Thanks to government loans, the price of college has skyrocketed in recent years because student loans mean colleges can raise their prices without driving away otherwise-price-sensitive students. Only a fraction of the hefty price hikes go toward classroom instruction or core educational functions.
A successful economy depends on innovative entrepreneurs who are willing to take large risks in return for the chance at great profits.
In an unhampered economy, we would measure economic progress by a need for fewer work hours and fewer jobs. In our mixed economy, it's impossible to say whether more jobs reflect an improving or a worsening economy.
The aftermath of the recent recession has brought renewed skepticism to EMH, even leading some to redefine it as the “inefficient” market hypothesis. We demonstrate that such a course of action is misguided.
The US government owns immense amounts of dry land, but the US government also owns far larger amounts of ocean floor. Government ownership of such immense amounts of natural resources causes substantial distortions to prices and markets.
Do women really pay more than men for the "same" goods and services? No. Not only are these supposedly identical goods not actually identical, but the consumers value them differently, leading to different prices.
Economists Robert Shiller and George Akerlof would have us believe that the market sells us things we don’t really want. That’s not true, but even if it were, the proposed solution — government — is even less likely to give us what we want.
Thanks to easy credit, automobiles have become very complex and luxurious, and brimming with safety features. The cost of producing these cars, however, won't keep prices from falling once the bubble bursts.
ZIRP has created massive asset bubbles throughout the world economy, but also has a diabolical impact on ordinary people who are largely disconnected to the bubbles.
The sugar industry and the corny syrup industry have been fighting in court. But don't be fooled. Ultimately, the two industries are happy to help each other out in order to keep their own crony-capitalist arrangements in place.
