Are corporate managers and CEOs overpaid? Many politicians rail against “overpaid” corporate managers. But these attacks overlook the issues of risk and uncertainty. Workers agree to compensation before performing their work. Consequently, their compensation reflects not a known value but their expected value when arrangements are made. Managers who turn out more productive than expected will have […]
There have been many good, if ultimately unconvincing, arguments against allowing younger workers to privately invest a portion of their Social Security taxes through personal accounts. There have been even more silly ones. One of the silliest is the one regurgitated Monday by ThinkProgress, that this week’s stock market decline proves that “If Social Security […]
In the forests of India, something exciting is going on. Villagers are regaining property taken from them when the British colonial authorities nationalized their forests. Just as exciting, in urban Kenya and elsewhere, people are doing away with the need for banks by exchanging and saving their money digitally. All over the world, poor people […]
Some kinds of inflation people really hate, like when it affects food and gas. But now, with the whole of the American middle class heavily invested in stocks, there is another kind inflation people love and demand: share prices that increased forever. Just as with real estate before 2008, people seem addicted to the idea […]
The quote of the day comes from pages 476-477 of the 5th edition (2015) of Thomas Sowell’s Basic Economics: At one time, it was believed that importing more than was exported impoverished a nation because the difference between import and exports had to be paid in gold, and the loss of gold was seen as a […]
Marriage is society’s primary institutional arrangement that defines parenthood. – Jennifer Roback Morse The idea of marriage privatization is picking up steam. And it makes strange bedfellows. There are old-school gay activists suspicious that state marriage is a way for politicians to socially engineer the family through the tax code. There are religious conservatives who are […]
US leaders routinely emphasize that America’s foreign policy is based on support for the expansion of freedom around the world. But as I point out in a recent article in the National Interest Online, Washington’s behavior frequently does not match the idealistic rhetoric. Too often, US policymakers seem to favor even brutal and corrupt authoritarian allies over […]
Would you lose $500 to save a drowning child? We explore a thought experiment that just may save someone’s life. Imagine you’re walking to work in the morning down a quiet rural road to the side of the road there’s a pond and pass by every day. Only today, something is different. Today you see […]
Will workplace automation make the rich richer and doom the poor? That could happen soon, warns Paul Solman, economics correspondent for PBS NewsHour. He’s talking to Jerry Kaplan, author of a new book that seems to combine Luddism with fears about inequality. PAUL SOLMAN: And the age-old fear of displaced workers, says Kaplan, is finally, […]
How do we decide if a government action is legitimate? When courts are asked to determine whether a government action has violated an individual’s rights, they apply one of several different “standards of review” or “levels of scrutiny,” ranging from “strict scrutiny” (reserved for a very narrow category of cases) to “rational basis scrutiny.” Rational […]
Media outlets ranging from Newsweek and Time, to National Geographic and even the Weather Channel, all recently ran articles on the so-called “Overshoot Day,” which is defined by its official website as the day of the year When humanity’s annual demand for the goods and services that our land and seas can provide — fruits and vegetables, meat, fish, wood, cotton for clothing, […]
In a letter to the Wall Street Journal, Brian Collins asks, “Do you truly believe that absent any increase in the minimum wage that Wendy’s or any other business will suspend efforts to develop and implement new forms of automation that promise to reduce staff levels?” The answer is “no.” Contrary to Mr. Collins’s implication, […]
James Cleveland “Jesse” Owens famously won four gold medals, all at the 1936 games in Berlin, Germany. But in the hearts of Americans who know their Olympic history, this African American man did more than win races: he struggled against racism. At the time of Owens’s death in 1980 at age 66, President Jimmy Carter […]
Ever get a call when a friend accidentally dialed your number from their pocket? Ever make the mistake yourself: “pocket-dialing” (aka “butt-dialing”) a friend? Such calls can be annoying when you are on the receiving end, and potentially exposing when you’re the one making the call. (My teenage daughter can attest to the latter after […]
That’s the question Dave Weigel asks at the Washington Post. His premise is that Rand Paul’s presidential campaign seems to have slowed down, so maybe that means any “libertarian moment” has passed. (I’d say Weigel asks, but doesn’t answer, the question.) Nick Gillespie of Reason correctly tells Weigel that ideological movements and moments aren’t tied to any one political leader: “It’s […]