Weekly Links (New Years Eve Edition) 12/31/2024
Wishing everyone a Healthy and Happy New Year --
1) The presidency of Jimmy Carter is generally viewed quite negatively in popular history and the media -- an article Monday on the Vox blog called it a "disappointing" presidency -- with emphasis on high inflation, the second oil shock, and the Iran hostage crisis. On the positive side, however, the Carter administration acted to deregulate key industries, like telecommunications, freight transportation, air travel, and energy. By removing barriers to the entry of new, innovative firms, these initiatives facilitated the emergence of the dynamic, entrepreneurial economy that we benefit from today. While the Reagan administration continued and deepened the opening of the economy to competition, it was Carter, aided by allies in Congress like Ted Kennedy, who got the ball rolling.
Gene Healey presents a full evaluation of Carter, with all his strengths and weaknesses, calling him, and intending a positive spin, the "passionless president." Says Healey, "A clear-eyed look at the Carter record reveals something surprising: This bumbling, brittle, unloveable man was, by the standards that ought to matter, our best modern president." If that surprises you, read on.
https://reason.com/2024/12/29/rip-jimmy-carter-the-passionless-president/
2) A fissure has opened up within the Trump camp between the technology "dynamists," who recognize how reliant the hi-tech industries are on a supply of highly-skilled immigrant labor, and the "nativists" of MAGA world, who oppose immigration of all kinds
https://reason.com/2024/12/27/can-nativists-and-dynamists-coexist-within-trumps-maga-coalition/
Here's Paul Krugman's view of the conflict and what's at stake.
Ruxandra Teslo, a Genomics PhD student at Cambridge UNiversity, who describes herself as "someone who wants to move to America," examines the importance of the H1-B visa program for the success of the San Francisco/Silicon Valley technology hub.
Scott Sumner comments on a new paper explaining why "now" is, in fact, the golden age of US immigration.
https://www.econlib.org/the-golden-age-of-immigration-is-now/
3) Don Boudreaux explains that defenders of tariffs and other protectionist devices are committing the "fallacy of composition," one of the most common logical errors.
https://thedailyeconomy.org/article/protectionism-and-the-fallacy-of-composition/
One of the activities of U.S. consumers most likely to be harmed by Trump's proposed tariffs is the composition and performance of music, heavily dependent on the import of instruments, especially from China.
4) Military and foreign affairs scholar Phillips Payson O'Brien recounts the week's most important stories, including Russia's attacks on Europe, N. Korean casualties in Russia/Ukraine, the downing of the Azerbaijani plane, and the effects of the collapse of the Assad regime on the Ukraine war.
5) Rajiv Sethi comments on a survey of university faculty conducted for The Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE) concerning freedom of expression on U.S. campuses. Rajiv is particularly concerned that even efforts by some university administrations to protect freedom, like the Chicago principles, will fail if the problem of self-censorship is not confronted.
