Voluntary Exchange Sources

17 Feb The Minimum Wage’s Racially Discriminatory Roots

Posted at 13:09h in Voluntary Exchange Sources by one80Admin

If the filibuster is a ‘Jim Crow relic,’ so is a policy designed to curtail the abundance of black labor.Speaker Nancy Pelosi said last week that the House version of the next coronavirus aid package will include a $15 federal minimum wage, adding that “27 million...

16 Feb A New Counterweight to Stakeholder Capitalism

Posted at 21:24h in Voluntary Exchange Sources by one80Admin

Launching today, 2ndVote Funds will provide investment products, such as ETFs and actively managed funds, that use a conservative or libertarian framework to allocate capital. Read the Full Article here: >National Review...

16 Feb Technology Alone Won’t End Poverty. We Need Savings First.

Posted at 21:16h in Voluntary Exchange Sources by one80Admin

According to some commentators such as economics Nobel Laureate Paul Romer, technical knowledge is key to economic growth. But if this is the case, why do third world economies continue to experience poverty? After all, individuals in these economies have access to the same technical knowledge as...

16 Feb I Am Insane

Posted at 21:12h in Voluntary Exchange Sources by one80Admin

(Don Boudreaux) TweetThe following conclusion is now firmly set in (what remains of) my mind: If humanity’s reaction to Covid-19 is sane and rational, then sometime in the past 11 months I’ve lost my mind and I am now certifiably insane. If, instead, I remain...

15 Feb The gift of ‘regular old living’: Pixar’s ‘Soul’ on work and vocation

Posted at 21:58h in Voluntary Exchange Sources by one80Admin

Surrounded by abounding prosperity, we are constantly told to “follow our passions,” to “look deep inside ourselves,” to “find our calling,” to “do what we love and love what we do.” And why shouldn’t we? Freedom is expanding. Opportunity is everywhere. Having mostly escaped the material...

15 Feb The Fight over Economics Is a Fight over Culture

Posted at 21:57h in Voluntary Exchange Sources by one80Admin

The Left long ago figured out how to get ordinary people interested in economic policy. The strategy is two pronged. The first part is to frame the problem as a moral problem. The second part is to make the fight over economic policy into a...

15 Feb News Flash: Death Is Inevitable!

Posted at 21:55h in Voluntary Exchange Sources by one80Admin

(Don Boudreaux) TweetNear the two-minute, twenty-second mark of this brief interview with British MP Charles Walker – who has been absolutely heroic in fighting Covid Derangement Syndrome – the interviewer, a British news person, apparently discovers for the first time that some people, such as...

15 Feb Amity Shlaes and the Challenges for Free Market Scholars

Posted at 17:06h in Voluntary Exchange Sources by one80Admin

In 2018, Amity Shlaes had an impressive essay in the City Journal. I’ve read it only now because it was published on the City Journal’s website. That is quite apropos, given the controversy surrounding US history at the moment. Shlaes’s thesis is outlined in the very...

15 Feb Some Non-Covid Links

Posted at 13:49h in Voluntary Exchange Sources by one80Admin

(Don Boudreaux) TweetIn his essay “The Bankruptcy of Conservative Political Paternalism,” Richard Ebeling does a fine job unveiling the many myths and misunderstandings – and plain old economic fallacies – that continue to be spread by Oren Cass. A slice: Traditions, customs, and noncoercive “authorities” to...

15 Feb The Difference Between Copper and Cucumbers

Posted at 13:13h in Voluntary Exchange Sources by one80Admin

David Attenborough, a well-known BBC film presenter and climate activist, has a fantastic quote about growth and economists. It’s so captivating that I suspect it lays at the foundation for ridiculing every sensible environmental comment by economists. The quote reads: “Anyone who thinks that you...