Saturday, June 30, 2007
Friday, June 29, 2007
Famous Economist: Frédéric Bastiat (1801-50)
Political economists are in general quite suspicious of governmental intervention. They see in it inconveniences of all kinds—a diminution of individual liberty, energy, prudence, and experience, which constitute the most precious resources of any society. Hence, it often happens that they oppose this intervention.Frédéric Bastiat
A Short Biography
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Recommended Reading: Walter Williams' column
the latest column from Walter Williams
Straight Thinking 101
Just about the most difficult lesson for first-year economics students, and sometimes graduate students, is that economic theory, and for that matter any scientific theory, is positive or non-normative. You might ask, "What's this business about positive and normative?" It's easy. Positive statements deal with what was, what is or what will be. Normative, or subjective, statements deal with what's good or bad, or what ought to be or should be. Confusing the two leads to considerable mischief.
Who Pays the Taxes?
The short answer would be the wealthy.
"For 2004, the CBO found that the top 1 percent of all taxpayers paid 37 percent of all individual income taxes...the next highest 4 percent of the population bore another 16 percent of the tax burden. In contrast, the lowest quintile (the 20 percent of households with the lowest incomes) bore less than 1 percent of the tax burden, and the next quintile bore less than 5 percent."
from: The Trouble with Taxing Those at the Top
"For 2004, the CBO found that the top 1 percent of all taxpayers paid 37 percent of all individual income taxes...the next highest 4 percent of the population bore another 16 percent of the tax burden. In contrast, the lowest quintile (the 20 percent of households with the lowest incomes) bore less than 1 percent of the tax burden, and the next quintile bore less than 5 percent."from: The Trouble with Taxing Those at the Top
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
Blog Welcome
I will share various items of interest related to economics.
Some will be class related. Others will be of general interest to those wanting to learn more about the subject of economics.
Some will be class related. Others will be of general interest to those wanting to learn more about the subject of economics.