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The Bad Economics Handbook
The Bad Economics Handbook
Introduction
Chapter 1: Living standards
Take 1: It was easier to get by in the past.
Take 2: Extreme poverty hasn’t really declined worldwide.
Take 3: The real poverty line for a family of four in the US is $136,500.
Take 4: The gap between productivity and a typical worker’s compensation has increased dramatically since 1979.
Take 5: 60% of Americans live paycheck-to-paycheck.
Chapter 2: Housing
Take 1: We need rent control to make housing affordable again.
Take 2: There is no housing shortage—the US has more than enough homes.
Take 3: Building new, luxury housing displaces people.
Take 4: Institutional investors, Airbnb, illegal immigrants, and foreign buyers make housing expensive.
Take 5: You can’t expand supply and cut prices at the same time because investors need a positive return.
Chapter 3: Labor economics
Take 1: We need a much higher minimum wage!
Take 2: We need to eliminate the minimum wage!
Take 3: Immigrants reduce wages by competing with current workers and increasing labor supply.
Take 4: Immigrants don’t reduce wages.
Take 5: Deportations would raise employment for Americans.
Take 6: Immigrants are a strain on the budget.
Take 7: Wealth is being transferred from everyone else to the rich. Capitalism exploits everyone.
Chapter 4: Inflation, monetary policy, interest, and prices
Take 1: Inflation is caused by corporate greed.
Take 2: Price gouging is real, and should be addressed with price controls.
Take 3: The Federal Reserve should cut interest rates to make housing more affordable.
Take 4: The government should cap credit card interest rates.
Take 5: Quantitative easing steals from the poor to give to the rich. Also, why can we pay for these bailouts but not healthcare?
Chapter 5: GDP and growth
Take 1: GDP is a useless measure. Economists don’t consider people’s happiness, or the environment.
Take 2: It’s impossible for GDP to grow forever.
Take 3: North Korea and Cuba are poor because of sanctions.
Take 4: Imports reduce GDP.
Take 5: The stock market is fake.
Take 6: The Great Recession was caused by evil bankers.
Take 7: Recessions are good, because they allow the economy to be pruned of bad investments.
Chapter 6: Climate change and energy
Take 1: Climate change and pollution are entirely the fault of major corporations.
Take 2: Clean energy is a scam. It’s entirely held up by the government.
Chapter 7: The budget
Take 1: The rich don’t pay any taxes.
Take 2: While other countries spend money on healthcare, the US spends its money on war.
Take 3: We need to cut taxes to raise federal revenues.
Take 4: Modern monetary theory shows us that debt doesn’t matter.
Take 5: Governments are like households. We need a balanced budget amendment to keep the government’s finances in check.
Chapter 8: International trade
Take 1: Tariffs are paid by foreigners.
Take 2: The US has decayed and suffered great losses from free trade. Its industrial base has evaporated.
Take 3: We need tariffs to protect vital industries like pharmaceuticals and semiconductor manufacturing, which other countries now dominate.
Take 4: We need to manufacture physical goods to trade with other countries.
Take 5: A trade deficit is bad for the country—it means we’re sending more money to other countries than we’re getting from them.
Take 6: Foreign aid makes countries stay poor.
Chapter 9: Miscellaneous bullshit
Take 1: Economists invented inflation.
Take 2: Before money, there was no poverty.
Take 3: Hyperinflation is coming!
Take 4: Abolish debt.
Take 5: Unskilled labor doesn’t exist.
Take 6: Subsidies only raise prices for consumers.
Take 7: Use a gas tax holiday to lower prices for consumers.
Take 8: The economy has become dominated by bullshit jobs. They were created by the ruling class to distract you.
Take 9: The median income is skewed.
Chapter 0: General claims about economists and economics
Take 1: Economists are embedded in social systems, and thus can’t be considered objective.
Take 2: Economics can’t be objective, since it’s divided into schools of thought.
Take 3: Economists can’t make good predictions, especially about recessions.
Take 4: Economists always assume people are rational and competition is perfect, which is false.
Take 5: Economists never check their claims against evidence.
Take 6: Economics is all about justifying why the poor deserve to be poor.
Take 7: Economists think we should hire people to dig holes when a recession comes.
Take 8: Economists just use math to give bad ideas an air of legitimacy.
Take 9: Economists, high priests of our society, don’t know what money is.
Appendix
On theory and empirical evidence
On language
On why I bother with any of this and how I cope with it all
Advice for critical readers: Check what the experts actually have to say
Additional advice for critical readers
Advice for readers using this book to argue
Help! Someone said something stupid about statistics and I don’t know what to do.
On study-throwing
Concluding thoughts
About this edition
License
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