“Economics,” wrote Henry Hazlitt, “is haunted by more fallacies than any other study known to man.”
True. No epoch is immune to the scourge of economic illiteracy.
Yet, we find ourselves in a moment of especially unprecedented economic ignorance. We’ve come a long way since the days of Hazlitt’s editorializing in the New York Times. In the 1930s, believe it or not, the Times held the line on economic orthodoxy in the face of emergent quackery.
Fast forward and here are but a few favorite examples of economic illiteracy, ripped from the headlines of our most prominent rags:
Corporate greed causes inflationPrice controls are an effective way of “controlling” said inflationThe minimum wage is a free lunch to low-skilled workersRacial discrimination is costless to the discriminatorChina is
2023-03-14