In a recent online conversation between two people concerned about the weakness in the market for U.S. Debt, they used the ratio of U.S. deficits to gross domestic product (GDP) as an indicator of the problem. I will save the topic of U.S. Debt for another day. In this article, I would like to discuss … Continue reading Relationship of Deficits to GDP

Despite all the noise politicians make about the importance of education, they have a significant incentive to keep the electorate ignorant. That provides the reasoning behind their wanting to maintain control of the education system and the process of education itself. Introduction Keeping the electorate ignorant has paid politicians substantial political dividends for many generations. … Continue reading Political Justification for Ignorance

The coronavirus has not caused lost jobs, closed businesses, restricted air travel, and many other adverse economic effects. Responses to the coronavirus have caused these effects. Were those responses appropriate? We may never know. Responses due to market intervention have been substantially different than they would have occurred in a free market. Introduction It will … Continue reading The Response to Coronavirus

What does a flock of birds have to do with markets? Probably not a whole lot. But, they do have a lot to teach us about the behavior of markets and other complex living systems, e.g. individual humans, neighborhoods, markets and a flock of birds. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A6nvvFkbRkY&t=5s Flocks of birds, like the one in this video, … Continue reading Flocking Markets

Systems Thinking helps people understand more clearly the complexity of markets. You will probably hear me reference "systems thinking" when explaining free markets. I thought that this post would be a good way to introduce systems thinking and its relevance to economics and free markets. To start, I want to offer a concise definition of a … Continue reading Systems Thinking in Economics

Those in favor of "minimum wage" laws usually have the best intensions. Because of the dependent nature of all wages, those laws cannot achieve their intended purpose. Instead of raising wages, they usually eliminate lower paying jobs from the market. Wages an dependent variable To understand the effects or implications of minimum wage, you must … Continue reading The Implications of The Minimum Wage