What Do "We" Think About The Economy

What do “we” think about the economy?
Dr. Steven Myers
Associate Professor of Economics
The University of Akron
Prepared for presentation on October 27, 2009 to the
Annunciation Greek Orthodox Men’s Club, Akron, OH

Classroom survey research project in my Computer Skills in Economic Analysis
course, Oct 2009, 489 respondents.

25. Do you think the current price of gasoline is too high, too low, or about right?
26. Which do you think is more responsible for the recent increase in gasoline prices: the normal law of supply and demand, oil companies are trying to increase profits, both, or neither.
Survey of Americans and Economists, Kaiser Family Foundation, 1996

What do others think about economists?
Give me only one armed economists!
Harry Truman
If you lay all of the economists in the world end to end you won’t reach a conclusion.

How economists think
Incentives matter
Actions occur at the margin
Economists watch what people “do” and not what people “say.”
Tradeoffs always exist
Opportunity costs
Unintended consequences

“That which is seen, and that which is not seen” - 1850
Between a good and a bad economist …
—the one takes account of the visible effect; the other takes account both of the effects which are seen and also of those which it is necessary to foresee.

“the whole of economics can be reduced to a single sentence.”
First 1946, then revised 1978

The sentence:
The art of economics consists in looking not merely at the immediate but at the longer effects of any act or policy; it consists in tracing the consequences of that policy not merely for one group but for all groups.

But …
“… bad economists present their errors to the public better than the good economists present their truths.”

Broken Window Fallacy

Broken Window Fallacy
Can not create jobs or wealth
by destruction
Or force
Or Coercion (by Government)
If we could,
let’s break them all.

Health Insurance Reform
In the first 10 years:
It will be deficit neutral
Christine Romer, Chair CEA
It will have a 10 year surplus of -$81 Billion.
CBO

Health Insurance Reform
In the first 10 years:
It will be deficit neutral
Christine Romer, Chair CEA
It will have a 10 year surplus of -$81 Billion.
CBO
Levin Foundation
First 10 years
Deficit 89 Billion
Second 1o years
Deficit of $1,007 Billion
The Peterson Foundation Report.pdf

Individual v. CollectiveFreedom v. CoercionPrivate Markets v. Government Provision
Is the economy “broken?”

Has Capitalism Failed?
Classroom survey research project in my Computer Skills in Economic Analysis
course, Oct 2009, 489 respondents.

The Forgotten Man
“A”
Progressives
“X”
The Unfortunate
“B”
Politicians
“C”
Everyone Else

We paid off WWII$1.4 Trillion isn’t so big.
http://politicalmath.wordpress.com/2009/08/25/willful-omissions-from-paul-krugman/

http://www.lewin.com/content/publications/The%20Peterson%20Foundation%20Report.pdf

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703746604574461610985243066.html

http://perotcharts.com/2009/08/comparison-of-share-of-income-to-income-taxes-paid-in-2007/

http://perotcharts.com/2009/07/income-taxes-paid-by-individuals-in-2007/

http://michaelscomments.files.wordpress.com/2009/09/augustunempdata.jpg

Dr. Steven Myers
myers@uakron.edu
http://gozips.uakron.edu/~myers

What Do "We" Think About The Economy

by Steven Myers on Oct 27, 2009

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