MARKETS

Tariff Advocates Rarely Talk About How Tariffs Punish Consumers

Politicians who support tariffs and other forms of government intervention in the economy frequently emphasize reshoring, trade deficits, cheap imports, and national security, but they rarely talk about consumers.

Euro and the Dollar: Whose Fuse is Shorter?

With fiscal time bombs ticking in both Europe and the United States, the pertinent question for now seems to be which will explode first. For much of the past few months it looked as if Europe was set to blow. But Angela Merkel's refusal to support a Federal Reserve...

The Redistribution of Health

The Redistribution of Health

In her famous novel Atlas Shrugged, Ayn Rand identified the absurdity of placing one’s life in the hands of doctors whose lives had been throttled by socialized medicine. Socialized medicine, because of the government monopoly it imposes on both doctors and...

Mortgage Crisis Goes Primetime

A near-death experience often provides needed perspective to effectuate real change. But no matter how often the over-regulated and over-subsidized US banking sector flirts with disaster, it never seems to change its ways. Three years have gone by since subprime...

President Obama Promotes Plan to Raise College Tuitions

President Obama today announced a plan that will ensure students are able to commit to higher levels of federally backed student loans. By limiting student obligations to repay, and by passing more of the repayment burden onto taxpayers, colleges and universities will...

President Obama Promotes Plan to Raise College Tuitions

President Obama today announced a plan that will ensure students are able to commit to higher levels of federally backed student loans. By limiting student obligations to repay, and by passing more of the repayment burden onto taxpayers, colleges and universities will...

Greek Bondholders at a Loss

In an agreement announced overnight, the European Union offered $100 billion to stem an imminent Greek debt default in exchange for a 50% haircut to Greek bondholders. This is a bittersweet victory for those of us who believe in the power of the free market. When the...

Cain's 9-9-9 Plan: Raising Taxes on The "Lower Class"?

Cain's 9-9-9 Plan: Raising Taxes on The "Lower Class"?

Some people criticize Herman Cain's 9-9-9 plan for the wrong reasons. Advocates of wealth redistribution complain that it raises taxes on the lower and middle working classes. This is true. Many of them will actually have to start paying some taxes rather than none at...

Greeks May Look North To Iceland’s Debt Default

As a final bailout framework for Greece continues to elude negotiators from France and Germany, the situation on the ground in Athens continues to deteriorate alarmingly. Protests have turned increasingly violent and riots have occurred in the most sensitive portions...

Greeks May Look North To Iceland’s Debt Default

As a final bailout framework for Greece continues to elude negotiators from France and Germany, the situation on the ground in Athens continues to deteriorate alarmingly. Protests have turned increasingly violent and riots have occurred in the most sensitive portions...

Herman Cain's 9-9-9-9 Plan

Herman Cain's 9-9-9-9 Plan

Herman Cain has been gaining much traction with his 9-9-9 Plan, a bold proposal to replace our dysfunctional tax code with what could be a simpler, less invasive, and more economically stimulative alternative. While I don't agree with the full spectrum of Mr. Cain's...

Economic Ideas and Their Consequences

Economic Ideas and Their Consequences

The public standing of economics and economists has been declining for some time. In the 1960s and 1970s, economists were seen, and they saw themselves, as the saviors of the economy. They talked of “fine-tuning” the economy, of changing government...

The End of Civilization As We Know It

The End of Civilization As We Know It

What we are seeing in Europe is that that model is inherently unsustainable. The concept of individual rights is the only standard for government action that puts an objective limit on what the government can do. The post-war leaders of Europe were completely ignorant...

Fiddling While The Euro Burns

Last week, eurozone finance ministers postponed, yet again, the most difficult decisions on the Greek debt crisis. The assembled powers could have forced an orderly Greek default or they could have taken steps to push Greece out of the union. Instead, they simply...

Fiddling While The Euro Burns

Last week, eurozone finance ministers postponed, yet again, the most difficult decisions on the Greek debt crisis. The assembled powers could have forced an orderly Greek default or they could have taken steps to push Greece out of the union. Instead, they simply...

How the Government Can Create Jobs

On Tuesday, September 13, Peter Schiff, the CEO of Euro Pacific Capital, www.europac.net  testified before the House of Representatives Subcommittee on Regulatory Affairs, Stimulus Oversight and Government Spending. The hearing entitled, "Take Two: The...

The Central Role of Saving and Capital Goods

The Central Role of Saving and Capital Goods

As the popular philosophy of the common man sees it, human wealth and welfare are the products of the cooperation of two primordial factors: nature and human labor. All the things that enable man to live and to enjoy life are supplied either by nature or by work or by...

Obama’s Job Destruction Plan

Although it was labeled and hyped as a "jobs plan," the new $447 billion initiative announced last night by President Obama is merely another government stimulus program in disguise. But semantics are of supreme importance in American politics...some could argue that...

President Obama: Job Killer in Chief

This morning many on Wall Street were stunned by the big fat zero put up by the August jobs report, the worst showing in 11 months. The data convinced many previously optimistic economists that the United States will slip back into recession. I believe that we have...

Payroll Tax and Unemployment

Payroll Tax and Unemployment

Remember when President Obama and his team promised that if only we passed an emergency “stimulus” bill allowing them to wantonly spend $787 billion, unemployment would be capped at 8%? Two years later, having soared as high as 9.8%, July’s unemployment rate stands at...

Krugman’s War Cry Won’t Avert Depression

Paul Krugman sounded the war cry this Sunday on Fareed Zakaria's program Global Public Square. After all, he asserted, only spending equivalent to another World War could lead us back to prosperity. That, and a healthy dose of inflation. Krugman argued that inflation...

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