Capitalism
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On Externalities and Noise
“There is no world where trade-offs don’t apply, where we can have all the nice things we want without anybody, anywhere, getting upset. Externalities are everywhere, but if we want to live prosperous lives, some part of those lives will be impacted by others. Get over it.” ~ Joakim Book
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What Greta Thunberg Forgets About Climate Change
“Perhaps Greta’s message for politicians to listen to the scientists and take real action has hit home. In one sense, they are already well on the way to following her advice. They read chapter 10 of IPCC’s AR5 report, where they learned that climate change is important – but that other socioeconomic developments matter much…
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Extend the Market, As Far as Possible
“Private enterprise and private governance pushed along by people seeking little more than their own advantages work remarkably well. If you want more evidence, look no further than the package on your doorstep.” ~ Art Carden
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A Green Minimum Wage
“Farmers who want to retain good, experienced farm hands should be free to pay a dollar a week, day, hour, or minute to those same people, as they mutually agree. And when the world not only does not end but improves due to the policy, let’s extend it to other types of employers as well.”…
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The Adverse Economic Consequences of Higher Tax Rates
“The political impact will be that “the rich” pay more. The economic impact will be less capital formation and entrepreneurship, and those are the changes that hurt the vast majority of us who aren’t rich.” ~ Daniel J. Mitchell
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Global Money Supply Growth and the Great Inflation Getaway
“Maintenance of the level of employment rather than inflation has become the focus of official policy everywhere. Stimulus will continue until employment is restored to its pre-crisis level and there remains a colossal debt overhang to temper inflationary tendencies, but there is a real and present danger that, in the process of returning the economy…
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Free Markets are Lousy Self-Promoters
“Precisely because free and innovative markets ceaselessly expand our range of opportunities, comparing the economic statistics of today with those of yesterday too often masks the improvements brought to us by markets. What appear to blinkered or incautious eyes to be market failures are often the fruits of market successes.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
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Slavery Did Not Enrich Americans
“The New History of Capitalism misfires badly, however, in its interpretation of these facts. Slavery was not necessary for cotton, and cotton was not necessary for industrialization. Had chattel slavery never taken hold in the United States, we would very likely be richer than we are today.” ~ Art Carden
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Where Did The Wealth Go?
“The cost of the lockdown is the forgone economic activity, all the meals and haircuts and vacations and flights and trips to the theater and the movies and the nightclub. Those things are gone, and they cannot be made up. We had access to fewer desirable things; that’s where the wealth went.” ~ Michael
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Managing the Chessboard of Human Society: Lessons from the Online Chessboard
” It seems reasonable that we will never actually master every possible detail of chess, Monopoly, and other games. If games that happen within very well-defined spaces according to very well-defined rules present such insurmountable difficulties, I’m definitely skeptical of the notion that we can design and control a great society.” ~ Art Carden
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•
On Externalities and Noise
“There is no world where trade-offs don’t apply, where we can have all the nice things we want without anybody, anywhere, getting upset. Externalities are everywhere, but if we want to live prosperous lives, some part of those lives will be impacted by others. Get over it.” ~ Joakim Book
-
•
What Greta Thunberg Forgets About Climate Change
“Perhaps Greta’s message for politicians to listen to the scientists and take real action has hit home. In one sense, they are already well on the way to following her advice. They read chapter 10 of IPCC’s AR5 report, where they learned that climate change is important – but that other socioeconomic developments matter much…
-
•
Extend the Market, As Far as Possible
“Private enterprise and private governance pushed along by people seeking little more than their own advantages work remarkably well. If you want more evidence, look no further than the package on your doorstep.” ~ Art Carden
-
•
A Green Minimum Wage
“Farmers who want to retain good, experienced farm hands should be free to pay a dollar a week, day, hour, or minute to those same people, as they mutually agree. And when the world not only does not end but improves due to the policy, let’s extend it to other types of employers as well.”…
-
•
The Adverse Economic Consequences of Higher Tax Rates
“The political impact will be that “the rich” pay more. The economic impact will be less capital formation and entrepreneurship, and those are the changes that hurt the vast majority of us who aren’t rich.” ~ Daniel J. Mitchell
-
•
Global Money Supply Growth and the Great Inflation Getaway
“Maintenance of the level of employment rather than inflation has become the focus of official policy everywhere. Stimulus will continue until employment is restored to its pre-crisis level and there remains a colossal debt overhang to temper inflationary tendencies, but there is a real and present danger that, in the process of returning the economy…
-
•
Free Markets are Lousy Self-Promoters
“Precisely because free and innovative markets ceaselessly expand our range of opportunities, comparing the economic statistics of today with those of yesterday too often masks the improvements brought to us by markets. What appear to blinkered or incautious eyes to be market failures are often the fruits of market successes.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux
-
•
Slavery Did Not Enrich Americans
“The New History of Capitalism misfires badly, however, in its interpretation of these facts. Slavery was not necessary for cotton, and cotton was not necessary for industrialization. Had chattel slavery never taken hold in the United States, we would very likely be richer than we are today.” ~ Art Carden
-
•
Where Did The Wealth Go?
“The cost of the lockdown is the forgone economic activity, all the meals and haircuts and vacations and flights and trips to the theater and the movies and the nightclub. Those things are gone, and they cannot be made up. We had access to fewer desirable things; that’s where the wealth went.” ~ Michael
-
•
Managing the Chessboard of Human Society: Lessons from the Online Chessboard
” It seems reasonable that we will never actually master every possible detail of chess, Monopoly, and other games. If games that happen within very well-defined spaces according to very well-defined rules present such insurmountable difficulties, I’m definitely skeptical of the notion that we can design and control a great society.” ~ Art Carden