According to the latest Kauffman Foundation survey of “top” economics bloggers. (I participate, so it’s not that exclusive a club.) Regular Beacon readers will not be surprised by the biggest word in the cloud. The full report is available here. As Kauffman’s Tim Kane notes, “The economics blogging community has proven to be very...
Read More »

Economic “stimulus” packages that don’t revive the economy and that increase federal deficits and undermine private investment and job growth? Check. Laws meant to protect endangered species but which incentivize landowners who have them on their property to “shoot, shovel, and shut-up”? Check. Anti-poverty programs that foster dependency and hinder participation in the job...
Read More »

John Kenneth Galbraith coined the term “dependence effect” in his 1958 book, The Affluent Society. Galbraith argues against satisfying a person’s demands for goods that are “...contrived for him. And above all, they must not be contrived by the process of production by which they are satisfied. ... One cannot defend production as satisfying...
Read More »

Joseph Schumpeter, in his book, The Theory of Economic Development, makes the distinction between invention and innovation. Inventions are scientific and technical discoveries whereas innovations are the result of entrepreneurial actions that bring new products and production processes into the economy. You can’t use an invention. But you can use the innovations that are...
Read More »

In May 2010, President Obama visited California’s solar-panels manufacturer Solyndra, touting it as an “engine of economic growth” and a model of his stimulus spending schemes. Dedicated to government-financed “green energy jobs,” this administration saw the company as encapsulating everything right about the state’s collusion with the environmental-industrial complex. Just last month the business...
Read More »

Financial markets and analysts fear a new global recession. Data point to a growth slow-down that might eventually lead to a fall in production. Some pundits, who bought the idea of a recovery in previous years, seem to be surprised by the negative data of the latest months. The stock market probably shared this...
Read More »

I recently recorded a short video on “jobs” programs. Here it is:

If both sides in Washington agree on something, it is almost surely a bad deal for taxpayers and a disaster for freedom. A common theme in the media is on Obama’s jobs proposal and the GOP reaction. While the president is being assertive, pushing hard for a huge spending spree aimed at expanding employment,...
Read More »

Commentators and pundits, some of whom ought to know better, continue to harp on the idea that the recession persists because consumers are not spending. Every Keynesian seems to believe that because consumers are in a dreadful funk, only government stimulus spending can rescue the moribund economy, given (to them, at least) that investors...
Read More »

As the idea of regime uncertainty has gained ground in recent years as a partial explanation of the economy’s failure to recover quickly and fully, economists and others invested in Keynesian thinking have begun to strike back. One such Keynesian debunking of regime uncertainty was offered recently by Gary Burtless and seemingly endorsed by...
Read More »