Freedomshift

Who is better informed about the policy choices facing the country—liberals, conservatives or libertarians? According to a Zogby International survey that I write about in the May issue of Econ Journal Watch, the answer is unequivocal: The left flunks Econ 101. Zogby researcher Zeljka Buturovic and I considered the 4,835 respondents' (all American adults) answers to eight survey questions about basic economics. We also asked the respondents about their political leanings: progressive/very liberal; liberal; moderate; conservative; very conservative; and libertarian. Rather than focusing on whether respondents answered a question correctly, we instead looked at whether they answered incorrectly. A response was counted as incorrect only if it was flatly unenlightened. Consider one of the economic propositions in the December 2008 poll: "Restrictions on housing development make housing less affordable." People were asked if they: 1) strongly agree; 2) somewhat agree; 3)...

U.S. economic woes can’t be solved by a revaluation of the yuan and American leaders will “help no one” by politicizing the issue, Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Qin Gang said. The comments come as U.S. lawmakers urge President Barack Obama to keep pressuring China even after the June 19 announcement that it was lifting a two-year policy of pegging its currency to the U.S. dollar. U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke reiterated this week the yuan is undervalued. “The appreciation of the yuan cannot bring balanced trade,” Qin told reporters in Beijing. Yuan appreciation “cannot help to solve U.S. problems of unemployment, overconsumption and low savings rate.” Democrats and Republicans in Congress said yesterday they will press legislation to let companies seek tariffs on imports to compensate for advantages a weak currency gives Chinese producers. Lawmakers including Senator Charles Schumer said during the Senate Finance Committee hearing yesterday the government has not done e...