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George Selgin will speak on Thursday (March 19th) at noon in D.C [2].

My Mercatus Center colleague Veronique de Rugy shows that, despite its assertions to the contrary, that great geyser of cronyism, the U.S. Export-Import Bank, is indeed appropriately called “Boeing’s Bank.” [3]

Vero also explains that, when it comes to the Ex-Im Bank, Democrats are corporate shills [4].  A slice:

But the biggest beneficiaries of all [of Ex-Im’s cronyism] are probably the lenders [5] who earn interest on loans whose risk is borne by American taxpayers. No one explained it better than a JP Morgan banker (whose firm just happens to be the biggest private lender that benefits from Ex-Im), when he said that the bank is “free money” [6]—that is, for the firms who know the right people.

This is exactly the kind of favoritism for Wall Street that senator Elizabeth Warren says she opposes. So why does she support the bank [7]? Warren offered the empty, canned defense that Ex-Im “helps create American jobs and spur economic growth,” but the truth is that the bank exists to serve the interests of a powerful few at the expense of the not-so-powerful many she claims to champion.

Arnold Kling reports the findings of a fascinating paper that casts doubt on the belief that transferring more income or wealth to poor families will make them healthier and their children better students [8].

Tim Worstall weighs in at Forbes on the baneful consequences of Seattle’s mandated $15 per hour minimum wage. [9]  A slice:

Human labor really is an economic good like pretty much all of the others. Raise the price and the demand for it will drop (another way of putting this is that human labor is not a Giffen Good). Please do note though what is the prediction. Not that there’s going to be a wiping out of employment opportunities, nor that the economy of Seattle is going to become a howling wasteland. Rather, that less human labor will be employed at $15 an hour than would have been employed if the minimum wage had not risen to that amount. And for people who would like to have a job but now cannot find one that’s bad news.

John Tamny explains what Jennifer Aniston’s love life teaches about modern unemployment [10].

Harry Binswanger writes in support of open immigration [11].  (HT Ed Thompson)

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