In short, what the living wage is really about is not living standards, or even economics, but morality. Its advocates are basically opposed to the idea that wages are a market price-determined by supply and demand, the same as the price of apples or coal. And it is for that reason, rather than the practical details, that the broader political movement of which the demand for a living wage is the leading edge is ultimately doomed to failure: For the amorality of the market economy is part of its essence, and cannot be legislated away.

Bad ideas flourish because they are in the interest of powerful groups.

Where's that toxic rhetoric coming from? Let's not make a false pretense of balance: it's coming, overwhelmingly, from the right. It's hard to imagine a Democratic member of Congress urging constituents to be "armed and dangerous" without being ostracized; but Representative Michele Bachmann, who did just that, is a rising star in the G.O.P.

Democracy or breakdown in Syria would change the whole Middle East overnight.

Friedrich Hayek is not an important figure in the history of macroeconomics.

You really have to go searching desperately to find any contemporary examples of good, old-fashioned runaway inflation.

The problem with digital books is that you can always find what you are looking for but you need to go to a bookstore to find what you weren't looking for.