Initial reactions can be harsh. Mine was on reading an interview with National Economic Council head Gary Cohn. In it he said, “The estate tax really hits farmers, and we don’t want to hit farmers. It hits small and medium-sized…
Category: Other
Thaler’s Nobel sign behavioral econ has come of age
The award of the 2017 Nobel to Richard Thaler confirms the economics discipline is in a healthy intellectual renaissance. He and many others in the field are moving beyond long-dominant assumptions that now are more fetters than tools. This work…
On guns, immigrants and the choices we make
There is little economics per se in mass shootings. However, some ideas from social sciences generally can foster insights on which policy responses are realistic or not. The same ideas apply to other current issues like health insurance and illegal…
Hard fact: Companies need to pay market wage rates
Central bankers must be circumspect in their public expression, lest they roil the markets, and some take this to the point of being mealy-mouthed. So Neel Kashkari, president of the Minneapolis Federal Reserve, is seen often a breath of fresh…
Developer assessments seen as good economics
As economists read news of a recent ruling by the Minnesota Court of Appeals denying certain infrastructure charges imposed on land developers, many probably reacted: “Where was Judge Posner when we need him?” Sometimes law and economics are in basic…
OK to hike prices in a hurricane?
Is it wrong to take price advantage of someone who is over a barrel because of circumstances beyond their control? With one hurricane barely over and another one barreling in, that question is in the news. Should anyone charge $42…
In theory, disasters can have silver linings
Natural disasters like floods, tornados and earthquakes destroy wealth but may spur economic production. These effects vary with the situation, especially the scale of the disaster. The destruction of wealth is a constant, but the degree to which production is…
Complex issues of product liability
Ogden Nash said that for babies “a little talcum is always walcum.” That was true for decades, but a series of liability suit decisions against Johnson & Johnson, long the dominant manufacturer of baby powder, is changing things. This past…
Airbnb shows how new technologies bring new issues
Capitalism is “a process of creative destruction” according to Austro-American economist Joseph Schumpeter. That is working out right now as new communications technologies are revolutionizing sectors like short-term housing and short-distance human transportation. I use these wordings rather than “hotel”…
Effects of a new bridge hard to measure, but far-flung
People know the phrase “the Lord giveth and the Lord taketh away,” without realizing that is true for government as well. We know that income redistribution programs like Medicare involve government taking from one group and giving it to another.…