What A Laugh: Trump to Award Medal of Freedom to Economist Arthur Laffer

Arthur Laffer

President Trump will award the Presidential Medal of Freedom, the nation's highest civilian honor, to economist Arthur Laffer, the White House announced Friday.

Laffer is a champion of supply-side economics and  established what is known as the "Laffer Curve." 

Below is Murray Rothbard's great take on supply-side economics as a scam:

FURTHER ESCALATION: China Steps Up Trade War and Plans Blacklist of U.S. Firms

The Chinese government said on Friday that it was putting together an “unreliable entities list” of foreign companies and people, an apparent first step toward retaliating against the United States for denying vital American technology to Chinese companies, reports The New York Times.

Now Trump Is Threatening to Place Tariffs on Goods From India

President Trump with India's
Prime Minister Narendra Modi

There appears to be no spot on the planet where President Trump wants to start an unproductive trade war.

The United States on Thursday said India’s suspension from the list of countries benefiting from a duty-free import scheme that was announced in March is a “done deal”, reports the Hindu Times.

“There is every reason to believe that the GSP (Generalized System of Preferences, which gives favorable access to goods from developing countries) suspension will move forward,” a US government official said. The next step is a presidential memorandum, which has been due since May 4.

New Book on the History of the Austrian School of Economics Coming

The Marginal Revolutionaries: How Austrian Economists Fought the War of Ideas by Janek Wasserman is set to be released on September 24, 2019.

From the blurb:

"We are willing to starve for years to make the US bleed!"

China's Communist Party-controlled media has issued a blistering video in the face of the trade war launched by the Trump administration.

"China must be prepared to fight a protracted war," states the four-minute video.

Trump About to Threaten Mexico with New Tariffs

UPDATE BELOW: TRUMP ANNOUNCES TARIFFS ON MEXICAN IMPORTS

Things may get even crazier on the tariff front.

President Trump is preparing to threaten Mexico with new tariffs as part of an attempt to force the country to crack down on a surge of Central American migrants seeking asylum in the United States, reports The Washington Post.

The Incredible Textbook Royalties Earned By Harvard Economics Prof

Greg Mankiw Harvard-based economics textbook writer. It is not difficult to understand why he is dancing.

It pays and pays and pays to be a Harvard-based Keynesian mainstream economics textbook writer.

Elizabeth "Make That a Giveaway and Tax the Rich" Warren

 Elizabeth Warren

How mad is Elizabeth Warren's buy the votes plan?

Pretty much over the top.

Is There an Up and Coming Austrian School Economist Sharp Enough With...

...the balls, toughness and patience to pull this off for the Austrians?

 Dylan Matthews writes:

From 2003 to 2010, Stephen Marglin taught an alternative, heterodox, lefty introduction to economics at Harvard. Marglin had once been a solidly mainstream economic theorist, and a bit of a prodigy. But shortly after getting tenure, in one of the truly great pranks in the history of academia, he came out as a radical supporting the abolition of capitalism. In an influential couple of papers shortly thereafter titled “What Do Bosses Do?” his answer was, basically, “steal from workers.”

-RW

Harvard Students Are Giving Up Economic Theory For Politically Correct Data Collection as Economics

Raj Chetty teaching
 his popular course

There is a new trend among students at Harvard University. Apparently, for some, the thing to do is to ditch the introductory economic theory class EC10 for a course taught by Raj Chetty, "Economics 1152: Using Big Data to Solve Economic and Social Problems."

EC10 is still popular but it is sliding and Chetty's course is gaining.

The Wacky Monetary Policy Thinking of Judy Shelton

Judy Shelton

News media reports continue to indicate that Judy Shelton is being considered by the President's economic team for nomination to the Federal Reserve Board.

25 Highest Paying Entry Level Jobs in the U.S. for 2019

Rank	Job Title	Median Base Salary
1	Data Scientist	$95,000
2	Software Engineer	$90,000

Economic Ignorance on Steroids

Here’s a Don Boudreaux letter to the Daily Reckoning:

Editor:

If James Rickards’s aim in writing “Tariffs: As American As Apple Pie” (May 15) was to set a record for the greatest number of fallacies crammed into a single op-ed, he’s earned a gold medal.

The Best Introductory Economics Books

Murray Rothbard

I see various books recommended as great introductory books for the general public to sound economics.

