The law of unintended consequences states that actions, especially governmental ones, always have unintended and unpredictable effects. These unanticipated effects can be far more powerful than the planned ones. Thus, economists often use this law as a warning to politicians that policies commonly ‘achieve’ the opposite of their intentions. For example, raising the minimum wage [...] First We Conquer Iceland originally appeared in the Daily Reckoning . The Daily Reckoning, published by Agora Financial provides over 400,000 global readers economic news, market analysis, and contrarian investment ideas.