Ever since the Marginal Revolution of the late 19th century, economics has been defined by marginal benefit and marginal cost. That is what determines the most famous picture in economics, the supply and demand graph. The demand curve is really the marginal benefit…
Blog Archives
Is a “Death Tax” worse than an “Estate Tax”?
Most Americans think that the estate tax (popularly known as the ‘death tax’) should be reduced or eliminated. Wealthy families started funding a campaign in the mid 1990s which successfully rebranded this tax on large estates into a tax on death. Google’s…
Posted in Public Finance
A global environmental regulation saved the planet from disaster.
CBS News had an uplifting story about the environment: Here’s rare good news about an environmental crisis: We dodged disaster with the ozone layer. A NASA study about ozone-munching chemicals [CFCs] from aerosol sprays and refrigeration used a computer model to…
Posted in Globalization & International
Is The US Constitution The Oldest In The World?
Encyclopedia Britannica is among those who claim that the US has the oldest constitution in the world of any sovereign state. That is true if you define a constitution as a single document. There are much older constitutional documents like the 1215 Magna…
Posted in Public Finance
How much inequality is ideal within your workplace?
Nicholas Fitz at Scientific American has a good summary of recent research about American perceptions of inequality. Answer two questions below to test yourself and see how your answers compare with the average American. 1) How much more should CEOs get paid…
Welfare For Entrepreneurs
‘Extraordinary Bodies (Photo Exhibition)’ by Chris Big businesses is the most important part of the economy to get right because big organizations are where most productivity-enhancing innovations are created. The vast majority of entrepreneurs work in low-productivity-growth businesses. But entrepreneurship is…
The minimum wage is a nothingburger unless your wage depends on it.
Opponents of the minimum wage think that it creates all sorts of horrible problems for the economy. For example, Millionaire Fast-Food CEO, Andrew F. Puzder has been fighting the minimum wage because he claims that it is the reason why the US…
Posted in Inequality, Labor
Medianism 