A destructive book full of bad reasoning and bad advice is topping the bestseller charts — On June 5th, Jonathan Capehart wrote an op-ed in The Washington Post entitled, “Dear White People, Please Read ‘White Fragility’.” In it, he writes that Robin DiAngelo, the book’s author, “forces white people to see and understand how white supremacy permeates their lives and to recognize how they perpetuate it…

A story of lost income and lost lives — As economies across the world grapple with COVID-19, many are wondering how bad it could get. At this point, it is anyone’s guess. The virus is a black swan event that highlights a distinction drawn by late economist Frank Knight between risk and uncertainty. As Knight wrote: Uncertainty must be…

A liquidity injection is not a handout — This week, as equity markets went into a tailspin while the coronavirus spread across the globe, the Federal Reserve decided to inject $1.5 trillion into financial markets. The Fed’s rapid action was an attempt to stabilize financial markets in the wake of severe disruptions caused by the COVID-19 outbreak. In…

Getting into the economic weeds — Democratic presidential candidates Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders, battling to win over the progressive wing of their party, have proposed a wealth tax as part of their policy platforms. Warren’s proposal calls for an “Ultra-Millionaire Tax,” applying to households worth $50 million or more. Roughly, this includes the wealthiest 75,000…

A response to Ben Burgis — In a recent article for Arc Digital, philosophy professor Ben Burgis confronts the idea that socialism is inconsistent with human nature. …

In an earlier article, I suggested AOC misconstrued “scarcity.” She might have been right. — In a prior article for Arc Digital, I argued that Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) misconstrued a basic principle of economics by conflating scarcity with distribution. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Misconstrues One of the Most Basic Principles of Economics On scarcity and distributionarcdigital.media

Anyone who says otherwise is trying to sell you something — In mid-July, the U.S. House of Representatives passed a bill that would gradually raise the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour. The bill has been ignored by the Senate and President Trump. But along with the Fight for $15 campaign, living wage calculators, Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib’s (D-Mich.) call for…

Too often we jump from the fact of inequality to the supposed illegitimacy of capitalism. That’s too fast. — Earlier this year, Massachusetts senator and Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren proposed a wealth tax to address economic inequality. Motivated by a study showing that “the top 0.1 percent wealth share has risen from 7 percent in 1978 to 22 percent in 2012,” Warren drew attention to one of the…

On scarcity and distribution — New York Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (AOC) is popular for many reasons, but perhaps the most meaningful source of her appeal is her intrepid advocacy for economic policies that energize progressives. She has buoyed progressive hopes with her unapologetically ambitious vision of a society with revitalized infrastructure and a Green…