whether “enough” is being spent. For some international perspective on these issues, the Condition of Education 2018  has just been published by the National Center forContinue reading “Spending Per Student and Per Capita GDP: International Snapshots”

When it comes to public policies for helping the poor, economists have tended to favor a focus on individuals who are poor, rather than on places that had a higher share of poor people. This seemed like a better way to target scarce public resources. There was some fear that if the focus shifted toContinue reading “Some Economics of Place-Based Policies”

בן-חמו ליטל, העורך דין שלך בתל אביב – יפו ובמרכז. ניתן לקבל שרות בתחומים דיני מיסים, מעשה מגונה ייצוג חברות בעולם. השירות ניתן באופן אישי ומקצועי. ניתן לקבל שרותים בנושא חקירת יכולת, הורות משותפת, רשלנות רפואית, בתים משותפים או כל נושא אחר. ניתן ליצור איתנו קשר בטלפון או להגיע למשרד הממוקם באלוני ניסים 16, תלContinue reading “בן-חמו ליטל עורך דין”

Marion Foucade is one of the most thoughtful and incisive interpreter/critics of the interaction between academic economics, other disciplines, and the real world. She delivered a keynote address at the 2017 meetings of the Swiss Society of Economics and Statistics. Her talk, “Economics: the view from below,” is available in the Swiss Journal of EconomicsContinue reading “Economics: Reviled Because It Matters”

For macroeconomists, Milton Friedman’s (1968) Presidential Address to the American Economic Association about “The Role of Monetary Policy” marks a central event (American Economic Review, March 1968, pp. 1-17).  Friedman argued that monetary policy had limits. Actions by a central bank like the Federal Reserve could have short-run effects on an economy–either for better orContinue reading “Misconceptions about Milton Friedman’s 1968 Presidential Address”

I told my teenage son that the economics of Wakanda, the home country of the “Black Panther” in the recent movie, raised some interesting questions. He looked at me for a long moment and then explained very slowly: “Dad, it’s not a documentary.” Duly noted. No superhero movie is a documentary, and pretty much byContinue reading “Wakanda and Economics”

If you want to know what actual research on the effects of various gun control policies have to say, the RAND Corporation has your back. It has published a lengthy reports: “The Science of Gun Policy:  A Critical Synthesis of Research Evidence on the Effects of Gun Policies in the United States,” by a team ofContinue reading “The Distressingly Weak Lessons of Research on Gun Control”