My colleague Walter Williams explains the easy-to-miss distinction between prices and costs. A slice:
In his 2012 State of the Union address, President Barack Obama boasted that “over 1,000 Americans are working today because we stopped a surge in Chinese tires.” According to a study done by the Peterson Institute for International Economics (http://tinyurl.com/jdtbktu), those trade restrictions forced Americans to pay $1.1 billion in higher prices for tires. So though 1,200 jobs were saved in the U.S. tire industry, the cost per job saved was at least $900,000 in that year. According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average annual salary of tire builders in 2011 was $40,070.
Phil Levy writes more about Trump’s trade policies. Here’s Phil’s conclusion:
The Trump administration has prided itself on its disdain for economic expertise. The trade policies they are passing off as bold and new have, in fact, been tried repeatedly and have failed. Yet the new administration seems determined to prove once again George Santayana’s point: “Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.”
Tegan Truitt explains well the benefits of free trade.
Arnold Kling’s summary of public choice is quite good.
Don’t wait! Call now for your income-consuming BAT! (HT Veronique de Rugy)
My colleague Larry White makes the case against the Fed’s large balance sheet.
Here’s Katherine Mangu-Ward on the hubris of expansive executive powers. A slice:
So here’s your handy reminder: Presidents do not make the earth move. They do not turn back tides. They do not heal the sick, or eliminate vice, or remake the nation. They are humans with human failings, and one of those failings is the inability to resist taking a big slup of their own Kool-Aid in moments of triumph.
