In my previous post, I explained how the real-bills doctrine originally espoused by Adam Smith was later misunderstood and misapplied as a policy guide for central banking, not, as Smith understood it, as a guide for individual fractional-reserve banks. In his recent book on the history of the Federal Reserve, Robert Hetzel recounts how the […]
Hetzel Withholds Credit from Hawtrey for his Monetary Explanation of the Great Depression
Hetzel Withholds Credit from Hawtrey for his Monetary Explanation of the Great Depression
14 Dec 2023 Leave a comment
in business cycles, economic growth, economic history, financial economics, great depression, history of economic thought, labour economics, macroeconomics, Milton Friedman, monetarism, monetary economics, unemployment Tags: monetary policy
Is Discrimination Still Causing The Gender Pay Gap With Claudia Goldin
13 Dec 2023 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, discrimination, econometerics, economic history, gender, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, minimum wage, occupational choice Tags: gender wage gap, sex discrimination
‘Green Energy’ Dream Collides With Harsh Reality: Wind & Solar Just Don’t Work
13 Dec 2023 Leave a comment
in energy economics, environmental economics, global warming Tags: solar power, wind power
When so-called ‘sustainable’ investment funds pull the plug on wind and solar, you know the party’s over. As 2023 closes out, ‘green’ energy investors are facing a brutal and harsh reality: wind and solar will never amount to meaningful power sources. Worse still, governments backing the grand wind and solar transition are having a hard […]
‘Green Energy’ Dream Collides With Harsh Reality: Wind & Solar Just Don’t Work
Creative destruction
13 Dec 2023 Leave a comment
in development economics, economic history, growth miracles, industrial organisation Tags: creative destruction
Afuera!
13 Dec 2023 Leave a comment
in development economics, growth disasters, liberalism, libertarianism, Marxist economics Tags: Argentina
Unlike a lot of other people I didn’t get too excited about the election of Javier Milei to the presidency of Argentina, anarcho-capitalism and all. I’ve just been to disappointed by too many “Right-Wing” politicians over the decades, especially the ones who talked about cutting spending and more than that, shrinking the size of the State. […]
Afuera!
No, Media, ‘Catastrophic Climate Tipping Points’ are Nothing to Worry About
13 Dec 2023 Leave a comment
in energy economics, environmental economics, global warming Tags: climate alarmism
…the claimed dangers are based on climate model projections, not actual cause and effect connections demonstrated by data.
No, Media, ‘Catastrophic Climate Tipping Points’ are Nothing to Worry About
Steve Pinker’s Fivefold Way: How Harvard can save itself
13 Dec 2023 Leave a comment
in economics of education, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - USA Tags: Age of Enlightenment, free speech, political correctness, regressive left
Steve Pinker has published his remedy for Harvard’s woes in today’s Boston Globe; he outlined these to me last week over a beer, but I didn’t feel at liberty to divulge what he said he was writing about. Now I can. But the fricking Globe is completely paywalled, so I had to go to our…
Steve Pinker’s Fivefold Way: How Harvard can save itself
Reserve Bank of New Zealand (Economic Objective) Amendment Bill
13 Dec 2023 Leave a comment
in business cycles, economic history, history of economic thought, inflation targeting, labour economics, macroeconomics, monetary economics, politics - New Zealand, unemployment Tags: monetary policy
I guess it will be an Act by the end of the day, but for now the short bill giving effect to a return to a single statutory objective for monetary policy is here. Yesterday’s parliamentary debate (first and second reading) is here, here, and here. The heart of the bill is this clause Note […]
Reserve Bank of New Zealand (Economic Objective) Amendment Bill
Goldin Nobel
13 Dec 2023 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, discrimination, econometerics, economic history, economics of education, gender, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice Tags: gender wage gap, sex discrimination
In a country supposedly infected by “white supremacy,” “white privilege” and “systemic racism” how did all of these non-white minority groups get to be SO successful in the US, outearning the typical White American household?
13 Dec 2023 Leave a comment
in discrimination, human capital, labour economics, labour supply, occupational choice, politics - USA, poverty and inequality Tags: racial discrimination
European Passenger Train Travel Declining
13 Dec 2023 Leave a comment
in transport economics, urban economics
The media treat Americans to a constant drumbeat of how much better European passenger trains are and why we need to spend hundreds of billions or trillions improving our train system. The latest is a report that overnight trains are proving they can replace air travel by “play[ing] an important … Continue reading →
European Passenger Train Travel Declining
An Upside-Down Economic History of Argentina
13 Dec 2023 Leave a comment
in budget deficits, business cycles, development economics, economic growth, economic history, economics of bureaucracy, fiscal policy, growth disasters, growth miracles, history of economic thought, income redistribution, labour economics, macroeconomics, Public Choice, public economics, rentseeking, Ronald Coase Tags: Argentina
Argentina has a very interesting, but also rather tragic, economic history. During first half of the 20th century, it was one of the world’s richest nations. But thanks to dirigiste economic policies (known locally as Peronism) starting after World War II, Argentina has suffered a dramatic decline in relative living standards. However, something shocking has […]
An Upside-Down Economic History of Argentina
Can Argentina Be Rescued, Part III
12 Dec 2023 Leave a comment
in applied price theory, budget deficits, comparative institutional analysis, development economics, economic growth, economic history, economics of regulation, fiscal policy, growth disasters, income redistribution, international economics, labour economics, liberalism, libertarianism, macroeconomics, Marxist economics, Milton Friedman, monetary economics, Murray Rothbard, Public Choice Tags: Argentina
My trip to Argentina last year motivated me to write Part I of this series, which focused on whether things might get better in that tragic country for the simple reason that they couldn’t possibly get any worse. In Part II of this series, I analyzed whether a libertarian candidate’s surprisingly strong performance in Argentina’s […]
Can Argentina Be Rescued, Part III
CNN: ‘It’s time to limit how often we can travel abroad – ‘Carbon Passports’ may be the answer’ – ‘Drastic changes to our travel habits are inevitable’ – Suggests restrictions will be ‘forced’ upon public
12 Dec 2023 Leave a comment
in energy economics, environmental economics, global warming, transport economics
Dear Citizen 1138, we regret to inform you that your request to travel has been denied as you have reached the limit of your carbon allowance for this period.
CNN: ‘It’s time to limit how often we can travel abroad – ‘Carbon Passports’ may be the answer’ – ‘Drastic changes to our travel habits are inevitable’ – Suggests restrictions will be ‘forced’ upon public
CHRIS TROTTER: Contested ground
12 Dec 2023 Leave a comment
in comparative institutional analysis, economic history, liberalism, Marxist economics, politics - New Zealand Tags: Age of Enlightenment, constitutional law, free speech, political correctness, regressive left
LAST WEEK The Waitangi Tribunal released Tino Rangatiratanga me te Kāwanatanga: The Report on Stage 2 of the Te Paparahi o Te Raki Inquiry (Wai 1040). For the sake of brevity, I shall refer to this spawling document as the Northland Report. Sadly, the Report seems destined to make the already fraught relationship between Māori…
CHRIS TROTTER: Contested ground
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