Basic Economics

Home > Nonfiction > Basic Economics > Page 77
Basic Economics Page 77

by Thomas Sowell

{219} P.T. Bauer, West African Trade: A Study of Competition, Oligopoly and Monopoly in a Changing Economy (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, Ltd., 1963), p. 23.

  {220} Ibid., pp. 24, 25.

  {221} Ibid., p. 25.

  {222} Nikolai Shmelev and Vladimir Popov, The Turning Point, p. 119.

  {223} Ibid., p. 122.

  {224} David Granick, The Red Executive: A Study of the Organization Man in Russian Industry (Garden City, NY: Anchor Books, 1961), p. 135.

  {225} Ben Dolven, “The Perils of Delivering the Goods,” Far Eastern Economic Review, July 25, 2002, p. 29.

  {226} Nikolai Shmelev and Vladimir Popov, The Turning Point, p. 135.

  {227} Ibid., p. 133.

  {228} Ibid., p. 134.

  {229} Ibid., pp. 134–135.

  {230} P.T. Bauer, West African Trade, p. 14.

  {231} Henry Hazlitt, The Wisdom of Henry Hazlitt (Irvington-on-Hudson, NY: The Foundation for Economic Education, 1993), p. 83.

  {232} Richard S. Tedlow, New and Improved: The Story of Mass Marketing in America (New York: Basic Books, 1990), pp. 317–328.

  Chapter 7: The Economics of Big Business

  {233} Frédéric Bastiat, Economic Sophisms, translated and edited by Arthur Goddard (Princeton, NJ: D. Van Nostrand Company, Inc., 1964), p. 171.

  {234} Ellen Simon, “Yahoo May Not Be No. 1, but CEO’s Pay Package Is,” San Francisco Chronicle, June 12, 2007, p. C5.

  {235} Lynn A. Stout, “Corporations Shouldn’t Be Democracies,” Wall Street Journal, September 27, 2007, p. A17.

  {236} Ibid.

  {237} “Bargain Bosses,” The Economist, September 8, 2012, p. 67.

  {238} Andrew Ross Sorkin and Eric Dash, “Private Firms Lure C.E.O.’s with Top Pay,” New York Times, January 8, 2007, pp. A1, A16.

  {239} John Steele Gordon, “Contrivances to Raise Prices,” Barron’s, December 31, 2007, p. 33.

  {240} Richard S. Tedlow, New and Improved: The Story of Mass Marketing in America (New York: Basic Books, 1990), p. 211.

  {241} Gurcharan Das, India Unbound: The Social and Economic Revolution from Independence to the Global Information Age (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2001), pp. 174–175.

  Chapter 8: Regulation and Anti-Trust Laws

  {242} George J. Stigler, Memoirs of an Unregulated Economist (New York: Basic Books, 1988), p. 104.

  {243} Peter Coy, “How to Do Deregulation Right,” BusinessWeek, March 26, 2001, p. 112.

  {244} David Gardner, “Impossible India’s Improbable Chance,” The World in 2001 (London: The Economist Newspaper Limited, 2000), p. 46.

  {245} David Henderson, “Trucking Deregulation,” The Fortune Encyclopedia of Economics, edited by David Henderson (New York: Warner Books, 1993), pp. 435–436.

  {246} Ibid., p. 436.

  {247} Alfred E. Kahn, “Airline Deregulation,” Ibid., pp. 379, 380, 381.

  {248} Kerry Capell, et al., “A Closer Continent,” BusinessWeek, May 8, 2006, pp. 44–45.

  {249} Chris Serres, “Retail Starting to Turn Green,” San Francisco Chronicle, August 19, 2007, p. F1.

  {250} Federal Trade Commission v. Morton Salt Co., 334 U.S. 37 (1948), at 41, 46.

  {251} Standard Oil Co. v. Federal Trade Commission, 340 U.S. 231 (1951).

  {252} United States v. Borden Co., 370 U.S. 460 (1962).

  {253} “Regulating Microsoft,” New York Times, September 21, 2007, p. A18.

  {254} Ibid.

