This list is different than my 10 favorite songs, and I suppose that's the point. Your 10 favorite sounds will sound more similar to one another than the 10 songs you take to an island because you want some variety. I hate listening to a song multiple times, at most twice a week. So if I ever went to an island with a cd player, I'd only turn it ( Read more... )

Things must be produced before they can be consumed. That is, real consumption can never be greater than the sum of past production. Money, on the other hand, does not need to be earned before it is spent. Things can be paid for in exchange for promises of money in the future, by using loans. One way to think of your stock of money is as the ( Read more... )

Banks can create spending power using the fractional reserve system. It is best to illustrate this process with an example ( Read more... )

Past Posts:
Can Fiscal Stimulus Work? (short answer: no)
We're All Parasite Now (mopey essay about how much economic activity is wasted. Counter: What are the alternatives?)
Trade Deficit (short version: don't worry about it.)
When Robots are Better at Everything (response to/explanation of Robin's semi-pessimism)
Hyperinflation
An Introduction ( Read more... )

I have written 41 essays related to economics or moral philosophy this year so far, and will probably crank out 2 or 3 more by January 1st. That's a bit less than one a week, but not a bad rate at all. Next year, my goal will be to refine the essays into 10 10 minute videos and post them to YouTube or some other video sharing site. I have a ( Read more... )

Last year, the federal government passed a massive stimulus bill, spending approximately $787 billion. The bill was highly controversial, with several of the best economists in the world on either side of the debate (Pro: Krugman, Bernanke, Summers, DeLong); Against: Lucas, Buchanan, Becker, Mankiw). Any one of those economists is world class and ( Read more... )

In Ayn Rand's book, Atlas Shrugged, the world is filled with parasitic people who leach off other's productivity. In the book, they are the government and the unskilled who demand redistribution. Our world today is perhaps not so far off. Not just government, but most of the U.S. economy could be described as either tremendously wasteful, ( Read more... )

A loyal reader asks: Is there an economically feasible way to run a country and maintain a trade deficit ( Read more... )

Prerequisite: Comparative Advantage"This post is in reference to the following articles ( Read more... )

Prerequisite: Inflation

Recently, this has floating around the tubes. Brian commented on it, so I figured some economic background was in order. The article makes it sound as if hyperinflation is some random event that only tomfoolery can solve, but the causes of and solutions for hyperinflation are quite well understood.

Hyperinflation gets ( Read more... )