ECON 2020 Extra Credit

November 3rd Earlier I posted a draft of this. I'm going to call this version done. There's so many details I'm sure I've forgotten a few things.  Update for 11/7: Adding some clarification about how "rights" work. Consider the right to freedom of speech: this is not a right to speak, but a right to not be blocked from speaking (by the government unless it goes through the difficulty of passing some laws). This is why we don't have the right to say anything, like shouting "fire" in a theatre, or libeling someone. A right to something is called a positive right, and a right not to be interfered with is called a negative right. The problem with people saying that healthcare is a right is that it is used in the positive sense to justify low or no cost service; that's not something that we actually need a right for, we could just vote to approve that any time. It's because voters have never approved something along those lines that some peopl...

October 27 I was hugely amused by this editorial entitled " Getting Used to 3% Inflation " from  The Wall Street Journal . I didn't see it until this weekend (and it may have actually been published before class on Friday). But it says essentially the same things that I did about Friday's inflation numbers.   Is “three” the new “two?” ...  No one in Washington seems bothered that this remains well above the Federal Reserve’s 2% inflation target. ... The White House press office hailed this as an anti-inflation triumph. There’s always some excuse or explanation that politicians and Wall Street offer to say this is no big deal. ...  But at some point you have to admit all these add up to a persistent inflation problem. ...  ... It’s obvious now that Chairman   Jerome Powell ’s declaration of mission-accomplished in September 2024 was premature when he began the Fed’s interest-rate cuts this cycle. ...  ... Yet the Fed seems poised for another 25-bas...