“Recent” as in “I read these in early March.” Tyler Cowen, The Complacent Class. This is a depressing volume from a self-described optimist. It’s a useful exploration of trends in productivity given that it’s easy to focus on the sector that is most dynamic (information technology). Elsewhere, Cowen has discussed other sectors—government, schooling—where productivity is […]
The Plague of Contented Mediocrity
In February 2015, Leroy Butler gave a speech at Samford University on “Diversity in Missions.” It raises unique challenges at a University that was only integrated in the late 1960s and that is still overwhelmingly white and overwhelmingly affluent. I wasn’t surprised but I was frustrated to see that from my vantage point, it seemed […]
Taking a Three-Year-Old to Tunica: A Reflection
We moved from Memphis, Tennessee to Birmingham, Alabama in 2012, and I had to go back to Memphis to take care of a few things earlier the week. I decided I would take my then almost-four-year-old son, Jacob, so we could spend some time indulging his greatest passion: riding elevators. After a few minutes with […]
The Role of High Gas Prices
Price “gouging” is not a moral issue. It’s an economic issue with *beneficial* humanitarian consequences. Counterintuitive as it may seem, high gas prices from natural disasters send two very powerful signals into the market: they tell gas producers to produce more, and they tell gas consumers to consume less. After disasters, the news wires fill […]
A Drug War Peace Dividend?
Should we bring back “Just Say No” and ramp up the drug war, especially as more states decriminalize recreational marijuana use? As I have written before, drug prohibition is (literally) “a textbook example of a policy with negative unintended consequences” most visible in the extensive criminal underground and widespread violence associated with prohibition. What can […]
My Favorite Economics Education Resources
Here’s a list of some of my favorite Econ Ed resources: MRUniversity. I teach from Tyler Cowen and Alex Tabarrok’s Modern Principles textbook. This site features loads of videos and mini-courses that can be adapted to any econ course. LearnLiberty. I’ve made a lot of videos for LearnLiberty, which is an online project of the Institute […]
My Favorite MLK Quote
“If a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets even as a Michelangelo painted, or Beethoven composed music or Shakespeare wrote poetry. He should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, ‘Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job […]
How To Write A Lot
After reading How to Write a Lot by Paul J. Silvia, I found that it was a useful refresher. I already write a lot, but one of the things that keeps me going–and that helps me to write better–is that I read a lot of books like this. Even when I don’t really learn anything […]
Will Industrial Policy Make America Great Again?
Will Industrial Policy Make America Great Again? Not likely. This episode of NPR’s Planet Money provides a cautionary tale.
Wellness Advantage
Here’s an oft-overlooked wellness advantage: financial wellness. I recently spoke to three groups of students from Hoover High School on economics, and we went through a few exercises on how much money they would have by investing $458.33 per month between ages 22 and 67. We also looked at how they think about the value of […]