As far as I am concerned the best two books are

F.A. Hayek on Economics and Game Theory

Friedrich Hayek 

The Nobel Prize-winning Austrian school economist Friedrich Hayek on game theory:

I don't want to be unkind to my old friend, the late Oskar Morgenstern, but while I think his book is a great mathematical achievement, the first chapter which deals with economics is just wrong. I don't think that game theory has really made an important contribution to economics, but it's a very interesting mathematical discipline.

From  Hayek on Hayek: An Autobiographical Dialogue.

RW note: I'm with Hayek on this.

ANALYST: Trump's China Tariffs Could Trigger 12,000 Store Closures

Higher tariffs on Chinese goods could force 12,000 stores to close within a year and put more than $40 billion of sales at risk, the UBS analyst Jay Sole writes in a research note, reports Business Insider.

"The market is not realizing how much brick-and-mortar retail is incrementally struggling and how new 25% tariffs could force widespread store closures," Sole wrote.

Murray Rothbard on the Truth about the Origins of the Progressive Movement

-

RW

Democratic Socialism Is the Scenic Route to Serfdom

-RW

What Really Caused the Gasoline Shortages During the Age of Disco?

Here’s a Don Boudreaux letter to the Wall Street Journal:

Editor:

BEYOND THE TEARS OF MAY: Now That Theresa May Has Announced Her Resignation, What Comes Next for Brexit?

Theresa May

[Note: After this article was written, Theresa May officially announced she is leaving the position of Prime Minister on June 7th.]

By Alasdair Macleod

Brexit has been a long, drawn-out saga. But finally, Theresa May’s indecision appears to be coming to an end. She has finally been cornered in a tragic opera with more twists and turns than Wagner’s Ring Cycle. May’s Götterdämmerung is reaching its conclusion. Brünnhilde is riding Grane, her trusty steed, into immolation on the funeral pyre of her heavily-amended withdrawal agreement.

Houses Are Being Sold On Amazon for Less Than $20,000 — with Free Shipping

The 292-square-foot Lillevilla Allwood Getaway Cabin

I love free market ingenuity!

She's Getting More Dangerous

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez is getting much better at delivering economic idiotic speeches that rally the masses.

Almost everything she says in the below speech goes against the fundamentals of economics or is based on scientific claims that distort rather than cl;arify, yet the audience cheers.

Thank You, Federal Reserve: Google to Buy New York building for 100 Times 1996 Price

Google has agreed to pay $600 million to acquire a historic building in Manhattan’s Meatpacking District — a hundred times what it was sold for in 1996, reports the Financial Times.

Doug Harmon, one of the agents who brokered the sale, also sold the building (located 450 West 15th Street — also known as the Milk Building ), in 1996, for $6 million to Moishe Mana, an Israeli immigrant who grew wealthy after founding a local moving company, Moishe’s Moving, and his partner, Erez Shternlicht.

TRADE WAR ESCALATION:Trump Planning More Restrictions on Tech Exports to China

By Robert Wenzel

The Trump administration is taking steps toward issuing even more restrictions on exports of high-tech goods to China, reports Politico.

A point I have made in the EPJ Daily Alert, the trade war between the United States and China has seriously escalated. We are now well beyond a tit-for-tat tariff war.

A Gun That Shoots Salt at Flies: $27 Million In Guns Sold!

This is awesome.

I love free market creativity.





-RW

The Queen of England Wonders If There is a Flaw in Self-Service Supermarket Check-Out

'You can't cheat?' asked the Queen.



There you go, the Queen has a true central planners mentality always thinking first and foremost about keeping the royal subjects under the thumb.

 -RW

HUD Secretary Ben Carson Accuses Left of Using Saul Alinsky Tactics Against Him

Ben Carson

During a congressional hearing on Tuesday, Housing and Urban Development Secretary Ben Carson mistook Democratic Rep. Katie Porter of California as saying "Oreo" when she used the housing sector acronym "REO" (real-estate owned rates) in questioning.

"Do you know what an REO is?" Porter asked Carson.


"An Oreo?" Carson said.

Has China Started Weaponizing Its US Treasuries Holdings?

The Financial Times reports:

It was an unnerving piece of data for investors last week, buried halfway down an esoteric spreadsheet released by the US government that tracks how many Treasuries foreign investors buy and sell.

Mnuchin Says Tubman $20 Bill Release Delayed; Why She Should Go On a Reintroduced $1,000 Bill

By Robert Wenzel

Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin on Wednesday said the introduction of a $20 bill featuring Civil War-era abolitionist Harriet Tubman has been delayed until 2028.

