Q&A
Political clunkers
We should 'treat people as people,' says economist Victor Claar, and U.S. trade restrictions fail that test | Marvin OlaskyI 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.Guy Lyons/Genesis
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?
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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)
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)
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).(Hat-tip: My mom)
Her reticence begs the question, “What does an economist do and why would anyone want to be one?” . . . .
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.
What Are You Reading?
Hubert Lau, 22
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.
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 . . .
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OTTAWA - They’re overwhelmingly male, American, and their work has probably touched your life in some way, though you may not know it.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
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)
, Robert Barro
, or Paul Romer garner a win.
(The Huffington Post) - A Census Bureau report recently released found the percentage of Americans now living in poverty rose to 14.3 percent in 2009, the highest in decades.
For many of us, this was a huge shock. News like this sends a shudder through our collective spine. And for every family that finds itself now living in poverty, it isn't a headline at all; it is a personal tragedy.
But as we come to grips with this most recent statistic, we have a dual set of challenges. On one hand, we need to do all in our power to help those struggling here at home. But we also have the challenge of viewing poverty with "global bifocals." With one portion of the lens we see and attack needs close to home. With the other portion of the lens we focus on the realities of global poverty that may seem far away.
Here at home, poverty is a single mom in Detroit trying to keep food on the table. In Africa, poverty is a 14-year-old orphaned head-of-household trying to find fresh water for himself and his siblings. The challenge isn't to choose one over the other. The task is to view two harsh realities through a common lens of compassion and assistance.
In America, poverty is defined as living on less than $26.22 per day. In the rest of the world poverty is defined as living on less than $1.25 per day.
In America, clean water flows from our faucets and we still purchase designer water. In the developing world, clean water is kilometers away and more than 1 billion people lack access to potable water. In fact, 1.4 million children will die this year from waterborne diseases. That's more than 3,800 children every day -- yesterday, today and tomorrow. . . .
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"Greed, for lack of a better word, is good. Greed is right. Greed works."
Gordon Gekko's infamous speech in Oliver Stone's 1987 film "Wall Street" came to embody the excesses of 1980s high finance. Now Gekko, fresh out of prison, is back in Stone's "Wall Street: Money Never Sleeps," which features the financier (played again by Michael Douglas) warning of the impending economic crisis of 2008. Turns out greed caused some trouble while Gekko was locked up.
But is greed capitalism's worst sin? Not so, argues economist Victor Claar. In a speech at the American Enterprise Institute last week, Claar posited that another deadly sin -- envy -- is an inherent part of the free-market system and can prove even more insidious.
Claar, a co-author of Economics in Christian Perspective, relied on Thomas Aquinas's definition of envy: sadness at the good of another. He cited the biblical parable of the prodigal son, in which the older sibling is envious of his dissolute brother, whose return home sparks a big party. "It sounds like blue-collar frustrations that we hear today," Claar said. " 'I did everything the right way, I played by all of the right rules -- and here I am.' "
Whether because of differing intelligence, skill, ambition or luck, free markets produce different outcomes for different people, so envy is inevitable. . . .
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