Coyote Blog’s Warren Meyer beats the drum soundly and appropriately. (Looks as though austerity, such as it was, might have worked better in the U.S. than was predicted by Paul Krugman and others who march to the Keynesian beat.)
Mike Munger writes wisely and well about police brutality and the criminal-justice system.
Why lookee here! Here’s more empirical evidence to suggest that raising the minimum wage really does destroy jobs for some low-skilled workers. (HT Tyler Cowen) (Again: keep in mind that any empirical studies done today on changes in the minimum wage are unavoidably biased against finding the full magnitude of the negative effect of forcibly raising employers’ costs of employing low-skilled workers and the employment prospects of such workers. Given the long-time existence – along with the almost certain continued existence – of minimum-wage legislation, firms and employment practices over time evolve over time to deal with this reality by creating fewer jobs than otherwise for low-skilled workers. So any marginal hikes in the minimum wage will not detect the (literally if not figuratively) countless entry-level jobs that were never created to begin with because of the existence of minimum-wage legislation.)
George Will (inspired in part by Joel Kotkin) warns against the hubris of “Progressive” government.
It’s time to abolish the protectionist Jones Act.
Back to police brutality and the criminal-justice system: here’s Tim Carney. (I disagree, though, with Tim’s claim that “we have no choice” but to use government-funded and organized police. Private provision of such services is not only widely used – ever hear of private security guards? – but would likely improve matters if such provision completely replaced government-supplied policing.)
