tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post9113640454069573162..comments2024-03-27T03:19:11.216-04:00Comments on Assistant Village Idiot: Mankiw's Ten PrinciplesAssistant Village Idiothttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01978011985085795099noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-67925654822404206082010-07-18T09:07:13.446-04:002010-07-18T09:07:13.446-04:00The obvious question is, if you wanted to make an ...The obvious question is, if you wanted to make an economy fail, how would you go about doing it.<br /><br />It's not enough to ask how do we build a bridge. You also must know how to blow a bridge up. Only then do the two sides of the coin, knowing yourself and knowing your enemy, became solidified and whole.Ymarsakarnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-19305198.post-52433369132231326232010-07-16T08:39:31.166-04:002010-07-16T08:39:31.166-04:00Governments Can Sometimes Improve Market Outcomes....<i>Governments Can Sometimes Improve Market Outcomes.<br />When a market fails to allocate resources efficiently, the government can change the outcome through public policy. Examples are regulations against monopolies and pollution.</i><br /><br />I don't have much standing to critize a Harvard econ prof but this just makes me wince. Government involvement will certainly change market outcomes but IMO it rarely produces an 'improvement' except at very broad basic levels.<br /><br />I think a better statement is that Government is necessary to provide the framework (enforcing property and contract rights, for example) necessary for markets to organize economic activity, as well as providing things that are problematic to aquire through pure market activity (national defense, police protection, and pollution control, among others)Der Hahnhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/05967487071137862252noreply@blogger.com