Paul M. Jones | Economics2026-05-08T09:12:58-05:00Free trade conserves lower prices, not social stability2016-07-24T09:41:57-05:00The advantages of Free Trade are lower prices for stuff. That means they are more cheaply produced. As the economist David Ricardo wrote, there is a principle of comparative advantage that coupled with free trade guarantees maximum profits for when t...National Debt: "We Owe It To Ourselves"? Not Quite.2015-07-08T21:36:54-05:00The burden of the debt is that we create an ever-deeper conflict of interest between Lenders and Spenders. Yes, if you think of Lenders and Spenders collectively, you can say that âwe owe the debt to ourselves.â But that is a dangerously va...The Formula For Anti-Capitalist Concern-Trolling2015-02-26T19:29:27-06:00Then economists ... commenced worrying about, to name a few of the pessimisms concerning âcapitalismâ they discerned: greed, alienation, racial impurity, workersâ lack of bargaining strength, workersâ bad taste in consumption, imm...Conspicuous *Production*: "Sexy" Work, "Schlep" Work, Automation, and Artisans2015-02-14T23:06:31-06:00People who seek sexy work are often members of what I called the Jeffersonian middle class in an earlier post -- motivated by creative self-expression and a sense of personal dignity rather than economic survival.
... Sexy work is attractive to those...The Two Most Important Free-Market Economic Arguments2015-01-13T21:35:19-06:00Mainstream economists appear to me not to appreciate the two most important arguments that we have. One is the socialist calculation argument. My sense is that mainstream economists either do not believe that the socialist calculation problem is real...Jean Tirole and Josh Lerner on Open Source2014-10-14T21:04:58-05:00Tirole and Lerner noted, with a bit of puzzlement that, compared with open-source software writers, academics were less likely to make their data sources public and more likely to allow their work to be hidden behind publishersâ paywalls. I thin...On This Labor Day: "The Role of Unions", Especially Government Worker Unions2014-09-01T20:16:27-05:00Rhat gave unions their big push in the 1930s was federal legislation allowing them to be the sole bargainer for employees, even for employees who had no wish to join or pay dues. What we do call an organization that is the sole seller? We call it a m...Jock/Nerd Theory and Income Redistribution2014-08-16T15:24:57-05:00(Lightly edited for streamlining purposes; all emphasis mine)
According to the Jock/Nerd Theory of History, most historical human societies bore a striking resemblance to K-12 education. In primitive tribes, for instance, the best hunters are on top...Most Federal Housing Subsidies Do *Not* Fund The Poor2014-08-11T21:03:39-05:00The bulk of homeownership expenditures go to the top fifth of households by income, who typically could afford to purchase a home without subsidies. According to estimates by the congressional Joint Committee on Taxation, more than three-fourths ...Food Prices vs Wages2014-07-19T15:19:42-05:00If we want to bring down the price of food relative to wages, we'd be better off looking at our agricultural policies than at our monetary policy.
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