Tag: Economics
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Leave the New Deal in the history books
Saturday’s Wall Street Journal contains an editorial (Leave the New Deal in the History Books) that contains a summary of the effect of the New Deal.
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Barack Obama and the Price of Change
The Competitive Enterprise Institute, an important organization dedicated to advancing the principles of free enterprise and limited government, has a short (one minute) video that does a little arithmetic and arrives at the price of President-elect Obama’s plans for economic stimulus. Hint: it’s a pretty big number.
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The bailout reader
The events taking place in the financial market offer an illustration of the soundness of the Austrian theory of money, banking, and credit cycles, and Mises.org, which has long warned of precisely the scenario playing itself out today, is your source not only for analysis of these events but also the economic theory that helps…
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Big Government Is Not Stimulus
From the Center for Freedom and Prosperity Foundation. In less than four minutes, Dan Mitchell of the Cato Institute reviews the theory and history of Keynesian policies, and demonstrates that more government spending does not spur economic growth. The video is very timely since government spending has increased dramatically under Bush and now Obama wants…
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I Tested My Politics
I came across a test designed to place you and your political thoughts on a map of political ideologies. The test I took is here. These tests can be fun, but in the case of this particular example, I wondered how some questions had any relevance to politics. In these tests I also find that…
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Markets are the best regulators
Since the start of the current financial crises, we’re told that markets are at fault. The most common diagnosis is that there’s not enough regulation in place, and only a move away from reliance on markets and toward more laws and regulations will save the economy.
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In a time of crisis, don’t forget what they had to say
In his recent Forbes Magazine, Peter Robinson delivers three quotes from some great Americans: Milton Friedman, Ronald Reagan, and William F. Buckley Jr. Two of the quotes made it to the “Featured thoughts” section of this blog. Robinson delivers some good analysis of the current economic situation, too. Click on In a time of crisis,…
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Who is Responsible for Inflation?
Walter Williams explains the difference between counterfeiting and monetary policy. He explains that “inflation results from an increase in the supply of money relative to the demand for money.” He asks who, then, is responsible for inflation? In the United states, who is able to create money? The answer, of course, is the Federal Reserve…
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Applying For Food Stamps: American Duty?
A television news story from yesterday in Wichita went like this: Television news anchor: “Some may think that using food stamps is a drain on the economy, but the truth is that’s really not right. Local organizers say using food assistance can help boost the economy during these tough times. One dollar of food assistance…
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The New Deal in Retrospect
Many people refer to incoming president Barack Obama as the next FDR. The myth of Franklin Roosevelt — primarily that he cured the Great Depression through his extreme interventionism — is starting to be exposed. In this review (The Disaster Called the New Deal) of Burton Folsom’s book New Deal or Raw Deal? How FDR’s…
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Ron Paul says “The Austrians were right”
Our government is “totally influenced by Keynesian economics.”
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New Deal Shouldn’t Be Our Template for Recovery
Can huge government spending programs rescue our economy? Amity Shlaes doesn’t think so: The New Deal is Mr. Obama’s context for the giant infrastructure plan his new team is developing. If he proposes FDR-style recovery programs, then it is useful to establish whether those original programs actually brought recovery. The answer is, they didn’t. New…