Is it better to tax goods with inelastic demand? (Atkinson-Stiglitz redux)
Not necessarily. Bloggers across the political spectrum, from Noah Millman to Ryan Avent, have recently argued that because the demand for oil is inelastic with respect to price, a gas tax is a...
View ArticleInsurance against oil shocks: the best idea Bill Frist ever had
Back in 2006, there was a brief stir over the Republican majority’s plan to offer $100 rebates to offset higher prices from gasoline. It quickly became the object of almost universal derision, earning...
View ArticleThe optimal taxation of Manhattanites
Matthew Yglesias dismisses the argument that $250,000 isn’t “really rich” in Manhattan: Allison Schrager offers what is I think my least-favorite economic argument, the regional variant of the old...
View ArticleAvoiding the word “tax”
I have a new way to balance the budget. When employees are paid, I will require their income to spend one day in an escrow account, where it will be invested in “Liberty Bills”. Liberty Bills are...
View ArticleMoney is debt
It’s just another type of debt. Following Thomas Sargent’s recent Nobel Prize, I came across this excellent excerpt from a 1989 interview: The essential job of the Fed from a macroeconomic point of...
View ArticleThe uselessness of helicopter drops
I’ve received some skeptical feedback on my last post about how money is just another form of debt, particularly its implications for the effectiveness of a “helicopter drop”. This topic deserves more...
View ArticleWhat do Rick Perry and pro sports teams have in common?
They use the same shady economic methodology to promote their policies. If you follow the news, you’re familiar with “IMPLAN”, albeit indirectly. It’s the software package underlying the studies that...
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