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Recently the pundits and bloggers have been arguing about the empirical case for (and against) the Obama Administration’s $800 billion stimulus package. I have already focused on Paul Krugman’s humorous role in this debate, and today we’ll get some chuckles courtesy of Princeton economist Alan Blinder. Blinder’s Highbrow Case for Stimulus In a

The people who design advertising and political campaigns know that if they can frame the issues, they’ve already won. In an economics context, I’ve previously alluded to euphemisms for tax hikes , and how in grad school we actually used the term “ social-planner’s solution “ to denote the ideal use of resources. How can an Austrian economist

Paul Krugman is despairing of late , because a growing number of mainstream economists are adopting (versions of) Austrian business-cycle theory. The most recent convert is Minneapolis Fed president Narayana Kocherlakota. Krugman uses the occasion to criticize what he derides as “the hangover theory” of economic slumps, in which high unemployment

In my online Mises Academy class on private law and defense , one of the major student concerns was the process of appeal. In a statist society such as the current United States, if someone doesn’t like the ruling of a lower court, he or she can appeal it to a higher court. However, the appeal process has a logical stopping point, at the Supreme

When tallying up the “total costs” of a government operation, proponents will typically include only the most obvious items, whereas opponents will throw in the kitchen sink. The obvious motivation is to make the operation look relatively cheap (for the proponents) or horribly expensive (for the opponents). In such exercises, one of the tricky

This week the Obama administration lays out its plans to further “stimulate” the economy. In particular, the president unveiled his proposals for $50 billion more in infrastructure spending, and a $100 billion extension to a tax credit on research and development. Unfortunately these ideas range from misguided to downright harmful. If the federal

Market analysts have been trying to predict President Obama’s pick to head the newly created Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Earlier this week Obama and other administration officials hinted that the spot would be filled by Elizabeth Warren, a hero to progressive activists but anathema to the banking industry. (As of Wednesday evening,

Some days, it’s embarrassing to be a professional economist. On Monday, the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) officially declared that our recession had ended — 15 months ago. Yes, that’s right, just as more and more analysts are worried about the economy imploding again, the NBER announces that the recession ended back in June 2009. The

In the last week there have been several interesting developments involving gold. The price of the yellow metal set a new record, breaking through the $1,300 barrier. Meanwhile, a German firm is preparing to install gold vending machines in the United States. The German firm won’t be stocking the machines with gold purchased from European central

On Sunday the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) officially expired , though its “legacy programs” could continue for years. Lately there has been a growing campaign to tout the success of TARP, Henry Paulson’s extremely controversial plan to use (originally) $700 billion of taxpayer money to save the financial system. Despite this chorus of