Why Workers Without College Degrees Are Fleeing Big Cities

Here is some interesting data via The New York Times on demographic flows:

Last month the Census Bureau confirmed a confounding dynamic taking hold across the American landscape: Superstar cities, the nation’s economic powerhouses, hotbeds of opportunity at the cutting edge of technological progress, are losing people to other parts of the country.

Fed Chairman: Business Debt is at Record Highs, But It Is Different This Time

On Monday, Federal Reserve Board Chairman Jerome Powell spoke at the "Mapping the Financial Frontier: What Does the Next Decade Hold?” 24th Annual Financial Markets Conference, sponsored by the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta and held in Amelia Island, Florida.

During the speech, he acknowledged the sizable debt held by businesses:

Trade War Retaliation: China Bans American Actors

Li Jin reports:

Just heard from an American actor friend who played Edgar Snow in a Chinese TV series.

China has banned American actors and key production people from all TV shows and films. Just like that.

-RW

China Trade War Song Goes Viral:"We Will Beat America Out Of Its Wits"

A song titled "Trade War," (video below) has gone viral on one the largest Chinese social media platforms, WeChat, generating more than 100,000 views amid a deepening trade war between the US and China. The song begins with a chorus singing "Trade war! Trade war! Not afraid of the outrageous challenge! Not afraid of the outrageous challenge! A trade war is happening over the Pacific Ocean!" reports Bloomberg.

More Bizarro Thinking from the Trump Administration

Here’s a Don Boudreaux letter to the Wall Street Journal:

Why is Vanilla So Expensive?

Note toward the end of the video how private industry users are trying to help stabilize the quality of the crop.



-RW

About Cheap Foreign Labor

Laborers in Ethiopia

By Murray Rothbard

"Imports from countries where labor is cheap cause unemployment in the United States."

One of the many problems with this doctrine is that it ignores the question:

Top George W. Bush Economist Hired Two Psychiatrists to Study Trump

Larry Lindsey

Politico reports:

Larry Lindsey, President George W. Bush’s National Economic Council director, spoke Tuesday separately to both the elected House GOP leadership and top committee Republicans, and his presentation about China and trade turned a lot of heads, according to multiple people who were in both meetings.

Her Father is a Stanford Economist, But...

Kamala Harris and Donald Harris

...she has no idea how free markets work or pretends she doesn't.

The Calculation That Says President Trump is Worth $16.82 Billion

President Donald Trump reported income of at least $434 million in 2018, according to his annual financial disclosure released last Thursday by the White House.

That, of course, is a serious piece of income but it is his income not his net worth, since net worth is based on a stream of income. If we assume the president will continue to earn this stream of income annually, we can roughly estimate what he is worth.

Big Farmers Are Ending Up Getting A Big Chunk of Trump's Tariff-War Bailout Funds

What a mess.

President Trump has launched a trade war with China by slapping tariffs on a broad array of goods imported into the United States from China. In retaliation, the Asian giant has slapped tariffs on a number of products imported into China from the US.

On The “Free Market Economists are Racist!” Industry

Gordon Tullock

By Phillip W. Magness

A few days ago I received a strange and unexpected notification in the form of a tweet. Calvin TerBeek, a political science PhD student at the University of Chicago, claimed that he had evidence showing:

“In 1967, Gordon Tullock, James Buchanan’s frequent public choice co-author, wrote a book review for National Review praising an effort at scientific racism. “

The Latest Central Planning Program Launched Under the Guise of a Green New Deal Program

By Robert Wenzel

Washington Governor Jay Inslee is out with what he is calling an Evergreen Economy Plan.

It is an effort to launch a new multi-trillion dollar central planning program in America.

It is endorsed by socialist Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Thank You, Federal Reserve: WeWork Lost $1.9 Billion Last Year, But It’s Considering Going Public

The We Company, parent company of WeWork, is hemorrhaging cash with a business model that doesn't suggest the cash drain will stop anytime soon.

CNBC reports:

WeWork lost $1.9 billion last year on $1.8 billion in revenue.

My Reply to Victor Davis Hanson’s Response

Victor Davis Hanson

By Don Boudreaux

John Stossel sent my letter of earlier today on to Victor Davis Hanson. Mr. Hanson was not impressed with my letter.