  {255} Sam Whiting, “Taking the Last Shots,” San Francisco Chronicle, December 25, 2010, pp. E1, E3.

  {256} Brown Shoe Co. v. United States, 370 U.S. 294 (1962).

  {257} United States v. Von’s Grocery Company, 384 U.S. 270 (1966).

  {258} Gurcharan Das, India Unbound: The Social and Economic Revolution from Independence to the Global Information Age (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2001), p. 169.

  {259} United States v. Aluminum Co. of America, 148 F.2d 416 (2nd Cir. 1945).

  {260} Peter Johnson, “Air Transport,” Industries in Europe: Competition, Trends and Policy Issues, edited by Peter Johnson (Cheltenham, UK: Edward Elgar, 2003), p. 267.

  {261} Evan Perez, “Cunard’s Grand Gamble,” Wall Street Journal, October 2, 2003, p. B4.

  {262} Jack Nicas, “Cheap Flights Woo Bus Riders in Latin America,” Wall Street Journal, October 16, 2013, p. B1.

  {263} Ibid., p. B4.

  {264} Tom Bawden, et al., “Need to Know,” The Times of London (online), May 29, 2003.

  {265} “The Least Interesting Lawyers in the World,” Wall Street Journal, February 8, 2013, p. A12.

  {266} Thaddeus Herrick, “One Word of Advice: Now It’s Corn,” Wall Street Journal, October 12, 2004, p. B1.

  {267} Gary S. Becker and Guity Nashat Becker, The Economics of Life: From Baseball to Affirmative Action to Immigration, How Real-World Issues Affect Our Everyday Life (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1997), p. 163.

  {268} Gurcharan Das, India Unbound, p. 183.

  {269} Robyn Meredith, “Tempest in a Teapot,” Forbes, February 14, 2005, p. 120.

  {270} Ibid.

  {271} Vibhuti Agarwal, “Indian Steelmakers Gain Strength,” Wall Street Journal, May 17, 2007, p. C5.

  Chapter 9: Market and Non-Market Economies

  {272} Robert L. Bartley, The Seven Fat Years: And How to Do It Again (New York: Free Press, 1992), p. 241.

  {273} Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, “Manifesto of the Communist Party,” Basic Writings on Politics and Philosophy, edited by Lewis S. Feuer (New York: Anchor Books, 1959), p. 11.

  {274} Eric Bellman, “As Economy Zooms, India’s Postmen Struggle to Adapt,” Wall Street Journal, October 3, 2006, p. A1.

  {275} Ibid.

  {276} Jack Ewing, “German Skill in Exporting Puts Pressure on Neighbors,” New York Times, February 27, 2010, pp. B1, B2.

  {277} Cecil C. Hoge, Sr., The First Hundred Years Are the Toughest: What We Can Learn from the Century of Competition Between Sears and Wards (Berkeley, CA: Ten Speed Press, 1988), p. 83.

  {278} Gurcharan Das, India Unbound: The Social and Economic Revolution from Independence to the Global Information Age (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2001), p. 112.

  {279} “A Survey of India: Time to Let Go,” a special section on India’s economy, The Economist, February 22, 1997, p. 6.

  {280} Eric Bellman, “As Economy Zooms, India’s Postmen Struggle to Adapt,” Wall Street Journal, October 3, 2006, p. A12.

  {281} Nancy F. Koehn, Brand New: How Entrepreneurs Earned Consumers’ Trust from Wedgwood to Dell (Boston: Harvard Business School Press, 2001), pp. 52, 53.

  {282} Michael J. De La Merced and Andrew Ross Sorkin, “Berkshire and 3G Capital Buying Heinz for $23 Billion,” New York Times, February 15, 2013, p. B1.

  {283} John F. Love, McDonald’s: Behind the Arches, revised edition (New York: Bantam, 1995), pp. 130, 131.

  {284} Robin Sidel, “Card Companies Crack Down on Restaurants,” Wall Street Journal, March 24–25, 2007, p. B1.

  {285} John F. Love, McDonald’s, revised edition, pp. 142–144, 147.

  {286} Peter Eisler, et al., “Schools Don’t Meet Fast-Food Standards,” USA Today, December 9, 2009, p. 1A.

