≡ Menu

Some Links

I wish that I were in Toronto this afternoon so that I could attend this talk by EconLog’s David Henderson.

Here’s a link to the Stossel show of a few weeks ago that (I boast) was built on this Cafe Hayek blog post.

Ben Zycher shares a key scientific truth (but one that is shockingly ignored in too many discussions of policy-making).

I’m chagrined to confess that I only just today learned of this 2007 paper by my old Clemson colleague John Warner, my current GMU colleague Jim Miller, and RAND’s Beth Asch on economists’ role in ending U.S. military conscription.  (I learned of this paper here.)  Here’s the paper’s abstract:

An important case in the last half century where the “economic way of thinking” contributed to a major government policy change in the United States was the decision to terminate conscription as the means of staffing the bulk of the U.S. armed forces. After an acrimonious public debate that lasted five years, conscription was ended in 1973. Economists played an important role in the draft debates and in the decision to terminate it, and, since then, in the management of the All-Volunteer Force (AVF). While their recommendations have not always been heeded, economists, and the economic way of thinking they have advanced, have helped shape effective military personnel.

Barry Brownstein explains the economic-equalizing force that is modern capitalism.  Here’s his conclusion:

The essential consumption goods we couldn’t even imagine a hundred years ago are almost universally available in the United States today. The marketplace, aided by many creative, pioneering entrepreneurs and every person who strives to put in a good day’s work, is generating consumption equality.

Here is yet further evidence of the job destruction unleashed by minimum-wage legislation.

Regardless of your opinion of Ted Cruz, he is right to oppose Uncle Sam’s ethanol boondoggle.

Kevin Williamson reflects on Hillary Clinton’s ode to serfdom.

Comments