stimulus Archives — Laissez FaireLaissez Faire

• Damning criticism of the Federal Reserve’s current interest rate policies.
• George Selgin, meanwhile, looks at why the Fed was created in the first place. In the process he refutes the notion that free banking during the 19th century led to booms and busts, and that the Fed made the economic system more stable. More great stuff from Selgin here.
• John Cochrane asks the most important question in any debate over government stimulus projects: Where did the money come from?
• Richard Epstein looks at how we’re handling our current economic crisis and our oncoming debt crisis.
• Thomas Sowell on the minimum wage and black unemployment.
• A while back I linked to Robert Frank’s bizarre claim that higher taxes make wealthy people better off. Economist Steve Landsburg reveals just how bizarre that claim really is.
• Regulatory State Watch: Restaurant Letter Grades Make Your Food Worse.

What were the economic effects of President Obama’s trillion-dollar stimulus bill, i.e., the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act? The Mercatus Center has a bunch of interesting reports trying to answer that question.

For my part, I’m astonished by how many people hear the theory that the government can foster prosperity by spending insane amounts of money, and think, “Oh yeah, that makes total sense.” As Yaron explains, any such theory flies in the face of the fact that the cause of prosperity is production, not consumption.