“At the simplest level, economics can better show us the consequences of our actions. Less simple are cases in which we don’t have the knowledge to predict the full consequences. Global warming and climate change are examples. Actions that we believe will remedy a perceived problem may in fact lead to an unintended consequence, as in the case of the biofuels fiasco—when people died of starvation because the demand for ethanol drove up the price of corn.”

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