I find the fact that Bernard Madoff is walking around free and smoking cigars an outrage. The press and media have reported that his two sons gave him away. That’s almost as big a lie as Madoff’s life and career. The whole scam was based on only the family knowing. When the game was up due to redemptions, the crook obviously … [Read More]

Like many pragmatic economists I have always warned that rapid expansions of government debt would result in inflation and higher interest rates. The explanation was always simple: rising supply of government debt inflates the money supply and weakens the government’s ability to service its debt through legitimate means. But in recent months, government has flooded the market with hundreds of new … [Read More]

I used to answer friends who told me something I’d said was tasteless (and they were right) with a quip like, “If you can’t joke about terrorism and cancer, what can you joke about?” I was mostly being an ass, but a tiny point nestled inside what I said. Laughter helps diffuse the visceral tension that comes with impending doom, and … [Read More]

Our representatives in Washington, alongside the easy-credit Federal Reserve and its Wise Leader, “Helicopter Ben,” have essentially subsidized a rash of misguided investments and profligate spending-sprees by consumers who’ve bought into the illusion of endless prosperity. Everyone knows about the Housing Bubble. Well, get ready for the even bigger Standard of Living Bubble, whose bursting is now upon us. Because real … [Read More]

Is it fair that businessmen who fail in neighborhood stores have to close shop and often sell their homes, while Wall Street titans are spared the consequences of monumental stupidity and greed? No, it is not fair. Yet, Treasury’s Hank Paulson may be right. To save the sheep who might have been wiped out in a general financial panic, we may … [Read More]

The Crash of 2008, which is now wiping out trillions of dollars of our people’s wealth, is, like the Crash of 1929, likely to mark the end of one era and the onset of another. The new era will see a more sober and much diminished America. The “Omnipower” and “Indispensable Nation” we heard about in all the hubris and braggadocio … [Read More]

He might not want to say it out loud, but Barack Obama senses, no doubt, that this past weekend’s financial meltdown will do much to boost his slumping electoral prospects. According to Democratic lore, financial woes make the “rich guy” Republicans look bad and send the reeling middle classes into the arms of the party of welfare and wealth redistribution. Wide-scale … [Read More]

One amusing aspect of the New York Times’s coverage of the government takeovers of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae is that throughout the Gray Lady’s 2000-word lead essay, it’s never once mentioned that the two lending institutions have, well, already been federal organizations for the past 70 years (!). The latest “nationalization” is not too different from the government deciding to … [Read More]