Economy

Re: MBTA comes to Warwick

By Justin Katz | July 17, 2006 |

I don’t think you’re off base, Don. I do think, however, there’s a whiff of Rhode Islandism in your thinking. Rather than shrinking from the seepage of resources that increasing the freedom (of movement, in this case) of our citizens might entail, we ought to ponder why they’re inclined to seep in the first place.…

MBTA comes to Warwick

By Don Roach | July 17, 2006 |

From the Projo Blog: State, local and federal officials are scheduled to break ground at 1 p.m. today on a new intermodal train station next to T.F. Green Airport. The $222.5-million facility, including a parking garage and car rental businesses, will take up 1.5 million square feet and rise six stories. It will connect travelers…

The Economics of Prices

By | June 16, 2006 | Comments Off on The Economics of Prices

Walter Williams writes about Economics of prices: Here’s what one reader wrote: “Williams, I can understand how the destruction of Hurricane Katrina and Middle East political uncertainty can jack up gasoline prices. But it’s price-gouging for the oil companies to raise the price of all the gasoline already bought and stored before the crisis.”…Such allegations…

Economic Thoughts, Part XVII: What Does “Social Justice” Mean?

By Donald B. Hawthorne | June 7, 2006 |

This posting is Part XVII in a series of postings about economic thoughts. The study of economics is important because economic truths directly influence outcomes in our society. People of good will want our society to be a just one. What constitutes a just society? That question is far too broad for any single posting.…

Economic Thoughts, Part XVI: The Ethics of Redistribution

By Donald B. Hawthorne | June 6, 2006 |

This posting is Part XVI in a series of postings about economic thoughts. Robert Nisbet once said: “Only Hayek has rivaled Bertrand de Jouvenel in demonstrating why redistributionism in the democracies inexorably results in the atrophy of personal responsibility and the hypertrophy of bureaucracy and the centralized state instead of in relief to the hapless…

Economic Thoughts, Part XVI: The Ethics of Redistribution

By | June 6, 2006 |

This posting is Part XVI in a series of postings about economic thoughts. Robert Nisbet once said: “Only Hayek has rivaled Bertrand de Jouvenel in demonstrating why redistributionism in the democracies inexorably results in the atrophy of personal responsibility and the hypertrophy of bureaucracy and the centralized state instead of in relief to the hapless…

Economic Thoughts, Part XV: Consequences of Price Controls

By Donald B. Hawthorne | June 5, 2006 |

This posting is Part XV in a series of postings about economic thoughts. The excerpts in this posting are taken from Thomas Sowell’s book Basic Economics: A Citizens Guide to the Economy and addresses the many consequences of price controls – both ceilings and floors: To understand the effects of price controls, it is necessary…

Economic Thoughts, Part XV: Consequences of Price Controls

By | June 5, 2006 | Comments Off on Economic Thoughts, Part XV: Consequences of Price Controls

This posting is Part XV in a series of postings about economic thoughts. The excerpts in this posting are taken from Thomas Sowell’s book Basic Economics: A Citizens Guide to the Economy and addresses the many consequences of price controls – both ceilings and floors: To understand the effects of price controls, it is necessary…

Economic Thoughts, Part XIV: On Equality

By Donald B. Hawthorne | June 3, 2006 |

This posting is Part XIV in a series of postings about economic thoughts. Milton and Rose Friedman, in Chapter 5 of their 1979 book, Free to Choose: A Personal Statement, discuss the issue of equality: …In the early decades of the Republic, equality meant equality before God; liberty meant liberty to shape one’s own life.…

Economic Thoughts, Part XIII: It is Individuals – Not the Society, Government or Market – Who Think and Act

By Donald B. Hawthorne | June 2, 2006 |

This posting is Part XIII in a series of postings about economic thoughts. Professor Don Boudreaux of George Mason University, who hails from New Orleans, recently published an article entitled Triumph of the Individual at Tech Central Station in which he discusses Nobel Laureate Friederich Hayek’s contribution to our understanding about how it is individuals…