Knave
(I wrote this letter while in France, where legislation governs the naming not only of people but even of dogs. C'est vrai.)
24 June 2007
Editor, The Washington Times
Dear Editor:
You choose as your "Knaves of the week" the New Zealand couple wishing to name their child "4real" ("Nobles and Knaves," June 23). And you say that it is "unfortunate" that New Zealand's government doesn't prohibit "stupid names."
Now I choose you as MY "Knave of the week" for asserting that the decision on naming a child should belong to politicians and bureaucrats rather than exclusively to that child's parents. True knaves are those who arrogantly impose their tastes and preferences upon others.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
Protect Me!
22 June 2007
Ms. Clara Perez
www.democracyjournal.org
Dear Ms. Perez:
Thanks for your e-mail alerting me to Presidential-hopeful John Edwards's proposal to create "a regulatory commission to protect consumers from dangerous financial products."
If such a commission does its job, I suggest that the first dangerous financial product that it attacks be Social Security. Not only are Social Security's returns lousy; not only does the institution providing it have no sound plan to keep it solvent; not only does this institution intentionally mislead its clients about its insolvency (witness its discussions of the illusory "trust fund") - but its "customers" are forced to buy it. THAT is a dangerous financial product!
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
Understading Inflation
21 June 2007
Editor, The Wall Street Journal
200 Liberty Street
New York, NY 10281
To the Editor:
You report that "Fed policy makers are likely to continue to highlight risks that low unemployment could push inflation higher" ("What's News," June 21).
I hope that the Fed's understanding of inflation is deeper than you portray it. Inflation is caused by too much money chasing too few goods. So because lower rates of unemployment generally mean higher output of goods and services, low unemployment puts downward, not upward, pressure on nominal prices. As the late Milton Friedman taught, the Fed can avoid inflation simply by keeping the money supply from growing faster than the growth of output.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
Would Hizzonner Run His Business this Way?
20 June 2007
Editor, New York Post
Dear Editor:
With the creativity of a drunk sailor, Mayor Bloomberg proposes that poor people be paid to care for themselves - given cash rewards to do things such as stay in school, go to the dentist, and hold steady jobs ("... And Paying the Poor," June 20).
Your criticisms of his plan are on target.
I ask the Mayor if in running his private business he would seriously consider hiring anyone so unmindful of his or her future that that person will go through the motions of self-responsibility only if bribed to do so? Surely the answer is no.
Paying someone to playact at self-responsibility no more creates a self-responsible person than paying someone to playact as a lawyer creates a skilled attorney.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
NY Times Errs
12 June 2007
The Editor, New York Times
229 West 43rd St.
New York, NY 10036
To the Editor:
The data and analytics of income "inequality" are sufficiently complex without David Leonhardt further confusing matters with a claim that is flat-out wrong. In "Larry Summers' Evolution" (June 10) he writes that "since 1979, the share of pretax income going to the top 1 percent of American households has risen by 7 percentage points, to 16 percent. Over the same span, the share of income going to the bottom 80 percent has fallen by 7 percentage points. It’s as if every household in that bottom 80 percent is writing a check for $7,000 every year and sending it to the top 1 percent."
Overlook the inaptness of Mr. Leonhardt's use of pretax income. (Because the top one percent of income earners pay a disproportionately large share of taxes, it is these high-income earners who are writing the big checks to the rest of us.)
The real problem is that Mr. Leonhardt mistakes a falling SHARE of income for falling income. It's simple arithmetic: Jones can simultaneously enjoy higher real income and see his income fall relative to Smith's.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
From the Start....
11 June 2007
Editor, The Wall Street Journal
200 Liberty Street
New York, NY 10281
To the Editor:
Ponder the opening paragraph of your report on the latest antitrust action against Microsoft, in which your readers learn that Google complains to government that Microsoft's "Windows Vista operating-system software puts rivals at a disadvantage" ("Google Intensifies Microsoft Fight," June 11).
These few words reveal the true purpose of antitrust legislation: it isn't meant to protect consumers but, rather, to protect competitors.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
Power of Economists
9 June 2007
Editor, The Wall Street Journal
200 Liberty Street
New York, NY 10281
To the Editor:
Steven Landsburg does his usual outstanding job at conveying important economic insights clearly and energetically ("A Brief History of Economic Time," June 9). But he gives us economists too much credit for figuring out "how to harness the power of incentives."
While economists sometimes do create useful, specific ways to harness incentives (the work of my colleague Vernon Smith comes to mind), most of the good that economists do involves explanation rather than creation. Good economists excel at explaining both how free markets give each of us incentives to contribute to widespread human well-being AND how these incentives are perverted by political institutions (the work of my colleagues James Buchanan and Gordon Tullock comes to mind). Sadly, the history of our discipline is littered with misbegotten schemes to engineer incentives, such as Keynes's nutty proposal to reduce people's incentives to save.
Sincerely,
Donald J. Boudreaux
Chairman, Department of Economics
George Mason University
