Daily Clips: May 16th, 2016
Traditional economists are getting defensive: Traditional economists are starting to get uncomfortable with all this criticism directed towards their profession. Their blind allegiance to neat formulas over actual real world application is very bizarre, to say the least.
A recent article by Michael Strain, who works for the conservative think tank American Enterprise Institute, pleads with economics doubters to stop doubting and to just drink the kool-aid:
An economics 101 textbook is a treasure. The information therein captures the leaps forward in intellectual history, in our understanding of society — indeed, in our understanding of daily life.
Disagreements slow Pentagon’s plan to allow transgender service members: There are roughly 12,800 transgender service members in our military today. That’s a lot. While the Pentagon’s progress on the issue has been lackluster, the consensus seems to be that their policies will change and the military will have full gender inclusion soon enough. Knock on wood.
SCOTUS punts on latest Obamacare birth control damage: The birth control mandate has been sent back to lower courts.
Confronting the parasite economy: Nick Hanauer’s latest piece defines what he calls the “parasite economy” — an economy “where companies large and small cling to low-wage business models out of ignorance or habit or simple greed.”
Why is that a problem? Hanauer explains:
According to data compiled by the Brookings Institution, 73 million Americans—nearly one-quarter of our population—live in households eligible for the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC), a benefit exclusively available to the working poor. I want to underscore this point. Nearly a quarter of our fellow citizens are poor—not because they don’t have jobs, but because they or their family members do—mostly working for giant profitable corporations. These are people who labor long hours preparing our food, stocking our shelves, cleaning our offices, caring for our children, and performing the many other tasks and services that define our modern way of life.
Tweet of the day:
The free market is a hell of a thing. https://t.co/yCYTjV9zZC pic.twitter.com/6WaVF3AFKV
— Matt Pearce (@mattdpearce) May 16, 2016
