Some Non-Covid Links

by Don Boudreaux on February 25, 2021

Inspired by my late, great colleague and dear friend Walter Williams, my intrepid Mercatus Center colleague Veronique de Rugy wisely counsels that we keep an eye on the many negative effects, on low-skilled workers, of minimum-wage diktats. A slice:

Workers who didn’t have a job at the time of the increase and won’t get one after may pay the steepest (and unseen or overlooked) cost of the minimum wage. As Williams explained in his autobiography, “Early work experiences not only provide the pride and self-confidence that comes from financial semi-independence but also teach youngsters attitudes and habits that will make them more valuable and successful workers in the future.”

Also writing about the minimum wage – specifically, here, about Senators Cotton’s and Romney’s proposal – is the great Bruce Yandle.

Here’s Ryan Bourne on the economically ludicrous Rep. Ro Khanna and the minimum wage.

My Mercatus Center colleague Jack Salmon warns against lazily falling for the fallacy that low interest rates mean that we need not worry about the magnitude of government’s deficit financing.

Jane Shaw brings realism to the discussion of the recent power outages in Texas.

Vincent Geloso explains the connection between government ‘regulation’ of day-care and the costs of day-care.

Jim Gwartney, I fear, is correct when he argues that significant – perhaps even double-digit – inflation in the U.S. is on the horizon.

Pres. Biden will give us more efficient protectionism than was given to us by Pres. Trump. What a deal. Rah. Rah. (Eric Boehm reports.)

Nick Gillespie speaks with Wall Street Journal columnist Jason Riley about the great Thomas Sowell.