公告板

科斯：我被反垄断法烦透了

科斯（Ronald H. Coase）：“我被反垄断法烦透了。假如价格涨了，法官就说是‘垄断定价’；价格跌了，就说是‘掠夺定价’；价格不变，就说是‘勾结定价’”。(Ronald Coase said he had gotten tired of anti-trust because when the prices went up the judges said it was monopoly, when the prices went down they said it was predatory pricing, and when they stayed the same they said it was tacit collusion.  — Source: William Landes, “The Fire of Truth: A Remembrance of Law and Econ at Chicago”, JLE (1981)) 详见这里和这里。

布坎南：我们尚未堕落成随营的娼妓

布坎南（James M. Buchanan）：需求量和价格之间的反向关系，是经济科学的核心命题，它体现了这样的预设，即人类的选择行为足够理性，以致是可以预测的。没有一个物理学家会说“水往上流”，也没有一个自重的经济学家会说“提高最低工资可以增加就业”。这种说法，要是认真地生发下去，将无异于全盘否定了经济学，使其科学含义荡然无存；要是这样，经济学家除了撰写迎合意识形态偏好的文章，就别无可为了。值得庆幸的是，只有一小撮经济学家愿意背弃两个世纪的经济学教诲；我们尚未堕落成一群随营的娼妓（详见这里）。

Becker: Financial Regulations

Gary Becker: The claim that the crisis was due to an insufficient level of regulation is not convincing. For example, commercial banks have been more regulated than most other financial institutions, yet commercial banks performed no better than other classes of financial institutions. At the other extreme, hedge funds have been the least regulated, and on the whole they did better than most others in the financial sector. One major problem with regulations is the regulators themselves. See here.

Why Bailouts and Stimulus Don’t Work

Benjamin Powell at Washington Times: America’s move to act swiftly and boldly misses the point. Bank bailouts and fiscal stimulus bills don’t work because they strive to maintain the status quo. But the status quo is the problem and exactly what needs to be corrected. The U.S. housing bubble drew too many workers and too much capital into construction and related industries. So funding public works projects to keep those companies in business is the wrong solution. See here. (HT: EconLog)

周其仁：货币似蜜，最后还是水

周其仁：“货币似水说”的重心在总量，在价格总水平；“货币似蜜说”更关注过程中相对价格改变的影响。不过，也不宜把两说的分歧看得太大。毕竟，弗老领军的货币主义与哈耶克坚守的奥地利学派，有一个共同的出发点，那就是对“法定不可兑现货币”制度，抱有一种理性的怀疑。结合中国经济2004年以来惊心动魄的起伏，先是“结构性过热”从钢铁、水泥、电解铝漫游到众多投资部门，然后是房地产、股市的历史性的上冲与下跌，再到物价总水平的陡起陡落，我们或许可以把把两说合并：货币进入市场，受黏性支配改变相对价格，然后推高物价总水平。是的，货币似蜜，最后还是带黏性之水 （见这里）。