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1 week ago | 
econlib.org | Kevin Corcoran |Bryan Cutsinger |Pierre Lemieux
It’s time for another round in the ongoing saga of “Kevin complains that economists are terrible at naming ideas.” Here, I propose that economists should consider rebranding “the trade deficit.”The reason people so badly misunderstand the term is right there in the name – deficit. Deficits sound bad. In most usages, deficits imply something along the lines of living beyond one’s means and accumulating debt. That would certainly be true if my household budget was in a deficit.
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1 week ago | 
econlib.org | Bryan Cutsinger |Pierre Lemieux |Scott Sumner
Question: Some economists have argued that the Fed should raise its inflation target from 2 percent to 3 or even 4 percent. Why might the effect of a higher inflation target on the quantity of real money balances demanded be larger in the long run than in the short run? Solution:Economists often treat price theory and monetary theory as conceptually distinct. Milton Friedman, for example, called this the major division in economics.
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1 month ago | 
econlib.org | David Henderson |Beth Brelje |Adam Michel |Bryan Cutsinger
Interview by Zach Weissmueller and Liz Wolfe, “Just Asking Questions,” Reason, February 27, 2025. Excerpt:The Department of Homeland Security…has this concept, you know, they call it building resilience on the one hand, or pre-bunking on the other, which is this idea of introducing a potentially controversial or difficult idea to an audience early so that they’ll be more accepting of it later.
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2 months ago | 
econlib.org | Pierre Lemieux |Bryan Cutsinger |David Henderson
RECENT POST EconLog Economic Education We’re bringing back price theory with our series on Price Theory problems with Professor Bryan Cutsinger. You can view the previous problem and Cutsinger’s solution here and here. Share your proposed solutions in the Comments. Professor Cutsinger will be present in the comments for the next couple of weeks, an... Energy, Environment, Resources
California faces a firestorm, not just on fires, but also on energy.
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Jan 3, 2025 | 
thedailyeconomy.org | Bryan Cutsinger
According to an issue brief recently released by the Council of Economic Advisers, dynamic pricing algorithms are reducing competition in the housing market. The brief’s authors contend that landlords who use these algorithms tacitly collude to raise prices above competitive levels, leaving renters worse off.
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Dec 11, 2024 | 
econlib.org | Bryan Cutsinger |Kevin Corcoran |David Henderson
[Editor’s note: We’re bringing back price theory with our series on Price Theory problems with Professor Bryan Cutsinger. You can view the previous problem and Cutsinger’s solution here and here. Share your proposed solutions in the Comments. Professor Cutsinger will be present in the comments for the next two weeks, and we’ll again post his proposed solution shortly thereafter.
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Nov 29, 2024 | 
gold-eagle.com | Bryan Cutsinger
Why did the United States abandon the gold standard? In an article published recently by the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, Maria Hasenstab cites the international gold shortage during the Great Depression. “Countries around the world basically ran out of supply and were forced off the gold standard,” she writes.
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Nov 13, 2024 | 
econlib.org | David Henderson |Scott Sumner |Bryan Cutsinger
Bryan Cutsinger has been doing an excellent job of presenting economic problems to solve. Sometimes, to do basic economics, you need to know basic math. Here’s a statement from research scientist Carey King in “Why Energy Efficiency Might Not Cut Emissions As Much as You Think,” Wall Street Journal, November 11, 2024 (print edition):The idea that more efficiency can spur more consumption rather than less is known as the Jevons Paradox.
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Nov 13, 2024 | 
econlib.org | Scott Sumner |Bryan Cutsinger |Kevin Corcoran
In graduate school, I recall a professor suggesting that the rational expectations revolution would eventually lead to much better models of the macroeconomy. I was skeptical, and in my view, that didn’t happen. This is not because there is anything wrong with the rational expectations approach to macro, which I strong support. Rather I believe that the advances coming out of this theoretical innovation occurred very rapidly.
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Nov 13, 2024 | 
econlib.org | Bryan Cutsinger |Kevin Corcoran |David Henderson
[Editor’s note: We’re bringing back price theory with our series on Price Theory problems with Professor Bryan Cutsinger. You can view the previous problem and Cutsinger’s solution here and here. Share your proposed solutions in the Comments. Professor Cutsinger will be present in the comments for the next two weeks, and we’ll again post his proposed solution shortly thereafter.
