The Unemployment Paradox: Why Job Seekers, Employers Aren't Connecting

Watch Why Job Seekers, Employers Aren't Connecting on PBS. See more from PBS NewsHour.

How Might Social Security Be Changed to Accomodate Future Generations?

Back in 2005, Paul Solman--economics editor for PBS's NewsHour--filed this marvelous three-part series about possible avenues for Social Security reform. If you want a thoughtful video introduction to the heart of the problem, there really is no better resource of which I am aware.

The three segments examined each of the following possible alternatives:


1) Raising the retirement age
2) Lifting the cap on payroll taxes
3) Reducing retirement benefits

Calling All Undergrads: IHS Weekend at Rhodes College

If you are a current undergraduate student, I hope you will join me, fellow authors Bryan Caplan and Jason Brennan, and host and blogger for Forbes Art Carden for our IHS Weekend Exploring Liberty at Rhodes College in Memphis from Friday, Feb. 24, at 3 pm until Sunday, Feb 26, at 3 pm.

There is no cost to attend. All materials, meals, and snacks are provided at the seminar. Participants must arrange their own housing. Visit this link for a list of area hotels; say that you are visiting Rhodes and you should get some kind of discount.

Follow this link for more info and to apply. Deadline to apply is Friday, Feb. 17.

Drought Causes Peanut Prices to Nearly Triple

Great example of how a price spike in one good can cause the supply curve of another good to shift left.

Uh-oh

This does not bode well for the future:

Can America's Jobless Fill American Jobs?

From the wonderful Paul Solman and PBS's NEWSHOUR, a tour of frictional, structural, and cyclical unemployment in the current economy. And here is a direct link just in case.

Watch the full episode. See more PBS NewsHour.

Q&A in WORLD Magazine

The April 9 issue of WORLD magazine includes an interview with me:

Q&A

Political clunkers

We should 'treat people as people,' says economist Victor Claar, and U.S. trade restrictions fail that test | Marvin Olasky

Guy Lyons/Genesis

I asked economics professor Victor Claar (Henderson State University) about . . . ways we can help the poor internationally. Claar co-authored Economics in Christian Perspective (IVP, 2007) and wrote Fair Trade? Its Prospects as a Poverty Solution (Acton Institute, 2010). He earned his Ph.D. at West Virginia University and taught for nine years at Hope College in Michigan.

As a Christian economist, what do you like about markets? Markets can do tremendous good—they lift the poor out of poverty in far more effective ways than people can imagine or arrange otherwise. Markets are phenomenal in their ability to take resources and reallocate them from less-valued uses to more-valued uses.

How does the growth of a worldwide market help the poor internationally—and sometimes hurt Americans?

(Continue reading) 

Poverty and the Census of Rome

From Michael Hicks, writing for the Indiana Economic Digest:

There is a certain poignant irony in the U.S. Census release of 2010 poverty statistics this Christmas week. It reminds us that, behind the green eyeshades of professional data collectors, the folks at the Census have an acute marketing sense.

The Gospel of Luke tells us that Mary and Joseph traveled to their familial birthplace as part of a census. The details and timing of the Roman census are hazy, but the intent of these counts was to levy taxes for Rome. This is a rich story and serves as a high point of the New Testament's beautifully subversive backdrop of freedom from tyranny. Unlike the Roman census of Quirinius, the modern U.S. Census affects the distribution, not collection of tax dollars. It is understandably a bit more welcomed.

Among the first of the big Census releases (that will continue for years) are local poverty rates for 2010. These are widely reported, but what do the data tell us? The sad truth is almost nothing of consequence. Here's why: (More)

(Hat-tip: My mom)

Forced sharing leads to disappointment, bad behavior at church picnic

Cecil Bohanon, writing for the Fort Wayne News-Sentinel:

When I was 12 years old, the Youth of First Christian Church had a picnic at Honor Heights Park in Muskogee, Okla. The good ladies of the church brought loads of potato salad, baked beans and coleslaw, but every child knew the real action was in the sack lunch Mom had packed with their favorite delight. Our mom had fried some chicken.

That was a real treat for us as she opposed fried food on general principle long before such health concerns were fashionable. I had the breast pieces, my younger brother, Robert, got the drumsticks, and sister Susan got the thigh pieces.

Just before the prayer was to be given, the Rev. Wilbanks made an admonition that went something like this: You young folks should not be greedily holding on to your own sack lunches; rather you should empty your sacks and contribute the contents to the common table — after all, sharing was the Christian way.

