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George Selgin’s new book – Floored! – on how the Fed worsened the 2008 financial crisis is out [3]. Buy it and read it!
Tom Firey worries – understandably – that Trump will endorse an increase in the national minimum wage [4]. A slice:
Even better from his perspective: raising the wage would redistribute employment to more skilled, more experienced, predominantly white workers—that is, to the people at the center of the Trump coalition. A century ago, the Progressive originators of the minimum wage understood this well. Redistributing employment to white male workers and away from “racially undesirable” immigrants was an avowed purpose [5] of the wage’s creation. POTUS may not currently know this, but Stephen Miller [6], architect of the White House’s anti-immigration agenda, likely does and will soon explain it to Trump.
At this point, the best way forward is for government to support an institutional environment that makes it worthwhile for companies and industries to self-regulate. Importantly, this requires that companies like Equifax bear the full cost of a data breach so that they prioritize cybersecurity. The threat of losses due to a breach is the most effective method available to encourage companies to learn from each other’s experiences and to do the right thing. Insulating companies from the consequences of their actions, as exemplified by the bailouts and concessions following the 2008 financial crisis, undermines these incentives.
GMU Econ doctoral candidate Jon Murphy clarifies the economic meaning of “obsolescence. [8]”
John Stossel makes the case against single-payer health care [9].