Two little economic lessons for Dawn Foster

Ms. Foster needs to have a little bit of remedial economics:Social housing pays for itselfNo, it doesn't, quite clearly and quite obviously. It charges less than market rent therefore it must make a loss. To ignore this is to miss one of the two things about economics that even a Guardian writer should manage to get, incentives matter and there are always opportunity costs.It is the second which is in play here. If social housing were let at...

The CIA’s Drug Smuggling Airline

If you’re familiar with the American war on drugs, then it may not surprise you to learn that the CIA represents one of the largest drug dealing organizations in history. The CIA originally designed LSD with the help of a Swiss manufacturer as a “mind control drug” as part of their MK Ultra program, hoping that it would allow patients under the influence to commit unspeakable acts commanded by the government and then forget they ever happened....

Another Bleak Day for Property Owners

Property owners have long suffered under the Supreme Court’s erratic rulings. It got worse today. In Murr v. Wisconsin, the Court ruled against the owners, 5-3, with Justice Kennedy writing for the majority, Chief Justice Roberts writing a dissent, joined by Justices Thomas and Alito, Thomas writing a separate dissent, and Justice Gorsuch taking no part. The problem isn’t simply with the majority’s holding and opinion, it’s with the dissent as...

Secular Stagnation?

In today’s Outside the Box my good friend Charles Gave shares an instructive “Tale of Two Countries.” Since 1981 in the UK and France, structural growth rates have diverged: The rate has fallen by two-thirds in France, while in the UK it has risen. Why? Well, to begin with, in the UK Margaret Thatcher was elected prime minister in 1979 and almost at once reduced the role of the bureaucracy in managing economic activity and dialed back...

Understanding The Cryptocurrency Boom

Understanding The Cryptocurrency Boom A collapse of the current global fiat currency regime is, concerningly, something that increasingly looks more and more inevitable. This will destroy a staggering amount of the (paper) wealth currently held by today’s households. Which makes developing a fully-informed understanding of the cryptocurrency landscape now — today — an extremely important requirement...

James Buchanan’s Work

There's a lot of buzz on the Internet lately (see here for my recent commentary on Sam Tanenhaus's review) about the recent book by Nancy MacLean, Democracy in Chains: The Deep History of the Radical Right's Stealth Plan for America. MacLean sees economist James M. Buchanan as the key figure in the rise of the "radical right." One of the things that those of us who know Buchanan's work well have been saying, on Facebook and...

Bonus Quotation of the Day…

… is from my colleague Bryan Caplan’s recent EconLog blog post “Progressive/Libertarian: The Alliance That Isn’t” (original emphasis): The heart of the left isn’t helping the poor, or reducing inequality, or even minority rights.  The heart of the left is being anti-market.  With some honorable exceptions, very few leftists are capable of being excited about deregulation of any kind.  And even the leftists who do get excited about...

Bad Boys

Tom Woods, Kevin Gutzman, and I are all too hot for AP Government. I think this clip is apropos: [embedded content]

Hart, Dworkin, and Trump

Current Events, Academic Philosophy Two federal appeals courts have now held that Trump’s Executive Order temporarily banning immigration from certain countries is unconstitutional. The 4th Circuit thought that the EO was discriminatory, while the 9th Circuit opined that the President had exceeded the congressional mandate (recall that immigration has always been...

Week in Review: June 24, 2017

While the Federal Reserve is desperate to depict an optimistic vision for the global economy, their fellow central bankers aren't buying it. Earlier this week Mark Carney of the Bank of England shutdown talk of the BOE possibly following the Fed's lead in raising interest rates. Meanwhile, as Fed officials are openly worrying about whether technological advances are undermining their misguided war against deflation, the ECB is desperately...

Scurvy, among Other Problems, Went Away

Reprinted from Mises.org One morning I was reading about how in the past many thousands of people died from scurvy, and solely because travelers on the high seas had such limited access to fruit and vitamin C. Scurvy was documented in the ancient world, and, in the 300 years after 1500, may have killed as many as 2 million sailors. The fear of scurvy has been one of millions of terrifying fears that have consumed the human psyche for all of...

Chart of the Day: Government Health Spending As % Of GDP Since 1900—Up 64X

New Process Using Gold Could Help Develop Artificial Muscles

There is healing power in gold. Not only does the yellow metal  serve as an investment as well as money, it is increasingly being used in technological applications, particularly in the healthcare field. A recent advance reported by could significantly improve medical implants. Researchers from the University of Basel have modified short-chain silicones in a way that allows them to build strong bonds to gold atoms. This process could be used...

The EU’s Greatest Achievements, According To Europeans

A year on from the UK's Brexit referendum, Prime Minister Theresa May is set to visit Brussels today and outline her government's negotiating position on the future rights of EU citizens living in the UK. As Statista's Niall McCarthy notes, a recently released Chatham House-Kantar survey found that freedom to live and work across the EU is considered one of the EU's top three triumphs by its citizens. You will find more statistics at...

Haunting Photos of Shuttered Stores on Madison Avenue

Brick & Mortar Meltdown reaches “Crown Jewel in American retailing.” Brick and mortar stores face a tough environment. Retail is shifting to online operations. E-commerce sales have surged at an annual rate of about 15% in recent years. But sales at department stores and smaller stores are deteriorating. Malls have hit hard times. Retail bankruptcies have formed a horrific litany. And the signs are visible everywhere. So here is the...

Ep. 938 Law Without the State?

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History Channel tells stunning secret story of War on Drugs – from the beginning it was a political war on people – Publications – AEI

AEI History Channel tells stunning secret story of War on Drugs – from the beginning it was a political war on people From a very important article in The Intercept by Jon Schwartz “The History Channel Is Finally Telling the Stunning Secret Story of the War on Drugs” (emphasis added): The History Channel is showing a new four-part series called America’s War on Drugs. Not only is it an important contribution to recent American history, it’s...

Necessity is the Mother of Invention – Retirees Desperate Reach for Yield

Ben Bernanke’s creativity inspired a generation of economists and central bankers. QE, ZIRP and NIRP established a new class of economics that is mathematically sound but practically disastrous. Billions of dollars were transferred from savers to investors to boost the economy, but the wizards of quant forgot that something has to give. In this case, it was the formation of a pension crisis that threatens the golden years of millions of...

The Big Myth

Don Watkins of the Ayn Rand Institute wrote an article, The Myth of Banking Deregulation, to debunk a lie. The lie is that bank regulation is good. That it helped stabilize the economy in the 1930’s. And that deregulation at the end of the century destabilized the economy and caused the crisis of 2008. If deregulation is the problem, then reregulation is the solution. So, in the wake of the crisis, Congress enacted a 2,300-page monstrosity of...

Reflections on 2017 MPS Regional Meeting in Seoul, Korea

I just returned from a fascinating experience in Seoul -- including a Presidential election in Korea that saw a landslide victory for a socialist leaning and "pro-North" candidate Moon Jae-in, and a visit to the DMZ.  The reformer Moon Jae-in is a reaction against charges of corruption and cronyism.  Since 1953, Korea's development is nothing short of miraculous, but obviously there are tensions in the system that must be explored....

Economic Policy of a Free Society

Liberalism correctly understood is little more than the persistent and consistent applications of the principles of economics of the affairs of men be they domestic or international. These include mutually beneficial exchange, the absence of political privilege, and toleration. The institutional precondition of these principles is the rule of law, private property, and freedom of contract. Since the collapse of communism, however, the gains in...