Economy

JLF’s Roy Cordato’s research featured in a Truth In Accounting article on teacher pensions in Illinois: The TRS states that it uses net, not gross payments, subtracting taxes from gross payments to active and retired teachers “to be more conservative.” But there is a bigger reason to be more conservative,…

That’s the title of a thoughtful post by Ilya Somin on the Volokh Conspiracy blog. It’s well worth reading in its entirety, but here are a few excerpts: Some may find it surprising that the perpetrator of the recent horrific New Zealand terrorist attack that killed fifty…

Steve Forbes‘ latest musings in Forbes magazine include a critique of British government actions since the 2016 Brexit vote. The country’s economy today is at a virtual standstill, and how the divorce with the EU will unfold remains a mystery. The ruling conservative government has been so inept…

Evan Osborne writes for the Martin Center about his life among radical academic colleagues. For almost a quarter century I have been a professor of economics at Wright State University in Dayton, Ohio. After years of working there, I have learned something about how my department’s academic radicals, who…

A study recently published in MIT’s Review of Economics and Statistics suggests the answer is, “Yes.” From the abstract: We estimate the impact of youth minimum wages on youth employment by exploiting a large discontinuity in Danish minimum wage rules at age 18, using monthly payroll records…

Travis Kavulla explains in the latest print edition of National Review how policymakers ought to respond to consumer demand for more “green” energy. Democrats have said that consumers are demanding clean energy. They then have demanded massive government programs to invest in it — or to co-opt monopolies…

Randall Forsyth of Barron’s examines the latest reports about the American trade deficit. As for the U.S. trade deficit, its expansion has provided an irresistible gotcha for the media to deride the Trump administration’s intent to shrink the gap, despite increasing the budget deficit. As RDQ Economics’ John…

It’s nice to know that a left-of-center commentator can read one of my columns and respond with something more intelligent than name-calling. Contrast Thomas Mills’ reasoned response to that of a standard-issue internet troll. (I stopped reading the troll’s words after “You dipshits.”) Nonetheless, Mills doesn’t quite…