  {287} Karen Plunkett-Powell, Remembering Woolworth’s: A Nostalgic History of the World’s Most Famous Five-and-Dime (New York: St. Martin’s Press, 1999), Chapters 1–3.

  {288} John F. Love, McDonald’s, revised edition, p. 184.

  {289} Louis Uchitelle, The Disposable American: Layoffs and Their Consequences (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006), pp. 120, 122.

  PART III: WORK AND PAY

  Chapter 10: Productivity and Pay

  {290} Steven R. Cunningham, “Economic Opportunity in U.S. Often Overlooked,” San Jose Mercury News, March 23, 2011, p. 11A.

  {291} Alice Amsden, The Rise of “The Rest”: Challenges to the West from Late-Industrializing Economies (New York: Oxford University Press, 2001), p. 47.

  {292} “Blame the Bosses,” The Economist, October 12, 2002, p. 52.

  {293} “
Spend More but Wisely,” The Economist, January 14, 2006, p. 51.

  {294} W. Michael Cox and Richard Alm, “By Our Own Bootstraps: Economic Opportunity & the Dynamics of Income Distribution,” Annual Report, 1995, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, p. 8.

  {295} Peter Saunders, “Poor Statistics: Getting the Facts Right About Poverty in Australia,” Issue Analysis, No. 23, April 3, 2002, p. 5.

  {296} David Green, Poverty and Benefit Dependency (Wellington, New Zealand: New Zealand Business Roundtable, 2001), p. 32.

  {297} Ibid., pp. 32–33.

  {298} Ibid., p. 33.

  {299} U.S. Census Bureau, “Table H-1. Income Limits for Each Fifth and Top 5 Percent of All Households: 1967 to 2011,” downloaded on February 13, 2013: http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/income/data/historical/inequality/.

  {300} “The March of the 400,” Forbes, September 30, 2002, p. 80.

  {301} “Spare a Dime,” a special report on the rich, The Economist, April 4, 2009, p. 4.

  {302} Robert Rector and Rea S. Hederman, “Two Americas: One Rich, One Poor? Understanding Income Inequality in the United States,” Heritage Foundation Backgrounder, No. 1791 (August 24, 2004), pp. 7, 8.

  {303} Robert Heilbroner and Lester Thurow, Economics Explained: Everything You Need to Know About How the Economy Works and Where It’s Going (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1987), p. 48.

  {304} U.S. Census Bureau, “Table HINC–05. Percent Distribution of Households, by Selected Characteristics within Income Quintile and Top 5 Percent in 2010,” from the Current Population Survey, downloaded on January 11, 2013: http://www.census.gov/hhes/www/cpstables/032011/hhinc/new05_000.htm.

  {305} Raghuram Rajan and Luigi Zingales, Saving Capitalism from the Capitalists (New York: Crown Business, 2003), p. 92.

  {306} Sylvia Ann Hewlett and Carolyn Buck Luce, “Extreme Jobs: The Dangerous Allure of the 70-Hour Workweek,” Harvard Business Review, December 2006, p. 51.

  {307} John McNeil, “Changes in Median Household Income: 1969 to 1996,” Current Population Reports, P23–196 (Washington: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 1998), p. 1.

  {308} U.S. Census Bureau, “Table H-5. Race and Hispanic Origin of Householder—Households by Median and Mean Income: 1967 to 2012,” downloaded on February 11, 2014: https://www.census.gov/hhes/www/income/data/historical/household/; U.S. Census Bureau, “Table P-1. CPS Population and Per Capita Money Income, All Races: 1967 to 2012,” downloaded on February 11, 2014: https://www.census.gov/hhes/www/income/data/historical/people/.

  {309} Herman P. Miller, Income Distribution in the United States (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1966), p. 7.

  {310} Barbara Vobejda, “Elderly Lead All in Financial Improvement,” Washington Post, September 1, 1998, p. A3.

  {311} Thomas J. Stanley and William D. Danko, The Millionaire Next Door (Atlanta: Longstreet Press, 1996), p. 3.

