Monthly Archives: March 2017

Labor’s “share” in a Garett Jones World

Posted on March 5, 2017 by Arnold Kling

Timothy Taylor looks at an article on the secular decline in labor’s share of income, and he concludes These explanations all have some plausibility, but it isn’t clear to me that, taken together, they adequately explain the fall of more … Continue reading →

Posted in business economics, Growth Causes and Consequences, income distribution-wealth-poverty, Timothy Taylor is my Favorite Blogger | 7 Comments

A Provocative Op-Ed

Posted on March 4, 2017 by Arnold Kling

In the WaPo. Last spring, when I heard Donald Trump say that Caitlyn Jenner could use whatever bathroom she wanted at Trump Tower, I breathed a sigh of relief. There weren’t many things Trump and I agreed on, but this … Continue reading →

Posted in Politics | 20 Comments

Provocative Sentences

Posted on March 4, 2017 by Arnold Kling

From Tucker Carlson, profiled by McKay Coppins. “Look, it’s really simple,” Carlson says. “The SAT 50 years ago pulled a lot of smart people out of every little town in America and funneled them into a small number of elite … Continue reading →

Posted in Four Forces Watch | 6 Comments

Positivism, Progressivism, and Economics

Posted on March 3, 2017 by Arnold Kling

Steven Hayward writes, for Progressive politics, the positivist distinction between facts and values, which corresponds to the distinction between administrative questions and political questions. . .preserves for the rulers alone freedom of choice and action. The “scientific” elites of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Economic education and methods | 3 Comments

The State of the Housing Market

Posted on March 2, 2017 by Arnold Kling

Scott Sumner writes, It looks like the supply side is being hit by a triple whammy of adverse supply shocks These are problems with funding, land and labor supply. I think that the problem boils down to land in a … Continue reading →

Posted in Housing and housing finance, Scott Sumner is Coherent | 35 Comments

Health Care Spending in the Gray Area

Posted on March 1, 2017 by Arnold Kling

Timothy Taylor finds a report from the OECD. Taylor writes, The report divides the evidence into three main categories: wasteful clinical care (care that either provides very low value or can even be counterproductive to health); operational waste (like paying … Continue reading →

Posted in Economics of Health Care, Timothy Taylor is my Favorite Blogger | 21 Comments

Kling writes about housing finance reform

Posted on March 1, 2017 by Arnold Kling

For a Heritage Foundation volume. In my chapter, I write, One obvious improvement would be to eliminate all government subsidies for mortgages to non-owner-occupants. It seems likely that this policy change alone could have greatly reduced the severity of the … Continue reading →

Posted in Uncategorized | 10 Comments

Sugar and the Kling Public Choice Theory

Posted on March 1, 2017 by Arnold Kling

Glenn Reynolds writes, Government policies promoting sugar, in no small part, got us into this mess. Without the government’s recommendations to avoid dietary fat that led to increased sugar consumption, many Americans would probably be thinner, or at least less … Continue reading →

Posted in public choice | 2 Comments