Daily Economy
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Tariff Protection and Big Steel’s Struggle
U.S. Steel’s recently announced plant closings and major employment cutbacks highlight how trade wars can end up hurting the very industries and firms they are supposed to help. They also highlight how the rest of society can struggle with the resulting chaos. The firm, which is somewhat synonymous with “Big Steel,” indicates it will lay off some…
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Those Shepherds Abiding in the Fields Were Private Security Workers
People talk like capitalism is some strange foreign invader, a mechanical system that was imposed on the world a couple hundred years ago, fueled by burning coal and emitting smoke, and certainly not anything organic to the social order. This is preposterous. The Christmas story that surrounds us in this season, told millions of times…
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What Is Money? It’s All About Liquidity
When I give my sister a nonfiction book for Christmas, neither of us presumes that she’ll use it in payments for food, rent, clothes, travel, or something else that she desires. Indeed, you’d be hard pressed to find anybody who’d accept a 300-odd-page chunk of paper adorned with the Penguin Press stamp in exchange for anything, so…
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If There Was a War on Christmas, It Flopped
You worry about the commercialization of Christmas? Christmas began in commerce – a mysterious and transcendent exchange in which eternity gave to time the greatest gift.
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Why Boeing’s CEO Had To Go
The failure of the 737 was a disaster for Boeing. There were many people to blame: regulators, technicians, flight trainers, quality assurance teams. But in the end, the buck stops with the CEO.
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Fact Checking the 1619 Project and Its Critics
The New York Times’ 1619 Project entered a new phase of historical assessment when the paper published a scathing criticism by five well-known historians of the American Revolution and Civil War eras. The group included previous critics James McPherson, Gordon Wood, Victoria Bynum, and James Oakes, along with a new signature from Sean Wilentz. The…
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The Perils and Pitfalls of Political Paternalism
Across the spectrum of differing political views, whether “progressive,” “nationalist,” “populist,” or “conservative,” there is a common presumption in all of their policy positions and programs. That common dominator is the premise that government is to be the guiding hand in directing and remaking society in some chosen form, to which and within which all…
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Beware of Happiness Statistics
A recurrent complaint leveled at economists is that income per capita is not a good measure of welfare. In its most refined forms, the complaint is that gross domestic product (GDP) per capita is a poor indicator of well-being. This is why there have been frequent calls to shift to other measures of well-being where…
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The Demolition of Keynesianism
The talents of economists have been consciously or unconsciously prostituted in the interests of political expediency.
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The Case Against Oren Cass
Conservative scholar Oren Cass wants to “redefine the economic orthodoxy that guides the nation’s politics and public policy.” He’s convinced that economists wrongly discount the importance of work while naively giving pride of place to consumption. Consistent with his conviction, Cass proposes that government policies – including trade policy – pay more conscious attention to our…
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•
Tariff Protection and Big Steel’s Struggle
U.S. Steel’s recently announced plant closings and major employment cutbacks highlight how trade wars can end up hurting the very industries and firms they are supposed to help. They also highlight how the rest of society can struggle with the resulting chaos. The firm, which is somewhat synonymous with “Big Steel,” indicates it will lay off some…
-
•
Those Shepherds Abiding in the Fields Were Private Security Workers
People talk like capitalism is some strange foreign invader, a mechanical system that was imposed on the world a couple hundred years ago, fueled by burning coal and emitting smoke, and certainly not anything organic to the social order. This is preposterous. The Christmas story that surrounds us in this season, told millions of times…
-
•
What Is Money? It’s All About Liquidity
When I give my sister a nonfiction book for Christmas, neither of us presumes that she’ll use it in payments for food, rent, clothes, travel, or something else that she desires. Indeed, you’d be hard pressed to find anybody who’d accept a 300-odd-page chunk of paper adorned with the Penguin Press stamp in exchange for anything, so…
-
•
If There Was a War on Christmas, It Flopped
You worry about the commercialization of Christmas? Christmas began in commerce – a mysterious and transcendent exchange in which eternity gave to time the greatest gift.
-
•
Why Boeing’s CEO Had To Go
The failure of the 737 was a disaster for Boeing. There were many people to blame: regulators, technicians, flight trainers, quality assurance teams. But in the end, the buck stops with the CEO.
-
•
Fact Checking the 1619 Project and Its Critics
The New York Times’ 1619 Project entered a new phase of historical assessment when the paper published a scathing criticism by five well-known historians of the American Revolution and Civil War eras. The group included previous critics James McPherson, Gordon Wood, Victoria Bynum, and James Oakes, along with a new signature from Sean Wilentz. The…
-
•
The Perils and Pitfalls of Political Paternalism
Across the spectrum of differing political views, whether “progressive,” “nationalist,” “populist,” or “conservative,” there is a common presumption in all of their policy positions and programs. That common dominator is the premise that government is to be the guiding hand in directing and remaking society in some chosen form, to which and within which all…
-
•
Beware of Happiness Statistics
A recurrent complaint leveled at economists is that income per capita is not a good measure of welfare. In its most refined forms, the complaint is that gross domestic product (GDP) per capita is a poor indicator of well-being. This is why there have been frequent calls to shift to other measures of well-being where…
-
•
The Demolition of Keynesianism
The talents of economists have been consciously or unconsciously prostituted in the interests of political expediency.
-
•
The Case Against Oren Cass
Conservative scholar Oren Cass wants to “redefine the economic orthodoxy that guides the nation’s politics and public policy.” He’s convinced that economists wrongly discount the importance of work while naively giving pride of place to consumption. Consistent with his conviction, Cass proposes that government policies – including trade policy – pay more conscious attention to our…