Economics

This is the first post of what I hope will be a series about some useful economic ideas.As fascinated as I am by economics, I have been frustrated by the way politicians and pundits discussed economic issues during this last election season. They just weren't talking about economics the way I'm used to. So I'm going to try to fill that gap a little by talking about some of … [Read more...] about Decoding Economics: The Real Economy

On last Monday's Daily Show, Jon Stewart interviewed Lina Khan, who chairs the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). She talked about the use of anti-trust laws against monopolies. And after listening to the interview, I have a few more questions for her.Question 1Speaking of the dangers of monopolies and large companies you said,I think it just shows one of the dangers … [Read more...] about A few questions for Lina Khan

Elon Musk may have been kicking employees out of Twitter to reduce operating costs, but it's possible he couldn't have destroyed more of Twitter's value if he'd burned down headquarters.Let me explain...It’s common to use the word “capital” to mean money, as in capitalizing a corporation, but to an economist, capital refers basically to tools. That is, capital goods are … [Read more...] about Burning Down Twitter

I'm seeing a lot of online chatter about inflation lately, and naturally the commentary has the stink of politics on it. Republicans are trying to pin the price increases on Biden and the Democrats. The Democrats, in turn, are trying to minimize the problem by denying that the inflation is as bad as it seems -- currently 6.8% ((CPI-U, all items, per the December 10 BLS … [Read more...] about Inflation or Productivity Loss?

I admit I haven't been closely following the progress of Biden's pandemic stimulus bill in Congress, because the back-and-forth arguments exceeded my tolerance for tedium. Nevertheless, I don't think a stimulus is what we need.Let me start by saying that what we need most from a pandemic relief bill is things that make the pandemic stop. More vaccine, more PPE, more … [Read more...] about We Don’t Need a Stimulus