Economy

A couple uses self-checkout.

Self-checkout laws are the sort of question civics education should address.

By Justin Katz | March 10, 2023 |

Americans really need to be able to step back a bit from the immediate issue addressed in legislation and think about how it relates to our understanding of society’s proper structure.  A Rhode Island bill going after self-checkout lanes in retail stores is an excellent case study.  Kathy Gregg writes in the Providence Journal: An army…

Adraien Van De Venne's Allegory of Poverty

How many weeks do you have to work?

By Justin Katz | March 9, 2023 |

Oren Cass’s analysis of the weeks required to support a middle-class lifestyle for American Compass raises some interesting points.  The study focuses on the income of men and shows that the combined cost of food, housing, health care, transportation, and education surpassed the median male income in the mid-’90s.  By 2022, that income was about…

A mural on a highway bridge

Could it be that the status quo’s defenders just don’t get the economics?

By Justin Katz | March 2, 2023 |

University of Rhode Island Economics Professor Len Lardaro reminds us of the magic by which the state makes its employment numbers look good: To me, the apologists for the status quo are the scariest part. Saying, “Oh, don’t worry. People are just retiring,” completely misses the point. If Rhode Islanders are retiring, shouldn’t their jobs…

A water drop and ripples

The Smithians do what Marxists promise, including on race.

By Justin Katz | February 23, 2023 |

For several reasons (voluntary and not-so-voluntary), I’ve been digging into Marxism a bit more over the past year.  I mean both ol’ Marx himself and his followers, up to modern practitioners.  One point that has come home very strongly is that the ideal that Marxists sell is actually the end toward which a system built…

A turkey chases a pilgrim with an ax

The John Loughlin Show: Highlights from the Turn of the Year

By John Loughlin | February 18, 2023 |

Clips from the John Loughlin show that carried Rhode Islanders through the holiday season and into the new year.

Liquid pouring into an invisible glass

Politics This Week with John DePetro: The Defining Problem (and Opportunity) of RI

By Justin Katz | January 25, 2023 |

John DePetro and Justin Katz find evidence of the missing ingredient in RI politics everywhere.

Liquid pouring into an invisible glass

Who Can Claim Cooperation as a Core Value

By Justin Katz | December 29, 2022 |

Whether Western Civilization is fundamentally build on a principle of cooperation is a fundamental philosophical dividing line in our current politics.

A water drop and ripples

Michael Munger’s reference to Bastiat’s proposal to grow the French economy by burning Paris is a worthwhile reminder.

By Justin Katz | December 27, 2022 |

For that lesson alone, readers should give it a few minutes.  But this paragraph near the end captures something far more intimately relevant to our times than even Munger may have intended: Once you are duped into believing destruction is productive, almost everything that a rational public policy would label as a cost becomes, by…

Derek Amey and Richard August on State of the State

State of the State: Economic Trends and Expectations

By Richard August | December 26, 2022 |

Host Richard August brings viewers up to speed on the economy in an interview with investment advisor Derek Amey.

A Mrs. Claus ornament on a Christmas tree

Why are Christmas trees scarce?

By Justin Katz | December 24, 2022 |

It’s “climate change,” of course; that’s the easy go-to answer for anything having to do with the natural environment.  Even when there’s a more proximate explanation, the global bogeyman has to be tacked on, as the Boston Globe’s Dharna Noor does in this case: The culprit behind all those dead trees: Drought, which hit New England…