ARNOLD KLING
August 14, 2011
The Top Political Contributors
August 11, 2011
Gender and the New Commanding Heights
August 11, 2011
Jamie Galbraith Makes an Assumption
August 11, 2011
Macroeconometrics: The Science of Hubris
August 10, 2011
Real and Nominal Bond Yields
BRYAN CAPLAN
August 14, 2011
The Effect of Thumb Sucking on Income
August 12, 2011
The Voice of Cold, Hard Truth to All Would-Be Educators
August 12, 2011
Ability, Morality, and Prosperity: A Paper and a Report
August 11, 2011
The Theory of Time and Frittering
August 10, 2011
Male Variance and the Remnants of the Gender Gap
DAVID HENDERSON
August 9, 2011
Hayek in "Unbroken", Part Two
August 8, 2011
Hayek in "Unbroken"
August 5, 2011
James Bovard on the Peace Corps
August 4, 2011
Summers Way Off on FDR and 1941
August 3, 2011
The "Amazon" Tax


There seems to be a lot of focus on China's fixed exchange rate with the US dollar, and the fact that there are strict currency controls. The feeling now seems to be that the yuan should float, and Chinese nationals and foreigners should be allowed to move money in and out of the country freely.
But aren't both of those policies exactly the ones that led to the Asian meltdown on 1997? Wasn't the answer to the Asian meltdown to fix currencies and impose currency controls?
Why is this a "disease?"
What principle specifies that an economy must have a certain percentage of manufacturing jobs to be healthy?
“What principle specifies that an economy must have a certain percentage of manufacturing jobs to be healthy?”
That’s absolutely correct! The number of jobs is mostly a meaningless statistic. Have we already forgotten that in the early 20th century about fifty percent of the American work force earned its living in farm related industries? Today that figure is around three percent---and dropping! The price of food is so ridiculously low that many of us are becoming fat slobs.
Isn’t agricultural production at an all time high as well? I suspect that what’s happening to manufacturing is a repeat of what happened to agriculture. We need fewer people because we’re getting more productive. Total manufacturing output continues to increase. Some lament the job dislocations, but those people need to go find something more valuable to do.
Check out the front page of the WSJ today. Not all manufacturers are anti-China.