Concerning the nature of man and the economic system, and how best the latter can be structured to augment the former.
You’ve probably seen this chart before. It’s everywhere now. I’ve used it more than a few times over the years. It’s the chart from the Economic Policy Institute that shows that while US productivity has continued to increased over the last few decades, real inflation-adjusted wages haven’t kept pace:
I’ve seen two bad misreadings of this chart lately, and I want to clear them up.
Continue reading “How to Read That Productivity/Wage Gap Chart We’re Always Seeing”
I’ve been surprised lately by the number of people who have brought up or asked me about Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies. It’s moved me to take a minute to point out why many economists and political economists don’t get excited about them.
Continue reading “Why Cryptocurrencies Don’t Work as Currencies”
A friend of mine recently sent me this clip of White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders attempting to defend President Trump’s “Cut Cut Cut” tax plan with an elaborate bar metaphor. Let’s call it the “Allegory of the Tab”:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5ifwb3SNlw
A couple days later, my dad told me he heard someone bring this up, as if it were some kind of serious argument for Trump’s plan. I can’t let this stand. The Allegory of the Tab is too reductive, too simplistic, too brain-dead to pass without a post exclusively and entirely about how dumb it is.
Continue reading “Sarah Huckabee Sanders’ Bar Metaphor Is Really Stupid”
President Trump said he wants to help Puerto Rico deal with its debt (though his administration immediately U-turned on this). The territory has been devastated by multiple hurricanes and a long-running economic crisis. But while disaster aid and debt relief would be very good for Puerto Rico, what it really needs in the long-run is statehood. Here’s why.
Continue reading “If Donald Trump Wants to Help Puerto Rico, He Should Help It Become a State”
If you ask a Trump supporter to name some of the president’s accomplishments, invariably one of the first responses you get is a booming stock market.
The thing is, a booming stock market is not a good economic indicator. Not in this day and age. Here’s why.
Continue reading “The Stock Market is Not Evidence of Trump’s Success”
Benjamin Studebaker 