Tweet [1]
George Selgin exposes the astonishing economic illiteracy of those who swallow so-called “Modern Monetary Theory. [2]” A slice:
MMT often boils down to nothing more than an especially naïve sort of Keynesianism: assume an unlimited excess supply of every resource save money balances, and, voila! monetary expansion can costlessly finance all the projects we like!
Max Gulker warns of the high costs of regulating child care [3].
Also warning of the high costs of free childcare is Meghan Kruger [4].
Richard Ebeling brings to us Friedrich von Wieser’s 1923 remembrance of Carl Menger [5].
Here’s Scott Sumner on Alex Tabarrok on liberalizing the market for kidneys [6]. (On the general topic of goods and services that are legal to donate but illegal to sell, my excessive vanity compels me to link again to this 1995 Cato Journal article of mine [7].)
Are universities ruining students’ lives? [8]
Ed Yardeni reveals the flaws and faulty premises of a recently proposed scheme to limit corporate stock buybacks [9]. A slice:
There can be no disputing the fact that real wages haven’t been stagnating at all, notwithstanding the assertions of the two senators who want to help workers. From the start of 2000 through the end of 2017, real average hourly earnings rose 17.3% (Fig. 8 [10]). I am using the series that applies only to production and nonsupervisory workers, who tend to be rich only if they win the lottery. They account for roughly 80% of all workers.
Gonzalo Schwarz, for good reasons, isn’t keen on a universal basic income [11].
I’m eager to read Tyler Cowen’s forthcoming book, due out in April [12].