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Matt Yglesias very nicely summarizes some of the core problems with Oren Cass’s deeply flawed chart meant to show that ordinary Americans are today worse off than they were in 1985 [2]. (Another fundamental problem with Cass’s chart, of course, is that it compares median male income to total major household expenditures. Cass really should learn not only some economics – a subject about which he is demonstrably ignorant [3] – but also basic lessons in how to construct and interpret statistics.)
Richard Ebeling explains that we will not be saved by technocrats [4].
Zoey Poll reviews, in the New Yorker, Bryan Caplan’s and Zach Weinersmith’s Open Borders [5].
Marian Tupy and Chelsea Follett correct Bernie Sanders on Cuba [6].
Also rightly critical of Bernie Sanders is Jonah Goldberg [7]. A slice:
First, while it’s true that Sanders does not advocate communism, it’s also true that when communism was still a live proposition in the Soviet Union, Sanders lavished praise on it. It’s also true that he remains bizarrely fond of other non-democratic socialist regimes, including Cuba’s. So while he may not be proposing communism for the U.S. per se, the fact that Sanders isn’t horrified by communist countries should tell you something about how far he might like to take socialism here.
My GMU Econ colleague Larry White argues, in the Wall Street Journal, against the claim that the U.S. needs a national digital currency [10]. A slice:
Those who say the U.S. government needs to act to ensure the dollar doesn’t lose its dominance to another nation’s digital currency or a private cryptocurrency have it backward. The best way to improve the speed and convenience of dollar payments is through entrepreneurial competition, not the heavy hand of government. The dollar will reign so long as the Fed keeps the dollar inflation rate low.