哈耶克接受众经济学家采访

哈耶克（F. A. Hayek）在美国受欢迎，曾接受过由多位顶级经济学家组成的团队的轮番采访，成员包括阿尔钦、布坎南和博克……

华尔街巨额奖金事件有益无害

上周末美国AIG公司支付了其金融部门十多位高层管理人员1.65亿美元的奖金，这两天引起众怒。是好事，我想不出任何坏处。

中新社：我国持有美国国债七千亿美元

中新社纽约三月十六日电：中国仍是美国最大债权国。美国财政部报告说，中国目前大约持有七千四百亿美元的美国国债，相当于美国国债总额的百分之六。今年一月份，中国就增持美国国债一百二十二亿美元。至今，美国财政部已发行了创纪录的十点九万亿美元国债，以资助其昂贵的经济救援计划。一些投资人担心，庞大的政府开支增长将拉高美国通货膨胀率，令美国国债价格下跌。 美国白宫发言人则在当天稍晚时候表示，投资美国是世界上最安全的，以此强调中国投资美国国债是安全的（薛兆丰评论见这里）。

亚当·斯密的道德观和市场观

斯密并非写了两部自相矛盾的著作，分别供市场经济的怀疑者和支持者引用。相反，他通过《道德情操论》和《国富论》构造了一个自洽体系。斯密对人性的深刻理解，恰恰为市场经济提供了坚如磐石的正当理由。

Why Bailouts and Stimulus Don’t Work

Benjamin Powell at Washington Times: America’s move to act swiftly and boldly misses the point. Bank bailouts and fiscal stimulus bills don’t work because they strive to maintain the status quo. But the status quo is the problem and exactly what needs to be corrected. The U.S. housing bubble drew too many workers and too much [...]

Has Obama Buried Reagan?

Daniel Henninger: What Rush Limbaugh was trying to tell that conservative audience in so many words was, Don’t be embarrassed. Don’t be embarrassed about embracing the world of free markets, competition, entrepreneurship and profit. If you don’t know how to talk about it, reread the apostles and evangelists of private economic growth — Ronald Reagan’s [...]

Becker: Financial Regulations

Gary Becker: The claim that the crisis was due to an insufficient level of regulation is not convincing. For example, commercial banks have been more regulated than most other financial institutions, yet commercial banks performed no better than other classes of financial institutions. At the other extreme, hedge funds have been the least regulated, and [...]

Obama’s Radicalism Is Killing the Dow

Michael J. Boskin: Mr. Obama’s $3.6 trillion budget blueprint, by his own admission, redefines the role of government in our economy and society. The budget more than doubles the national debt held by the public, adding more to the debt than all previous presidents — from George Washington to George W. Bush — combined. … And [...]

Pure Rent Seeking

Ed Kane: TARP recipients paid out $76.7 million on lobbying and $37 million on federal campaign contributions in 2008 and (through Feb 2, 2009) received access to $295.2 billion in TARP funds. The ratio of lobbying expense to TARP receipts suggests that, during the initial stages of the crisis, financial institutions have reaped extraordinary benefits [...]

Hayek on Cantillon Effect

F. A. Hayek: The effect we are discussing is rather similar to that which appears when we pour a viscous liquid, such as honey, into a vessel. There will, of course, be a tendency for it to spread to an even surface. But if the stream hits the surface at one point, a little mound [...]