Is There a Government Boost for Electric Cars?

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Economists use the concept of externalities to argue for government intervention in an infant industry. In 17 72, scotland had experienced its worst banking crisis in two generations. If i didn't have a catalytic converter on my car, what would come out of the tail pipe would make a lot of other people worse off - not just me. That's what we call an externality and it's a prima facia case for government intervention.

In episode 162 of The Michael Shermer Show, Michael speaks with one of the nation’s preeminent experts on economic policy, Benjamin Friedman, about his new book Religion and the Rise of Capitalism — a major reassessment of the foundations of modern economic thinking that explores the profound influence of an until-now unrecognized force — religion.

Critics of contemporary economics complain that belief in free markets — among economists as well as many ordinary citizens — is a form of religion. And, it turns out, that in a deeper, more historically grounded sense there is something to that idea. Contrary to the conventional historical view of economics as an entirely secular product of the Enlightenment, Benjamin Friedman demonstrates that religion exerted a powerful influence from the outset.