  {312} Ibid.

  {313} W. Michael Cox and Richard Alm, “By Our Own Bootstraps: Economic Opportunity & the Dynamics of Income Distribution,” Annual Report, 1995, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, p. 14.

  {314} Carmen DeNavas-Walt and Robert W. Cleveland, “Money Income in the United States: 2001,” Current Population Reports, P60–218 (Washington: U.S. Bureau of the Census, 2002), p. 19.

  {315} W. Michael Cox and Richard Alm, “By Our Own Bootstraps: Economic Opportunity & the Dynamics of Income Distribution,” Annual Report, 1995, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, p. 8.

  {316} “Movin’ On Up,” Wall Street Journal, November 13, 2007, p. A24.

  {317} Niels Veldhuis, et al., “The ‘Poor’ Are Getting Richer,” Fraser Forum, January/February 2013, pp. 24, 25.

  {318} Internal Revenue Service, “SOI Tax Stats at a Glance 2012.”

  {319} U.S. Department of the Treasury, “Income Mobility in the U.S. from 1996 to 2005,” November 13, 2007, pp. 2, 4.

  {320} W. Michael Cox and Richard Alm, Myths of Rich & Poor: Why We’re Better Off Than We Think (New York: Basic Books, 1999), p. 16.

  {321} Robert Frank, “The Wild Ride of the 1%,” Wall Street Journal, October 22, 2011, pp. C1, C2.

  {322} Ibid., p. C2.

  {323} W. Michael Cox and Richard Alm, “By Our Own Bootstraps: Economic Opportunity & the Dynamics of Income Distribution,” Annual Report, 1995, Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas, p. 16.

  {324} “The Economic Role of Women,” Economic Report of the President, 1973 (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1973), p. 105.

  {325} Diana Furchtgott-Roth and Christine Stolba, Women’s Figures: An Illustrated Guide to the Economic Progress of Women in America (Washington: The A.E.I. Press, 1999), p. 15.

  {326} Ibid., p. 33.

  {327} Richard J. Herrnstein and Charles Murray, The Bell Curve: Intelligence and Class Structure in American Life (New York: The Free Press, 1994), p. 323.

  {328} David Green, Poverty and Benefit Dependency, p. 43.

  {329} Merle Lipton, Capitalism and Apartheid: South Africa, 1910–84 (Aldershot, Hants, England: Gower, 1985), pp. 152, 153.

  {330} Brian Lapping, Apartheid: A History (New York: G. Braziller, 1987), p. 164.

  {331} Walter E. Williams, South Africa’s War Against Capitalism (New York: Praeger, 1989), pp. 112, 113.

  {332} P.T. Bauer, West African Trade: A Study of Competition, Oligopoly and Monopoly in a Changing Economy (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, Ltd., 1963), pp. 14–15.

  {333} Todd Zaun and Jason Singer, “How Japan’s Second-Hand Cars Make Their Way to Third World,” Wall Street Journal, January 8, 2004, pp. A1, A12.

  {334} Tim Harford, The Undercover Economist: Exposing Why the Rich Are Rich, the Poor Are Poor, and Why You Can Never Buy a Decent Used Car (New York: Oxford University Press, 2006), p. 179.

  {335} Todd Zaun and Jason Singer, “How Japan’s Second-Hand Cars Make Their Way to Third World,” Wall Street Journal, January 8, 2004, p. A12.

  {336} Nikolai Shmelev and Vladimir Popov, The Turning Point: Revitalizing the Soviet Economy (New York: Doubleday, 1989), pp. 145, 146.

  Chapter 11: Minimum Wage Laws

  {337} Bryan Caplan, The Myth of the Rational Voter: Why Democracies Choose Bad Policies (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2008), p. 11.

  {338} Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, “Characteristics of Minimum Wage Workers: 2012,” February 26, 2013, p. 1, Tables 1 and 7.

  {339} “Economic and Financial Indicators,” The Economist, March 15, 2003, p. 100.

  {340} “Federal Cabinet Rejects Minimum Wage Bid,” The Local, Switzerland’s News in English (online), January 17, 2013.

