Investors should expect continued weakness in the dollar over the coming months and year, by 8-12% against most major currencies. Dollar weakness this year already has exerted a bearish influence on U.S. stocks and will continue to do so with a lag. If, as we expect,...
Richard M Salsman
Dr. Salsman is president of InterMarket Forecasting, Inc., an assistant professor of political economy at Duke University and a senior fellow at the American Institute for Economic Research. Previously he was an economist at Wainwright Economics, Inc. and a banker at the Bank of New York and Citibank. Dr. Salsman has authored three books: Breaking the Banks: Central Banking Problems and Free Banking Solutions (AIER, 1990), Gold and Liberty (AIER, 1995), and The Political Economy of Public Debt: Three Centuries of Theory and Evidence (Edward Elgar Publishing, 2017). In 2021 his fourth book – Where Have all the Capitalist Gone? – will be published by the American Institute for Economic Research. He is also author of a dozen chapters and scores of articles. His work has appeared in the Georgetown Journal of Law and Public Policy, Reason Papers, the Wall Street Journal, the New York Times, Forbes, the Economist, the Financial Post, the Intellectual Activist, and The Objective Standard. Dr. Salsman earned his B.A. in economics from Bowdoin College (1981), his M.A. in economics from New York University (1988), and his Ph.D. in political economy from Duke University (2012). His personal website is richardsalsman.com.
A Spring-loaded Bull Market
U.S. corporate profits rose 56% in the first half of 2002, yet stock prices have plunged. The problem is not corporate governance, it's political governance Contrary to popular opinion, most of America's CEOs are doing a fabulous job. On the heels of a 50% profit...
The Trend Toward Totalitarian Government
A truly civilized, wealth-respecting world would observe capital flight and brain drains, recoil in horror and stop penalizing success. It would cut tax rates and regulation and cease calling wealth-makers as criminals who deserve a noose -- or deportation. But this...
The War on Capital — Not Terrorism
Just as they’ve blurred the distinction between legal tax avoidance and illegal tax evasion, OECD officials have tried to blur the distinction between money-laundering and tax havens — even though the latter involves moving illegally-gained money above-ground, from the “underground economy” while tax avoidance involves legally moving legally-made money to jurisdictions with the lowest tax rates.
America’s Real Robber Barons: The Congress of the United States
As we write, both Democrats and Republicans are introducing legislation to seek a moratorium on re-incorporations to tax havens -- and some of the bills include a retroactive repeal of the right of companies that have already accessed havens. But Congressional action...
Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neil Confuses Tax Avoidance versus Tax Evasion
To his credit, in May 2001 Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill wrote an op-ed26 (and a private letter to the OECD) questioning some of its more punitive aims: I am troubled by the underlying premise that low tax rates are somehow suspect and by the notion that any...
Tax Competition: Enemy of the Welfare State
In addition to offering sanctuary to the world's tax-burdened, tax havens provide an indirect benefit to the tax-payers who remain pinned under welfare state tax burdens: they cause tax rates and tax burdens in those welfare states to be lower than they might be...
The Case in Favor of Tax Havens
Ironically, tax haven nations and territories achieve precisely the goals first set out by the OECD in the early 1960s. Here's how the OECD described (as it still, hypocritically, describes) its initial goals: To achieve the highest sustainable economic growth and...
Ireland’s Sin of Success: The EU’s Assault on Ireland’s Low Tax Policies
Exposing the real nature of its assault, the OECD has also condemned lower tax rates and tax shelters that exist within industrialized countries -- such as Australia, Belgium, Canada, Finland, France, Greece, Italy, Ireland, Portugal, Luxembourg, Sweden, Hungary,...
The Alleged Harm Done By Tax Havens
Tax burdens imposed by the world's welfare states -- especially those imposed on the wealthiest, most successful entrepreneurs and shareholders -- have increased with every passing year. No wonder "Atlas is Shrugging." By accessing tax havens (or any other manner of...
Rational Pessimism: The Choice Between ‘Irrational Exuberance’ and ‘Irrational Pessimism’ is a False Dichotomy
When North American stock markets raced upward from 1995 to 1999, their rise was ridiculed -- by people like Yale's Robert Shiller and the U.S. Federal Reserve's Alan Greenspan -- as a mere "irrational exuberance." No facts, they said, explained the gains. The rise,...
Nobel Prize for Economics Rewards Voodoo and Not Science, Part 2
In The New York Times of October 11th , right next to the article on the latest Nobel Prize winners in economics, is another titled Expansive Role for Greenspan Brings Out Critics of Fed's Chief. The article recounts how Alan Greenspan has been called upon (and has...
Nobel Prize for Economics Rewards Voodoo and Not Science, Part 1
The economic and foreign policies of governments -- for good or ill -- exert a dramatic influence on investors' portfolios. If that isn't obvious by now, given the policies of the past two years, it will never be so. In economic policy we've seen Fed rate hikes...
Let’s Retire Social Security on its 65th Birthday: A Moral Way to Abolish This Destructive Scheme
This month marks the 65th "birthday" of the Social Security Act. Most people retire at 65, after accumulating wealth through decades of hard work and saving.It's high time that America "retires" Social Security itself -- cease its operation. Its administrators deserve...
The “Crony” in Russian “Capitalism” is Socialism
Doesn’t unrestrained capitalism lead to kleptocracy, cronyism, and anarchy?
Mythical Roots of Antitrust: Definition Unnecessary
The antitrust laws and their enforcement are every bit as arbitrary as the "perfect competition" doctrine. Consider only those provisions relating to price setting. If a business sets a price above the prices of its rivals, it can be charged with "intent to...
Mythical Roots of Antitrust: ‘Perfect Competition’
Antitrust law relies heavily on flawed economic theory--particularly its theory of competition. It's a view held explicitly or implicitly by most economists, politicians, and journalists. It's been taught for decades in the universities. Unfortunately, it's also a...
Mythical Roots of Antitrust: Economic Power vs Political Power
From the time great business leaders were first maligned as "Robber Barons," socialists have tried to obscure the difference between economic power and political power. They've insisted, against all evidence, that productive giants such as Andrew Carnegie, John D....
Mythical Roots of Antitrust: Preface
Most of you will recall the scandal during the winter Olympics a few years back, when disgruntled skating competitor Tanya Harding hired a thug to take a pipe to the shins of Nancy Kerrigan. Harding was envious of Kerrigan's superior ability and tried to cripple her...
Assault Microsoft, Assault the NASDAQ
Earlier this month US District Court Judge Thomas Penfield Jackson issued his "conclusions of law" in the Microsoft antitrust case. BAM! Nearly $90 billion in value was destroyed--at Microsoft alone. The firm's stock plunged 14%. The broader NASDAQ index fell...
Microsoft’s Real Sin: Sanction of the Victim
Like other antitrust targets, Microsoft, is guilty--of something. They're guilty of something terrible. They're guilty of believing they're guilty. They're guilty of believing they're evil. They're guilty of apologizing for they're success, for their sales, their...
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