Negative Space: economics
- Basic Economics: A Citizen’s Guide to the Economy
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Economics is an important topic, because unlike every other complex field, “from botany to brain surgery”, we cannot avoid taking part: while we can, and usually should, refuse to perform brain surgery, we should not refuse to vote for politicians (and, in some states, initiatives) that have wide-ranging economic effects.
- Capitalism is not an ism
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Capitalism is not a system—it’s just what people do when they get together peacefully. When people complain about capitalism, they’re really saying that they want more power over what people do when they get together peacefully.
- Deadly Perfection
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Whenever the left wants to devalue someone’s life, they call it economics.
- Definitionally dodging recession responsibility
- You’re in a recession when the economy’s doing well; you’re out of it when the economy sucks. Ignore that mortgage crisis behind the curtain.
- Economic misterminology: recessions that never end
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When we remove causes and effects from our descriptions of economic events, such as recessions, we lose our ability to change for the better.
- Garbage in, garbage out economics
- Given the pointless definition of a recession, is it any wonder people are confused about the recovery?
- Paul Krugman’s New Cents
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Money is worth only what we pretend it is worth. If we pretend it’s worth nothing, then it is worth nothing.
- The ruling class’s unexpectedly old clothes
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I recently ran across early use of “unexpectedly” for a conservative’s strong economy, referring to the early 1981 market recovery under President Reagan.
- Trying the market, or “No, you are.”
- I think I’ve figured it out. When people say they’ve tried the market and found it wanting, they’re really just trying to deflect criticism of government policies. They’re trying to pretend that the problems government causes are someone else’s fault—in this case, the free market.
More Information
- Basic Economics• (hardcover)
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This book is about being able to analyze the costs and benefits of particular economic decisions, so that results are more likely to approach goals. Too often, goals aren’t stated, or are abandoned in favor of policies that don’t reach now-abandoned goals. (Thomas Sowell)
- Do No Harm: An Interview with Thomas Sowell
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“The legendary economist talks to The Federalist about government’s most destructive economic intrusions.”
- Fred Thompson on the Economy
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“Trying to fix problems caused by excess consumption with more spending is like telling a fat guy that the way to lose weight is to eat more donuts.”
