BOHANON & STYRING: Terrorist uprising can’t be good for economy
The average U.S. real GDP growth rate from 1987-2000 was 3.65 percent. From 2001-2014, it was 1.64 percent. What event divides these two equal time periods? The 9/11 terrorist attacks.
Economic Analysis
Articles
BOHANON & STYRING: Shed the thought that Social Security is a right
Want to get a group of retirees riled up? Tell them their Social Security benefits are welfare benefits.
BOHANON & STYRING: Rising entitlements tab requires drastic action
Public finance economists go crazy thinking about federal entitlements. Medicare, Medicaid and Social Security account for most of the entitlement spending, although Obamacare looms as a future contender.
BOHANON & STYRING: U.S. no longer well-served by ban on oil exports
Let domestic oil producers sell at the best price they can.
BOHANON & STYRING: Story of manufacturing’s decline only half true
When everybody “just knows” something is true, it’s time to get a little nervous. That’s when we suspend skepticism and uncritically accept the assertion.
BOHANON & STYRING: Congress sure to lose fight over debt ceiling
if Congress refuses to raise the debt limit, the executive branch always wins the PR war.
BOHANON & STYRING: The super-wealthy 1 percent help lift us all up
When conspicuous consumption ceases to amuse, what do the rich do? They build monuments to themselves. The very rich want to see their names on activities that promote, or at least appear to promote, the well-being of others.
BOHANON & STYRING: Is there a teacher shortage? It’s not that simple
Does Indiana face a shortage of schoolteachers? You’d certainly think so from news stories showing an 18-percent decline in new teacher licenses issued over the past five years.
BOHANON & STYRING: Worries about looming deflation are overblown
Near-zero interest rates were supposed to pep up the economy. Six years and 10 months later, economic growth has been positive, but anemic. The unemployment rate has fallen to 5.1 percent, but labor force participation rates are at record lows and full-time jobs are hard to find.
BOHANON & STYRING: Efforts to dictate prices are destined to fail
Prices set below what a free-exchange market would determine result in shortages. Above-market prices produce unsold piles of surpluses.
BOHANON & STYRING: Let’s put the gas-price-conspiracy theory to rest
A much more plausible explanation is, there was a mechanical breakdown at BP’s Whiting refinery.
U.S. productivity up 3.3 percent in spring, labor costs fall
Labor costs fell at a 1.4-percent rate in the second quarter, indicating that wages are not rising even as unemployment declines.
BOHANON & STYRING: China’s currency move is far from calamitous
Americans are understandably upset with years of sluggish U.S. economic performance. We don’t blame the political class for trying to blame it on someone else, preferably a foreign someone else. Don’t fall for it.
BOHANON & STYRING: Let’s be real in debate over tougher CO2 rules
We offer one simple economic observation: Reductions in CO2 emissions come at an economic cost today, while the benefits accrue in the future.
BOHANON & STYRING: Social Security funding crisis is already here
The most recent Report of the Social Security Administration projects that, in 2020, interest earnings will not be enough to cover Social Security’s deficit, so the Social Security Trust Fund’s balance will begin to decline. It is expected the balance will be zero sometime in 2034.
BOHANON & STYRING: Raising minimum wage takes employment toll
Fans of goosing the minimum wage should acknowledge that raising the price of labor by legislative fiat costs jobs.
BOHANON & STYRING: Don’t blow the surplus on ‘worthy causes’
The reserve balances are there for one reason: to cushion against unforeseen shocks that would cause dramatic reductions in public services or tax increases nobody really wants.
BOHANON & STYRING: Bureaucrats still manipulate China’s economy
China is a mosaic of different “economies”—part subsistence agriculture, part controlled by the People’s Liberation Army, and only part more or less “capitalistic”. The State still calls far too many of the shots.
BOHANON & STYRING: Expect additional acts in Greek debt drama
In recent days, the tug of war between economic interest and other human passions have played out in the dance between Greece and its eurozone creditors.
BOHANON & STYRING: Why leaving the eurozone would help Greece
Many economists who differ over whom to blame for Greece’s financial disaster agree in thinking it is a good idea for the Greeks to leave the euro and go back to using the Greek drachma. A good idea for both Greece and the future of the eurozone.