Has any brave souls actually read Schumpeter’s “History of Economic Analysis?
25 Feb 2015 Leave a comment
in history of economic thought Tags: Joseph Schumpeter
The Fabian economics of the minimum wage
25 Feb 2015 Leave a comment
in history of economic thought, labour economics, minimum wage Tags: eugenics, Fabian Society, Sydney Webb
HT: fee.org
Milton Friedman on how New Keynesian Macroeconomics is mostly monetarism
06 Feb 2015 Leave a comment
The competing visions of stabilisation policy have been defined by Franco Modigliani and Milton Friedman
26 Jan 2015 Leave a comment
in business cycles, economics of information, history of economic thought, macroeconomics, Milton Friedman, monetarism, monetary economics Tags: Franco Modigliani, Keynes in macroeconomics, monetary policy, stabilisation policy, The fatal conceit, The pretence to knowledge
Paul Samuelson and Robert Lucas both agree that economists have solved the problem of economic depressions
24 Jan 2015 Leave a comment
in business cycles, fiscal policy, great depression, great recession, history of economic thought, macroeconomics, monetary economics, Robert E. Lucas Tags: Paul Samuelson, prosperity and depression, The fatal conceit, The pretence to knowledge
Sorry, Conservatives—Basic Economics Has a Liberal Bias By Matthew Yglesias
22 Jan 2015 Leave a comment
in history of economic thought, occupational regulation Tags: academic bias, political bias
…here are some ideas that I’ve seen in most of the introductory economics textbooks I’ve looked at:
- Governments (typically through central banks) need to manage the demand level of national economies to prevent catastrophic recessions and mass unemployment.
- Absent carbon pricing, a market economy will massively overproduce greenhouse gases.
- Many industries, such as broadband Internet, are “natural monopolies” where an unregulated market will lead to higher prices and less investment than is socially optimal.
- Due to asymmetrical information, consumers in a market economy will be unable to bargain effectively with doctors and other providers of health care services.
- Due to adverse selection, consumers in a market economy will be unable to effectively insure themselves against health risks.
- Due to the declining marginal utility of money, taking $100 from a rich person and giving it to a poor one will increase human welfare.
- Increasing the number of immigrants, raising taxes on the rich, and making Social Security benefits more generous will make almost everyone better off.
I could go on like this. But suffice it to say that one of the main reasons that so many economists are Democrats is that on a whole lot of issues the basic econ 101 view supports the liberal position.
via Economics is liberal: Chris House on conservative economics..
Utopia, you are standing in it! 
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