I was horrified. Nonetheless, along with all the other children, I pliantly obeyed the minister and surrendered my lunch. We then all bowed our heads in prayer and I did something I had never done — I impiously opened my eyes and slowly edged toward the picnic table. . . . (More)

(Hat-tip: My mom)

Economist job more exciting than most think

Michael Hicks, writing for the Indianapolis Business Journal:

Recently, my wife has stopped calling me an economist. It is too hard to explain what I do, so she calls me a professor (which has far more cool points to Harry Potter or Gilligan’s Island fans).

Her reticence begs the question, “What does an economist do and why would anyone want to be one?” . . . .

(Hat-tip: My mom)

Would You Take Marital Advice From an Economist?

From the Freakonomics blog:

Paula Szuchman and Jenny Anderson, authors of the new book Spousonomics, are seeking marital advice from economists on their blog. Their “Economists in Love” series asks amusing (yet pragmatic) questions such as “Which is a better way to divide the housework: 50/50 or comparative advantage?” and “Is your marriage a repeated game? And if so, what kinds of things have you learned with each iteration?” First up on the advice roster was our own Dan Hamermesh. Game theorist Jeff Ely has also weighed in. 

The Simpsons Guess Wrong on the Econ Nobel

A bit before the actual announcement, the Simpsons took a shot at forecasting the Nobel recipient for economics.  Watch the first 90 seconds of this episode from the last week of September:

What Are You Reading?: "Economics in Christian Perspective"

From J.R. Durden, correspondent for the Lakeland Ledger:

Hubert Lau, 22

What Are You Reading?

Economics in Christian Perspective: Theory, Policy, and Life Choices
By Victor Claar and Robin Klay

Hubert Lau, 22, picked up this economics textbook for a college economics class. The book, said the Lakeland resident, asks straightforward questions about the effectiveness of charitable giving to non-profit and non-governmental organizations, like OxFam and World Vision, that give aid to third-world countries. 'We send money over to those countries, but nothing changes. They are still poor,' he said.

This story appeared in print on page D10.

I'd love hearing from Mr. Lau. (UPDATE: Mr. Lau and I have since connected through facebook.  Where else?)

The Zinc Lobby and the Penny, the Nickel Lobby and the Nickel

From a surprising source, espn.com, Gregg Easterbrook discusses efforts by the zinc and nickel lobbies to save the penny and the nickel:

Eliminate the Dime, Too: The U.S. Treasury is seeking to save $100 million per year by removing nickel from the nickel; nickel lobbyists are fighting this in Congress. The International Zinc Association is lobbying to maintain the existence of the penny, which is mostly zinc. If the United States, at a time of record mega-deficits, can't even get rid of pennies because members of Congress fear the loss of donations from the zinc lobby, how will fiscal sense ever be established?

The quarter is the smallest unit of currency that bears meaning in modern society: pennies, nickels and dimes merely clog the national pocket, at a cost to taxpayers. Pennies mean so little they possess negative value . . .

(Read more--oh, and you'll need to scroll way down)

Scouting the Field of Economics-Nobel Candidates

Writing for the Globe and Mail, Barrie McKenna runs down Nobel hopefuls in economics. The announcement will be made Monday, October 11.

OTTAWA - They’re overwhelmingly male, American, and their work has probably touched your life in some way, though you may not know it.

That’s the way it is with the Nobel Prize in economic sciences, slated to be awarded Monday. Only one woman has ever won the prize since it was first awarded in 1969. And roughly 70 per cent of past laureates are either American, or dual citizens of the U.S. and another country. Three are Canadian-born – William Vickrey, Myron Scholes and Robert Mundell.

The Nobel Foundation’s six-member economic prize committee keeps close guard on its list of candidates for the prize, worth 10 million Swedish kroner (about $1.5-million). But bloggers, odds-makers and pundits eagerly fill the void with their best guesses. A New Zealand-based online futures dealer (www.ipredict.co.nz) rates British-born Harvard economist Oliver Hart, University of Chicago behavioural economist Richard Thaler and Yale real estate guru Robert Shiller among the top favourites.

Here’s a look at several worthy choices, and the work they do . . . . (More)

Speaking for myself and what I would like to happen--not what I predict will happen--I would love to see any of Jagdash Bhagwati, Robert Barro, or Paul Romer garner a win.