Essential Economics for Politicians

xav10 said:
Three times. There’s a lot of poverty in Kowloon.. The government increases the minimum wage periodically and is introducing universal pensions to try to alleviate it. All civilized economies have substantial government intervention. We have less than most others.
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What years were you there?
 
Bruddah IZ said:
Pope Francis Is Mistaken about Free Markets
Free market capitalism does not increase inequality; it decreases it.
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Meeting with global-finance students recently at the Chartreux Institute in Lyon, France, Pope Francis warned them “to remain free from the lure of money, from the slavery in which money traps those who worship it.” He also counseled them not to “blindly obey the invisible hand of the market” but rather to become “promoters and defenders of a growth in equality.”
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Lighten up Francis and stick to the word.
 
Even though I’m a professional economist, I am sympathetic to Pope Francis’s remarks. Indeed, I think many of my colleagues are too quick to dismiss criticisms of the market as being unsophisticated, and they ignore the wise sentiments that motivate the popular distrust of capitalism. In the Independent Institute’s new collection of essays, Pope Francis and the Caring Society, my fellow contributors and I did our best to grapple with the pope’s calls for social justice as we unapologetically defended the benefits of private property and market prices.

Regarding his specific remarks to the students in Lyon, I hope we can all agree with Pope Francis that the lure of money is indeed a trap for those who worship it (as he put it). The Bible teaches that the love of money is “the root of all evil,” and people of all religious traditions — or none at all — can surely recognize that the single-minded pursuit of material wealth is no way to live.--Bob Murphy
 
Sheriff Joe said:
The pope is wrong all the time.
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But He's Not Entirely Correct

Having agreed with the pope thus far, where I strongly differ is in his dismissal of the “invisible hand.” It’s not merely that I think Pope Francis needs to better appreciate the workings of the market economy. As a Christian myself, I think Adam Smith’s famous metaphor illustrates a pattern in the way a loving God deals with His fallen children.

To set the context, in his treatise The Wealth of Nations (1776), Adam Smith famously wrote,

By preferring the support of domestic to that of foreign industry, [an individual] intends only his own security; and by directing that industry in such a manner as its produce may be of the greatest value, he intends only his own gain, and he is in this, as in many other cases, led by an invisible hand to promote an end which was no part of his intention.

Smith is showing that the government doesn’t need to promote domestic industry, because individuals who seek only their own narrow gain will do so on their own.

This helps us see that Pope Francis has set up a false dichotomy: He seems to be urging those entering the financial sector to ignore market signals and personal gain in order to better help the poor and downtrodden. Yet Adam Smith’s point was that people who are pursuing personal gain — as long as their activity relies on exchanges that are consensual among all participants — end up unwittingly promoting the welfare of others. In modern times, the only way to become a billionaire in the free market is to create a new product or service that millions of people want or enjoy.
 
Hüsker Dü said:
Oh my! How dare you disparage the leader of the Catholic Church and the millions of devout Catholics that look to him for supreme guidance . . . isn't that right Lion Eyes? I mean really if it is wrong for wez to do . . . ?
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The Pope Knows as much about economics as you do. That makes him wrong all the time RFG 2
 
Hüsker Dü said:
Oh my! How dare you disparage the leader of the Catholic Church and the millions of devout Catholics that look to him for supreme guidance . . . isn't that right Lion Eyes? I mean really if it is wrong for wez to do . . . ?
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The Pope's a nut. If any of those Catholics need advice, I am willing to guide them.
 
Bruddah IZ said:
Funny coming from the guy that is only worth $2 more an hour after 10 years.
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Sorry you don't understand how that works, or how anything works judging from your posting history. Besides the Republican caused recessions we've been through and the attempts at "trickledown economics" that have stifled the economy over the last 30+ years I've done fine . . . the $2? That was scale, on the check, I've always made over scale and unlike you have invested well. Sorry things haven't worked out for you and that you have become so bitter.
 
Hüsker Dü said:
Sorry you don't understand how that works, or how anything works judging from your posting history. Besides the Republican caused recessions we've been through and the attempts at "trickledown economics" that have stifled the economy over the last 30+ years I've done fine . . . the $2? That was scale, on the check, I've always made over scale and unlike you have invested well. Sorry things haven't worked out for you and that you have become so bitter.
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Iʻm not bitter now that I know you were only making .20 cents more a year for the last 10 years according to your stagnating wages post in which you tried to associate yourself with the stagnating wages of those folks that have long ago and continuously moved on from those jobs that you assumed people work at throughout their whole life. Nice reasoning RFG2. At .20 cents more a year you must be quite the investor.
 
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