In a National Review article of June 21, 2016, Michael Barone explored the question of whether the United States economy has shown any growth, and if not, why not. The article, entitled “Why We have—and Probably Will Keep Having—Sluggish Job Growth,” relies on a recently published book by the economist Arnold Kling, Specialization and Trade: […]
Archives
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Minimum Wage, Minimum Work, Minimum Dignity
11 Apr 2016
California, predictably, has passed a $15/hour minimum wage. New York is likely to. A few cities have done it already. Bernie Sanders wants a Federal wage of $15, while Hillary Clinton wants a $12 wage. And so the issue is once again on the table, at a time when wages are stagnant and unemployment is […]
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Some economic links from the web worth reading
09 Jun 2015
Over on Cafe Hayek, Don Boudreaux has yet another gem on the minimum wage. I love his economic work so much that I am almost despondent that I’ll never be as logically articulate as he is. But I’ll keep trying. In that article I offer an extended quote for the day: One of the greatest […]
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Ephesians 6 and Capitalism
02 Jun 2015
Today we heard a sermon on Ephesians 6: 5-9, the text about how Christian slaves and masters should act toward each other and the proper attitudes they should have. The sermon (and my wife) prompted me to write here on the application of that text to relations in a capitalist-market society. First, the direct and […]
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There is another new book out on the alleged problem of inequality. This one is by Anthony Atkinson, a British scholar who wrote Inequality: What Can Be Done? The book was just released so I haven’t had the chance to read it yet, but Richard Epstein, a legal and economic scholar with New York University […]
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The Minimum Wage as Maximum Trouble
07 Apr 2015
McDonald’s just announced a wage increase for its employees to ten dollars per hour. But the reaction was not gratitude but protests by union-led workers who are advocating for fifteen dollars per hour. The debate on the wage rate is tied to the equally contentious debate about inequality of income. I am not wading into […]
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The Social Justice Crowd–Again.
02 Dec 2014
Kevin Williamson, writing for the National Review, has perfectly captured the sentiments I have expressed on the Bereans blog on several occasions, when he wrote that the “anti-Walmart” protesters are in reality just calling for the poorer among us to be stiffed. Williamson contrasted the elite culture, whim he labeled the “Rolex crowd,” with the […]
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Mr. Obama used his weekend address to try and refocus attention away from disastrous foreign policy news and to something that can motivate his base. Even Democrats are attacking his “hands off” approach, with Senator Dianne Feinstein calling him “too cautious.” So its only natural that Mr. Obama would like to change the subject. […]
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Don’t Forget History
08 May 2014
Amity Shlaes has written a fine piece in National Review Online on one particular aspect of the Great Depression having to do with minimum wages (NRO, May 7, 2014). As she points out, recent research has changed the way we evaluate that event in economic history. In case you don’t remember, the dominant narrative had been that […]
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http://m.mlb.com/video/v3224106 Sorry I can’t get the video to embed directly, but please watch this first. Hank Aaron is a true American hero, for Americans of all races and classes. As Braves chairman Terry McGuirk said Aaron “set the home-run record the old-fashioned way” and added “You will always be the home run king of all […]
Bert Wheeler
Jeff Haymond
Marc Clauson
Mark Caleb Smith
Tom Mach