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Economics

The Pandemic and the Economy

A couple weeks ago, Texas Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick suggested it would be better for older Americans to sacrifice their lives than to risk economic disruption.

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Capitalists Talking

about tax rates:

reallocation of resources:

and the role of government:

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The Wrong Kind of Regulation

Howard Baetjer, economics lecturer at Towson University, is upset wtih regulations restricting or banning Uber and Lyft in some cities. Well, that's not quite right. Technically, he is upset with all government regulation. He explains this in an article for Reason Magazine titled Not All Regulation Is Bad.

Baetjer's thesis is that free markets are capable of self-regulation, thus government regulation is an unnecessary waste at best; an economic burden and a hinderance to freedom at worst.

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The Worst Interest Rate in the World

This is a slightly modified version of something I wrote for my old blog in 2005.

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Payday loans work like this:

Let's say Joe is short $100 and has maxed out his credit cards. Joe goes to a payday lender. The lender gives Joe the money, and Joe writes a check for $100 plus a surcharge of, say, $15, dated two weeks in the future. Between now and two weeks, Joe gets his next paycheck, and the loan is covered.

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Confusion about Capitalism

Bernie Sanders wants us to know the difference between himself and fellow Democratic presidential candidate Elizabeth Warren.

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Are Minimum Wage Jobs Meant for Teenagers?

Two million American workers will be seeing bigger paychecks after their states voted in November to raise the minimum wage. By 2020 the minimum hourly wage is scheduled to go up to $12 per hour in Arizona, Colorado, and Maine, and $13.50 in Washington.

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Partisan Economics

Steve Benen, writing for the Rachel Maddow blog, boasts about deficit reduction in Barack Obama's presidency. Responding to Republican criticism that the deficit is "out of control", Benen asserts, "Keep in mind, in the Obama era, the deficit has shrunk by $1 trillion."

But has it, really?

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Making Humans Irrelevant

The robots are coming to take your job! Between self-service kiosks at fast-food restaurants and driverless Uber cars in Pittsburgh, more jobs are being automated out of the economy.

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It Doesn't Take Much

In 1974, a series of floods destroyed crops throughout Bangladesh, putting the nation in a state of famine. Muhammad Yunus, economics professor at Chittagong University in southeastern Bangladesh, was disturbed by the disconnect between economic theory and the reality he saw around him.

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Trumponomics

Joe Romm of Climate Progress has some concerns about Donald Trump's economic plans.

In particular, when Fox News’ Chris Wallace pressed Trump in March on how he’d cut the federal budget, Trump answered “Department of Environmental Protection [sic]. We are going to get rid of it in almost every form.”

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