Almost Classical

The Fountainhead (film) (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) When a critique of libertarianism consists primarily of figuratively shouting "Ayn Rand!" and tossing in the Koch brothers, Nietzsche, and Gordon Gecko (a fictional character, nonetheless), you can be assured the author isn't going to address the Nobel economists or noted philosophers associated with libertarianism on the left, right, and center. Instead of discussing the major thinkers of classical liberalism, the author will attack the caricature of "Libertarians" that has little to do with scholarly reflection. Another Would-Be Critic of Libertarianism Takes on a Straw Man - Reason.com How refreshing it would be for someone to set forth the strongest case for libertarianism before attempting to eviscerate it. Sheldon Richman | March 15, 2015  We must face the fact that criticism of the libertarian philosophy in the mass media will most likely misrepresent its target, making the commentary essent...

Success: It's not about money. One of the critiques of "libertarian" and "classical liberalism" I answer is that these philosophical lines encourage greed, especially in the democratic capitalism of the United States. Seeking your own success does not have to correspond to the pursuit of wealth as measured by bank statements and material goods. Authentic  classical liberalism allows me to pursue whatever fulfillment I seek, without a government bureaucrat deciding we have too many artists, or too many doctors. We pursue our dreams — and the market demand determines if we can earn a "good enough" living. And yet, there are cultural pressure in our society to count and tally our success in unhealthy ways. Since childhood I have feared being poor. My family lived in tiny apartments, mobile homes, and small houses. We had "enough" but were always closer to less than more. My wife and I have lost everything. We have been broke. I had n...

Being "smart" (or at least hard-working with the opportunity to learn) matters, regardless of the economic class into which you are born. As even the most progressive, class-conscious scholars have found, a college education (in the STEM fields, ideally) at a good school corresponds well to later economic success.  A year ago, The Atlantic featured this story: Would You Rather Be Born Smart or Rich? http://www.theatlantic.com/business/archive/2013/12/would-you-rather-be-born-smart-or-rich/281828/ JORDAN WEISSMANN DEC 2 2013, 12:17 PM ET A recent Brookings paper gives reasons for optimism. Over the long term, it finds, smart kids earn more than rich kids. But sadly, there's a big catch. The Brookings paper looked at the relationship between brains, motivation, and economic mobility among a group of youth the government began tracking in 1979. Here's the executive summary: If they were bright and driven, poor kids stood a decent chance of becoming upper-midd...

Middle-class families have found themselves stagnating for the last two decades (at least). The Washington Post has published an outstanding series on the issues affecting the middle-class. The stories are long and well researched. ABOUT THIS SERIES: The American middle class is floundering, and it has been for decades. The Post examines the mystery of what's gone wrong and shows what the country must focus on to get the economy working for everyone again. Chapter 1: Why America's middle class is lost http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/business/2014/12/12/why-americas-middle-class-is-lost/ Chapter 2: The devalued American worker http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/business/2014/12/14/the-devalued-american-worker/ Chapter 3: The college trap that keeps people poor http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/business/2014/12/15/the-college-trap-that-keeps-people-poor/ Chapter 4: A black hole for our best and brightest http://www.washingtonpost.com/sf/business/2014/12/16/a-black-hole-f...

Teaching within a top-ranked business school associated with nine Nobel laureates in economics, I am honored to meet some of the brightest young minds in the world. These students excel at math, as one might expect, and many also pursue second degrees or minors in additional STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) fields. At our institution, economics is paired with statistics by default, as we emphasize quantitative economics over the philosophical approaches to the field. Although I admire these students, I'm also saddened that so many chase financial industry careers over working in other STEM fields or in the public sector. These great minds set forth to turn money into more money, when they might use their skills to apply the lessons of economics and statistics to greater social good. As Washington Post reporter Jim Tankersley writes, it isn't that finance is a "good" or "bad" pursuit for an individual — but in the last two decades finan...

For once, a post that agrees with Paul Krugman. He makes an argument I have advanced on this blog and I agree with his general premise that now is the ideal time for some infrastructure spending. See:  Ideology and Investment - NYTimes.com There’s an obvious policy response to this situation: public investment. We have huge infrastructure needs, especially in water and transportation, and the federal government can borrow incredibly cheaply — in fact, interest rates on inflation-protected bonds have been negative much of the time (they’re currently just 0.4 percent). So borrowing to build roads, repair sewers and more seems like a no-brainer. . I've posted an identical call for (sane and limited) infrastructure spending. We have billions of dollars in deferred maintenance that must be done. Now is the ideal time, with low bond rates and an anemic economy. I'm not calling for or supporting reckless spendthrift approaches to investment. I don't like waste (high speed r...

Yesterday, I reminded my undergraduate economics students that modern economics, with its quantitative bias, is not about what is "fair" in life. While we can use economics to identify what isn't "fair" and how to better allocate resources, at its core economics is the study of efficiently allocating scarce resources. Math is not moral; it is an amoral aspect of economics that should be informed by philosophical inquiries. For example, quantitative economics can answer when a person is "unproductive" and "inefficient" within the system. But, economics does not answer if it is moral to reallocate resources from the unproductive to either the currently or potentially productive members of a community. Raw numbers tell us the money spent on extending the last year or two of life might be best spent on educating the young. But is that the right way to approach problems? Economic models do not tell us if stock market gains driven by low inter...