in The Road to Serfdom Hayek ends up committing himself to a view of environmental regulations that’s well tot he left of where today’s center-left politicians are: Nor can certain harmful effects of deforestation, or of some methods of farming, or of the smoke and noise of factories, be confined to the owner of the… Continue reading Yglesias » FA Hayek, Statist
Category: economics
Friedman On Japan
…staring in 2000, the BOJ nearly doubled monetary base over a period of 3 years. And the money just sat there. Banks did not, in fact, expand loans. In fact, Japan’s experience is a key element of the case against monetarism. Just printing notes does not work when you’re in a liquidity trap. From Friedman On Japan… Continue reading Friedman On Japan
A Far Away Country Of Which We Know Nothing
I’ve been getting a lot of correspondence lately that runs something like this: You’re an idiot. Give me one example in all of history of a country that spent its way out of a depressed economy Ahem. There’s this country — people may not have heard of it — called the United States of America:… Continue reading A Far Away Country Of Which We Know Nothing
It Is Not Just John Maynard Keynes, It Is Milton Friedman Who Is Being Thrown Over the Side
Any time that the views of Milton Friedman are denounced as those of a left-wing semi-socialist kook, something has gone very, very wrong. From It Is Not Just John Maynard Keynes, It Is Milton Friedman Who Is Being Thrown Over the Side – Grasping Reality with Both Hands Quote of the day. I used to… Continue reading It Is Not Just John Maynard Keynes, It Is Milton Friedman Who Is Being Thrown Over the Side
5 Myths about Federal Taxes
My colleague Bob Stoker walked into my office yesterday and, apropos of Andy’s post about Greg Mankiw, noted that there sure was a lot of misinformation about taxation. I suggest he write a corrective, and here it is. From The Monkey Cage: 5 Myths about Federal Taxes Really interesting read.
Plan to Ban Food Stamps for Sodas Faces Obstacles
Experts question the legality of Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg’s proposal to bar New York City’s food-stamp recipients from using them to buy sugared drinks. From Plan to Ban Food Stamps for Sodas Faces Obstacles – NYTimes.com Why doesn’t the debate over taxing junk food ever include discussion about ending the broken farm subsidies system that… Continue reading Plan to Ban Food Stamps for Sodas Faces Obstacles
How Much Does the Market Organization of Economic Life Matter?
In 1989, the Iron Curtain came down, and we could see what a difference it made as we could examine levels of material well-being on both sides of the Curtain. This is as close to a perfect natural experiment as anyone could wish: the Iron Curtain’s location was determined by where Stalin’s and Mao’s and… Continue reading How Much Does the Market Organization of Economic Life Matter?
Railing Against Rail
people like me probably have a slight affinity for rail because it’s a kind of socially provided good. But I don’t think it’s comparably irrational: rail just makes a lot of sense for densely populated regions, especially but not only the Northeast Corridor. New York could not function at all without commuter rail, and Amtrak… Continue reading Railing Against Rail
Krugman : How The Other Half Thinks
While the other side was making these predictions, people like me were saying that classical economics was all wrong in a liquidity trap. Government borrowing did not confront a fixed supply of funds: we were in a paradox of thrift world, where desired savings (at full employment) exceeded desired investment, and hence savings would expand… Continue reading Krugman : How The Other Half Thinks
Hayek’s Friends Should Apologize for, Not Endorse, His Road to Serfdom
Hayek’s Friends Should Apologize for, Not Endorse, His Road to Serfdom
Hayek wanted to make the much stronger claim that the attempt to implement Labor’s policies would necessarily lead to a loss of personal and political freedom.
This makes perfect sense because when you look at the most repressive regimes in world what makes them stand out is the generous social insurance provided by the state and not military or police spending.