The well-known Harvard economist Greg Mankiw recently blogged about a new website called AcademicInfluence.com. This site features some fascinating machine-learning tools for determining the most influential schools by discipline as well as the most influential faculty in those disciplines. You can even toggle the time-frame in which to gauge influence. If you do this for […]
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The two dirtiest words in economics are four-letter words beginning with “f”: free and fair. More economic mischief has been wrought through these two words than any others. These words have seemingly straightforward uses. Free can simply mean that no money or anything of value was given in exchange for a benefit. Such a benefit […]
24 min read
Sometimes it’s okay to let people who oppose your point of view also name your point of view. It happened happily to the early Christians. According to the New Testament book of Acts, followers of Christ were first called “Christians” at Antioch. The “‑ian” ending in “Christian” is a diminutive. Thus the word “Christians” originally […]
9 min read
Imagine a world in which money abounds but people are too fearful to spend it. Thinking that things can only get worse, they hold onto it for a worse emergency than the present distress. In consequence, even though there’s a lot of liquidity, very little gets spent. This is a deflationary scenario, and it doesn’t […]
5 min read
