In Defense of Idleness

Mariano Torras Economic Theory, Future, General, Health/Disease, History, Macroeconomics, Public policy/Wellbeing, Reflections 1 Comment

September 11, 2020

Modern society’s belief in the virtue of industry, productivity, or plain hard work is well ingrained in our psyche, and far predates capitalism. According to an old Arabian proverb, “the devil tempts all men, but idle men tempt the devil.” Ouch! If in any way representative of our opinion of human inactivity, it should hardly surprise that no sooner than Covid-19 forced idleness upon us all, we heard a chorus of voices keen to return to the status quo. But from …

The Free Competitive Market as Red Herring

Mariano Torras Economic Theory, General, History, Macroeconomics, Microeconomics, Politics, Public policy/Wellbeing, Reflections Leave a Comment

August 28, 2020

I like to ask my economics students whether competitive free markets are a good thing. Despite the fact that many of them want to go into business as a career, they mostly agree that competition and free markets are universally desirable. I try to remind them that absence of competition is what most helps businesses stay alive – never mind rake in abnormal profits – but they are not easily persuaded. Further discussion with them reveals a widespread and ingrained …