Fifty Economic Fallacies Exposed (Revised)
2nd Edition
Published on 15. September 2014
218 pages
978-0-255-36664-9 (ISBN)
Description
Whilst it is impossible to argue that the earth is flat without fearing ridicule, fallacies in economics are widespread. Such fallacies pervade the intellectual sphere and even influence policy. Professor Geoffrey Wood of the University of Buckingham exposes such popular economic fallacies in this revised edition of Fifty Economic Fallacies Exposed. Professor Wood looks at, for example, the supposed dangers of free trade, the abilities of governments to control the economy, the effects of government regulation and whether millions of jobs depend on our continued membership of the European Union. These lucid and stimulating articles are invaluable to students struggling to master some of the complexities of economic theory and its applications, who often find that the most effective way to learn economic analysis is to see such fallacies exposed. It is a text particularly suitable for first-year economic students, complementing existing textbooks as it does, and clarifying basic concepts in economics while demonstrating the practical uses of economic theory.
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Geoffrey E. Wood
Fifty Economic Fallacies Exposed
Book
09/2014
2nd Edition
Institute of Economic Affairs
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Person
Geoffrey Wood is Emeritus Professor of Economics at City University Business School, London, and Emeritus Professor of Monetary Economics at the University of Buckingham. He has also taught at the University of Warwick, and been on the research staff of the Bank of England and the Federal Reserve Bank of St Louis. He has published extensively in the areas of monetary economics and international economics. Among these publications are Too Much Money?, with Gordon Pepper (IEA, 1975); Independence for the Bank of England?, with Forrest Capie and Terry Mills (IEA, 1993); The Right Road to Monetary Union Revisited, with John Chown and Max Beber (IEA, 1994); and Money Over Two Centuries: Selected Topics in British Monetary History (Oxford University Press, 2012), comprising work with Forrest Capie and others, written over a period of some twenty years. His recent research has been on central bank independence and on regulation. He is a member of the Academic Advisory Council of the Institute of Economic Affairs and a trustee of the Wincott Foundation.
Content
- Intro
- The author
- Foreword
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- Regulation and markets
- Ticket touts are harmful and wicked. They should be stamped out by law
- The conduct of an industry - in particular, how it serves consumers - is improved by government regulation
- The state should step in to protect the environment
- Firms should not make profits
- International trade and finance
- One country should not cut its tariffs unless others do
- Free trade should be fair
- Free trade causes unemployment
- A current account deficit is a problem
- The country should be more competitive
- Interest rates and exchange rates
- Britain's economy should be better balanced
- Britain would lose 3 million jobs by leaving the EU
- Germany is harming the rest of the euro zone by exporting so much
- Inflation
- Raising interest rates causes inflation
- Credit controls are better than interest rates
- Credit controls - do they work?
- Devaluation causes inflation
- Price rises above inflation are?bad
- Relative price changes can be?ignored
- Government-imposed price rises have worsened inflation
- Controlling prices controls inflation
- Inflation, real values and 'government money'
- Confusion about inflation
- Fiscal policy: taxation
- Governments can precisely manage the economy by fiscal?policy
- Employers contribute towards workers' benefits
- Taxes should go up to slow inflation
- The government should place extra taxes on companies that make 'excess profits'
- The Chancellor can predict the effect of tax allowances on behaviour
- Fiscal policy: government spending
- Britain is not investing enough
- Government borrowing should be guided by the 'Golden Rule'
- Welfare benefits should not be cut when the public finances are in surplus
- The 'Iron Chancellor' and government spending
- Monetary policy: theory
- High interest rates are bad for the economy, and the government should reduce them forthwith
- International capital mobility has increased, so governments have little control over economic activity
- Rising bond yields will slow the?economy
- A boost to demand from monetary policy will help growth
- It is sensible to judge past decisions in the light of current information
- Monetary policy: practice
- The Bank of England should rescue a failed or failing bank
- Monetary and exchange-rate policy can be conducted independently of each other
- Scotland should be represented on the MPC
- Governments can control who uses their country's money
- Cost, price and value
- Oil companies have been robbing the public by raising prices when they have inventories bought at previous, lower, prices
- Cutting out the middleman brings down prices
- Farmers should be paid their costs of production
- Labour markets
- They're not well paid. They should get a living wage
- Women should get longer paid maternity leave
- Social dumping is a problem
- With population growth continuing, it will be harder and harder to find jobs for everyone
- Imposing labour standards helps the poor and protects domestic workers
- Workers should hold shares in the company they work for
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