Economic Crisis

Panic Glutton

My reaction to world affairs veers between complacency and panic. Either it is the end of the world, or everything will continue as before. I have been through enough world crises to know that not all of them end in catastrophe; it does not follow, however, from the fact that I have so far always recovered from illnesses, that I am immortal. The past couple of weeks have not been free of turmoil, and sometimes it has crossed my mind that I am about to be plunged into abject poverty. On the plus side is the fact that, if I am to suffer abject poverty, the great majority of mankind will do ...

More Entitlement Red Flags as Politicians Tout Inaction

Republicans and Democrats have been tripping over each other to tell voters how committed they are to making zero changes to Social Security and Medicare. Meanwhile, the Social ...

Joe Biden Is the King of Debt and Deficits

Imagine someone close to you has a drinking problem. Night after night, he goes out to the bars on wild binges, chugging down 10 to 12 beers a night. But then, in a supreme effort ...

The New Global Virus Is Runaway Government Spending and Debt

When new British Prime Minister Liz Truss suggested lowering the United Kingdom's highest tax rate from 45% to 40%, along with a 1% reduction in the income tax rate for all ...

Must We Kill the Economy to Kill the Virus?

"We cannot let the cure be worse than the problem itself," tweeted the president on Sunday night, adding that, after the current 15-day shutdown, "we will make a decision as to ...

Secondhand Knowledge

There is no quality more fleeting than modernity and nothing staler than an analysis of a past crisis that was written at the time it was happening. The problem with our present ...

Why the Reagan Democrats Departed

On Nov. 3, 1969, Richard Nixon, his presidency about to be broken by massive antiwar demonstrations, called on “the great silent majority” to stand by him for peace ...

Kicking the Can Over the Cliff

Anyone who has two brain cells to rub together for warmth on a cold winter morning knows that this whole "€œfiscal cliff"€ debate is nothing more than a petty squabble over ...

The Coming Age of Austerity

“Are the good times really over for good?” asked Merle Haggard in his 1982 lament. Then, the good times weren’t over. In fact, they were coming back, with the ...

Stimu-liars and the Stimu-lies They Tell

In the abstract world of economic thought, certain abstract thinkers have come upon the idea that “stimulus” spending will cure what ails you.  This pleasant bromide ...

As the Boomers Head for the Barn

When the April figures on unemployment were released May 4, they were more than disappointing. They were deeply disturbing. While the unemployment rate had fallen from 8.2 ...

Is a U.S. Default Inevitable?

As President Bush prepared to invade Iraq in September 2002, the head of his economic policy council, Lawrence Lindsey publicly estimated such a war could cost $100 billion to ...

Bodrum, Turkey

The Shadow Science of Economics

I spent the Memorial Day weekend as a guest of Professor Hans-Hermann Hoppe’s Property and Freedom Society at their annual conference in Bodrum, Turkey. It was a wonderfully ...

And the Debt Bomb Ticks On

With his approval rating moving up to 50 percent and higher in some polls, the pundits are all agreed. President Obama has turned the corner. He is now the winter-book favorite in ...

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