I do not have permission to share Mr. Hanson’s response, but I here share my (slightly edited) reply to his response – a reply that John Stossel forwarded to Mr. Hanson:

Thomas Sowell Destroys Social Justice Economics

This is great analysis and commentary by Thomas Sowell.

Find the time to watch this one, below.

New York City Restaurant Jobs Are Collapsing in the Face of a Higher Minimum Wage

The New York City minimum wage has been exploding:

How Hyperinflation Started in Zimbabwe

-RW

White House Considering Former Lyft Ride-Hailing General Manager for Federal Reserve Board

Derek Kan

The White House is considering Derek Kan, an undersecretary at the Department of Transportation, for one of two open seats on the Federal Reserve Board, Bloomberg is reporting.

There appears to be zero in terms of a paper track record with regard to his views on monetary policy. And there is nothing in his background, other than a stint at the London School of Economics, that suggests he has even thought about monetary policy.

Well, It's Clear AOC Hasn't Read Fritz Machlup

[2/2] @RepAOC "Let's say I'm the CEO and I'm ruthlessly incentivized to get stock prices as high as possible. (And usually this just means increasing profits for shareholders). So I need to find a way to build this margin. Let's say I take away healthcare from my workers..." pic.twitter.com/9kfdHKd0Yw

— Take On Wall St (@TakeOnWallSt) May 15, 2019

In the above video, it is clear that

Some Weak Praise for Judy Shelton as a Potential Fed Nominee

Judy Shelton

By Joseph T. Salerno

Bloomberg reported this week that the Trump Administration is considering Judy Shelton for one of the two vacant positions on the Federal Reserve Board of Governors. The good news is that Ms. Shelton is not a technically trained academic economist, indoctrinated in the prevailing orthodoxy. She holds a doctorate in business administration from the University of Utah and has spent most of her career in the world of free-market policy think tanks, including stints at the Hoover Institute and the Atlas Network. She also writes refreshingly and articulately in favor of the gold standard, or some version of it.

The bad news is

VIDEO Thomas DiLorenzo on Fox Business to Discuss CEO Salaries

This is awesome. Tom doesn't get much time but this is a great example of what you can do with a short period of time when you aren't a wimpy beltarian,



-RW

VIDEO The Ugly Truth About Tariffs

What really occurs to the US economy when tariffs are placed on products entering a country?

Do foreign manufacturers pay the tariffs as President Trump claims or do US consumers?

It's complicated and I discuss below.



-RW

The CIA Spies Among Us

I have hinted a number of times here at EPJ that I suspect a top-level occasionally libertarian-leaning economist might be doing undercover work for the CIA.

I recently had a conversation with a member of his team and I brought up the idea. His odd denial makes me even more suspicious.

Now, I think that not only is the top-level economist doing CIA undercover work but so are other members of his team.

-RW

Trump Says More Fed Money Printing Would Help Win the Trade War with China

In a tweet, President Trump said “China will be pumping money into their system and probably reducing interest rates, as always, in order to make up for the business they are, and will be, losing,” the president said in a tweet Tuesday. “If the Federal Reserve ever did a ‘match,’ it would be game over, we win! In any event, China wants a deal!”

The Trump Trade War Could Be Very Long

Senior Trump administration officials tell Axios that a trade deal with China isn't close and that the U.S. could be in for a long trade war.

DEFCON Donald

By David Stockman

The tweet below isn't comprised of intelligent thought, and it's not bargaining bluster, either. It's the ravings of a megalomaniac who has gone off his rocker:

China’s Latest Crackdown Target Is On Hayekian Economists

By Matthew Campbell and Peter Martin

Around 10 a.m. one day last summer, a low-ranking government official visited the offices of China’s most prominent free-market think tank to lodge a complaint. The scholars of the Unirule Institute of Economics were being too loud for the neighbors, the official said, and should consider finding an alternative place of business.

Charlie Munger on Trump's Attempts at Influencing the Federal Reserve

 Charlie Munger

Billionaire and Warren Buffett sidekick, Charlie Munger (95), got it right in remarks he made to Yahoo Finance Editor-in-Chief Andy Serwer in a conversation that airs on Thursday.

An Email From Nigeria

Nigeria's central bank

SP emails:

Dear Sir,

I came across your brilliantly succinct presentation on YouTube explaining Say’s law. I found it fascinating how you simplified a concept that many economists have found very difficult to really grasp.