  {341} “Economic and Financial Indicators,” The Economist, March 2, 2013, p. 88.

  {342} “Economic and Financial Indicators,” The Economist, September 7, 2013, p. 92.

  {343} “Hong Kong’s Jobless Rate Falls,” Wall Street Journal, January 16, 1991, p. C16.

  {344} Jim Powell, “Harding and Coolidge: 1.8 Percent Unemployment,” Washington Times, September 13, 2010, p. B1.

  {345} Gary S. Becker and Guity Nashat Becker, The Economics of Life: From Baseball to Affirmative Action to Immigration, How Real-World Issues Affect Our Everyday Life (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1997), p. 39.

  {346} Erin Lett and Judith Banister, “Labor Costs of Manufacturing Employees in China: An Update to 2003–04,” Monthly Labor Review, November 2006, p. 41.

  {347} Jason Clemens et al., Measuring Labour Markets in Canada and the United States: 2003 Edition (Canada: Fraser Institute, 2003), pp. 1–68.

  {348} Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Department of Labor, “Characteristics of Minimum Wage Workers: 2012,” February 26, 2013, p. 1, Table 1.

  {349} “Bad Law, Worse Timing,” Wall Street Journal, July 25, 2008, p. A14.

  {350} Scott Adams and David Neumark, “A Decade of Living Wages: What Have We Learned?” California Economic Policy, Volume 1, Number 3 (July 2005), pp. 1–24.

  {351} Donald Deere, et al., “Employment and the 1990–1991 Minimum-Wage Hike,” American Economic Review, V
ol. 85, No. 2 (May 1995), pp. 232–237.

  {352} ACIL Economics and Policy, Pty. Ltd., What Future for New Zealand’s Minimum Wage Law? (Wellington, New Zealand: New Zealand Business Roundtable, 1994), pp. 32–34.

  {353} David Neumark and William Wascher, “Minimum Wages and Employment: A Review of Evidence from the New Minimum Wage Research,” Working Paper 12663, National Bureau of Economic Research, November 2006, p. 123.

  {354} “Unions v Jobs,” The Economist, May 28, 2005, p. 49.

  {355} “No Way to Start Out in Life,” The Economist, July 18, 2009, p. 53.

  {356} Donald Deere, et al., “Employment and the 1990–1991 Minimum-Wage Hike,” American Economic Review, Vol. 85, No. 2 (May 1995), pp. 232–237.

  {357} OECD (2013), “Long-Term Unemployment,” in OECD Factbook 2013: Economic, Environmental and Social Statistics, OECD Publishing, p. 145; Ben Casselman, “Long-Term Unemployed Begin to Find Work,” Wall Street Journal, January 11, 2013, p. A2.

  {358} P.T. Bauer, West African Trade: A Study of Competition, Oligopoly and Monopoly in a Changing Economy (London: Routledge & Kegan Paul, Ltd., 1963), p. 18.

  {359} Ibid., p. 19.

  {360} Sharon LaFraniere, “Low Labor Standard Leads South Africans to Export Jobs,” New York Times, March 13, 2004, p. A3.

  {361} Ibid.

  {362} Ibid.

  {363} Ibid.

  {364} “Spend More but Wisely,” The Economist, January 14, 2006, p. 51.

  {365} Alberto Alesina and Joseph Zeira, “Technology and Labor Regulations,” Working Paper 12581, National Bureau of Economic Research, October 2006, p. 28.

  {366} Ibid., p. 3.

  {367} U.S. Bureau of the Census, Historical Statistics of the United States: Colonial Times to 1957 (Washington: U.S. Government Printing Office, 1960), p. 72.

  {368} ACIL Economics and Policy, Pty. Ltd., What Future for New Zealand’s Minimum Wage Law?, pp. xvi, xvii, 23, 24, 33–35, 45; Walter E. Williams, Youth and Minority Unemployment (Stanford, CA: Hoover Institution Press, 1977).

  {369} Jennifer Buckingham, editor, State of the Nation: An Agenda for Change (St. Leonards, NSW, Australia: The Centre for Independent Studies, 2004), p. 110.

 

‹ Prev