Most immigrants to the United States come because of higher wages. If you look at any two countries in the world, the net migration almost always flows from low-wage nations to high wage nations because the biggest draw for migrants…
Yearly Archives: 2019
Capital in the 21st century
Thomas Piketty’s blockbuster bestselling economics 816-page brick is about capital which he defines broadly as all sorts of wealth. Wealth is anything that earns money for its owner and it is extremely unequally distributed. The richest 1% own almost half…
Posted in Inequality
International comparison of the income tax rate on the wealthy
Thomas Piketty posted the top income tax rate in five of the richest big countries over the past 115 years. Most Americans don’t realize that the top tax rate in the US is considerably lower now than it was for…
Posted in Public Finance
The political economy of global warming
Updated December 14, 2019 Here are three views of the Chicago skyline. The top photo is a rare day with high air pollution in the 1990s, but that was a typical scene in the 1970s and the third is how…
Posted in Environment, Globalization & International
The Barr Report isn’t at all like the Mueller Report which isn’t at all like the Starr Report
The Starr Report was the 445-page culmination of the so-called Whitewater investigation–a wide-ranging investigation of President Bill Clinton. It was immediately released in full to Congress and then released to the public two days later revealing the details of years…
Posted in Pence2018
The economics of global warming
Economists are not trained in climate science, so we can’t say how much carbon dioxide will warm the planet, but economics is an important part of climate policy–this is our collective response to the threat of global warming. How much…
Posted in Environment, Globalization & International
Affirmative action for the rich
There are several ways that rich kids buy advantages for college. First is years of expensive high-quality education that begins in exclusive private preschools that cost more than full tuition at most private colleges. Then add in expensive summer camps…
Posted in Labor, Public Finance
Medianism 