Category: Economics

One of the biggest government programs in the US is the land deed welfare program. Under this program, the government gives people the privilege to use the police to violently exclude everyone else from specific pieces of land denominated on pieces of paper called deeds. Through the operation of this guaranteed police violence, deed-holders are… Continue reading Why The Big Government Land Deed Program Creates Growth-Destroying Distortions

The IGM Forum asked economists to agree or disagree with this statement purportedly sourced from Piketty: The most powerful force pushing towards greater wealth inequality in the US since the 1970s is the gap between the after-tax return on capital and the economic growth rate. This question is getting at whether “r > g” explains… Continue reading How much do economists understand Piketty?

AEI’s Kevin Hassett knew Piketty was wrong before he ever read him. There is no possible world in which Kevin Hassett did anything else but say Piketty was wrong. That’s fine, but what’s not fine is this shit: If you look at what’s been going on in his data, then the share of income going… Continue reading Kevin Hassett Misrepresents Piketty

Mike Elk has a piece on the UAW election loss at Volkswagen. In it he says this: Fiorello notes that currently, new non-union assembly line workers at Volkswagen start at $14.50 an hour—which, with cost-of-living differences between Tennessee and the Midwest factored in, is arguably slightly higher than the just-under-$16-an-hour starting pay under the UAW… Continue reading Less pay is not arguably higher than more pay

I have three scenarios for you. Your job is to tell me which one involves imposing an externality (a cost on other people) and which one does not. A runs a factory on A’s land. A pollutes an unowned piece of neighboring land called X so badly that it is now impossible for anyone to… Continue reading Pick the Externality!