Alex Tabarrok, professor of Economics at George Mason University and co-author of the Marginal Revolution blog, has co-authored a new book with Eric Helland exploring why prices have risen so sharply in healthcare and education. Helland and Tabarrok argue that most of these price increases are caused by the rising price of skilled labor in these fields, driven by what economists call the Baumol effect, The Baumol effect is easy to explain but difficult to grasp. In 1826, when Beethoven’s...

“When you see the greed and the concentration of power, did you ever have a moment of doubt about capitalism and whether greed is a good idea to run on?” That question was famously asked by Phil Donahue to economist Milton Friedman in a popular exchange from 1979. If you’re a defender of free markets, it’s a question you’ve surely wrestled with. Friedman’s response is characteristically insightful and straightforward, and was recently captured in a short animated film from PolicyEd:...

Note: This is post #123 in a weekly video series on basic economics. “If you think through all of the variables that shape a country’s economy, it’s no wonder that monetary policy is difficult,” says economist Alex Tabarrok. “It should e as no surprise that the Federal Reserve doesn’t always get it right. In fact, sometimes the Fed’s actions have made the economy worse off.” In this video by Marginal Revolution University, Tabarrok shows what happens when the Fed promotes...

More than decade after the conclusion of the critically-acclaimed HBO series Deadwood, a finale has been released that brings the gold-rush era drama to a close. The Deadwood film premiered on HBO last week, and fans of the show will find much to remember and appreciate in this conclusion. Much remains familiar in Deadwood a decade later; the surviving characters are older, but the dynamics and cadences of their interactions remain. The series concluded with an epic clash between the...

Last week the Mackinac Center — a think tank that focuses on public policy in Michigan — published a new study: “Workforce Development in Michigan.” The study, authored by Hope College economics professor, Acton research fellow, and Journal of Markets & Morality associate editor Sarah Estelle, examines the wide variety of skills-training and employment programs in the state. As the Mackinac Center put it in their press release, The government has been actively involved in job training since the 1960s,...

As I’ve grown older, I’ve enjoyed watching my childhood friends as they start families, have children, and share what is going on in their lives via social media. Their posts give a glimpse into how they manage their own households, and can often reveal how these same friends have changed over time due to a range of external factors. Such changes are particularly striking after the responsibilities of marriage and parenthood. This happens with men and women alike, to be...

The only thing that can e the stupidity of modern-day progressives like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the 24 people contending for the 2020 presidential nomination of the Democratic Party is an understanding of the price—and the consequences — of the policies that they preach. Progressive policy is expensive, very expensive, and a wise person should be extremely reluctant to spend other people’s money on utopian schemes like the Green New Deal. But people are not wise, and that is why America...

Note: This is the latest entry in the Acton blog series, “What Christians Should Know About Economics.” For other entries inthe series seethis post. What it means: The economy shifts from periods of increasing economic activity, known as economic expansions, to periods of decreasing economic activity, known as recessions. This is known as the business cycle and includes four phases: expansion, peak, contraction, and trough. An expansion is a period between a trough and a peak, and a recession is...

Last week, EU voters went to the polls in the latest round of the project of pan-European governance, another step on the supposed road to further unity and prosperity. The results were varied and at odds with one another, and the only constant seems to be dissatisfaction with the status quo. Many nationalist parties—such as in Poland, Italy and the United Kingdom—posted strong results, while countries such as Spain went toward the opposite end of the spectrum and supported socialists....

Last week’s elections for European Parliament swept a bountiful harvest of Euroskeptic thorns into the EU’s side. Among them are the Sweden Democrats; Trey Dimsdale has interviewed successful SD candidate Charlie Weimers for the Acton Line podcast, and Weimers contributes a book review of Kasja Norman’s stirring book Sweden’s Dark Soul: The Unraveling of a Utopia to Acton’s transatlantic website. The book’s evocative opening leads to probing questions of Sweden’s searing self-doubt. Weimers writes: Norman starts the book depicting hundreds...