Thomas Sowell wrote a 20-page book called “Trickle Down Theory” and “Tax Cuts for the Rich” that he is selling on Amazon for $5, but you can download it for free on his website. In it, he argues in favor…
Blog Archives
Rural politics
Farming communities have always been less cosmopolitan than urban areas, and that makes them more culturally conservative, but my sense is that they used to be more economically liberal in the past than today. Today, the most solidly conservative parts…
Posted in Pence2018
Escaping the tyranny of climate
Note: This is an abbreviated repost that I did for a climate change class of an article I wrote that focused more on economic development. Humans co-evolved with our technological inventions for warming up in the cold: fire, shelter, and…
Posted in Development
The worst drug epidemics in American history
The New York Times said “The current opioid epidemic is the deadliest drug crisis in American history.” Last August, Donald Trump declared, “The opioid crisis is an emergency, and I’m saying officially right now it is an emergency… It’s a national emergency.…
Posted in Labor, Public Finance
What is imputed rent?
Suppose you own a house worth $240,000, but your job forces you to move to Chicago for two years where you will have to pay $12,000 ($1,000/month) to rent another house with nearly identical characteristics. Fortunately, you can rent out…
Posted in Public Finance
Vox’s misleading gun death graph
In the wake of the mass shooting tragedy in Los Vegas, Vox posted an analysis showing that more guns lead to more gun deaths: I was immediately suspicious because I’m living in Guatemala and I am constantly being reminded that…
Posted in Health, Violence & Peace
US median income finally rises above record set in 1999. Yea!
Kevin Drum reports that the official census bureau measure of: household income is now at an all-time high: And now for the buzzkill portion of this post: this means household income has increased a whopping 0.6 percent since 1999. That’s $22…
Posted in MELI & Econ Stats
Medianism 