Economics

The One Question You Can Ask to Uncover a President’s Economic Principles 0
- Economics
- October 3, 2018
Anonymous, a senior administration official writing in The New York Times, wants us to know President Trump “is not moored to any discernible first principles that guide his decision making.” Presumably, Anonymous believes other recent presidents operated by principles, and we can wonder who Anonymous thinks those presidents were and what principles he believes guided them. A
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Unboxing Amazon’s New $15 per Hour Minimum Wage 0
- Economics
- October 3, 2018
Many people assume that to raise wages, big companies must be dragged along by government policy. Amazon’s eye-opening announcement yesterday suggests otherwise. The online retail giant announced it would raise its company minimum wage to fifteen dollars per hour, and lobby for an increase in the federal minimum wage. This new policy is not merely cosmetic. Amazon’s
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Would the US be Happy Doing Things the ‘Swedish Way’?0
- Economics
- October 2, 2018
Sweden has traditionally been portrayed in the US political debate as the epitome of democratic socialism: a country where the benevolent hand of government has managed to create a sustainable and generous welfare state funded by a progressive taxation system in which high-income earners pay their fair share; a country where the government provides basic services
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How the Myth of the ‘Robber Barons’ Began—and Why It Persists 2
- Economics
- October 2, 2018
Capitalism Worked, but We Were Told It Didn’t We study history to learn from it. If we can discover what worked and what didn’t work, we can use this knowledge wisely to create a better future. Studying the triumph of American industry, for example, is important because it is the story of how the United
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Your First Job: Real Costs of the Minimum Wage 0
- Economics
- September 28, 2018
With midterm elections approaching, ideological battlegrounds are being staked out — and few carry greater promise of enticing voters than minimum wage policy. Recent political developments in this area include repurposing the minimum wage as a “living wage”, conflating and popularizing the notion of a “Universal Basic Income”, and a “corporations can afford it”/”fight for $15” narrative. The latter is the
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You Can Trust The Polls in 2018, If You Read Them Carefully 0
- Economics
- September 26, 2018
On the morning of Nov. 8, 2016, many Americans went to bed confident that Hillary Clinton would be elected the nation’s first female president. Their confidence was driven, in no small part, by a pervasive message that Clinton was ahead in the polls and forecasts leading up to the election. Polling aggregation sites, such as
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