Earlier today I was looking through some old records, and I came across a flyer for a symposium in which I participated at Seattle University early in 1990. The flyer announced the symposium topic by asking: “A $3 Trillion National Debt: Does It Matter? What Can We Do About It?” The topic seemed timely enough, given that the gross federal debt has just passed the $3 trillion mark for the first time and was rising at a brisk pace. Back then, $3 trillion seemed like “real money,” so some people we... (more)
Convicted on all counts, said the jury in the case of Ross Ulbricht, the man who built the original Silk Road website. He faces a minimum of 30 years in prison and a maximum of life.
Never mind that the online drug-distribution market is bigger than ever, and that there are dozens of newer and more polished versions of the Silk Road. It is inconceivable that they will ever go away in this digital age. And the administrators have learned from this trial. They will be more careful ... (more)
Economics columnist Eduardo Porter gave fans of economic freedom a pleasant surprise when he recently praised Uber in the New York Times. He even wondered whether other occupations besides taxis suffered from artificial state restrictions. As welcome as this analysis was, Porter still conceded the basic premise of occupational licensing and made a smart-aleck remark about the bad ... (more)
For the last five years, attempts to reform America’s health care system have focused primarily on the demand side of the market, and specifically on the market for insurance. Yet, these reforms have not achieved significant improvements in health care outcomes, nor reductions in cost. As health care specialist John C. Goodman has pointed out in Forbes, the slowed growth of health care spending in the United States is a trend that correlates most closely with supply side reforms suc... (more)
Beachgoers in San Diego expressed support for extending Obamacare to cover pets, signing a petition that would make people who earn over $80,000 dollars a year pay for the cost of other people’s veterinarian bills.
The stunt was the latest effort from Mark Dice and again underscores how many Americans will blithely go along with virtually anyth... (more)
Ordinary people, and sometimes experts as well, tend to overreact to short-term economic changes. The current economic malaise in the United States and Europe has brought forth a bevy of commentators convinced that this time the economy has taken a permanent turn for the worse. Never again, they declare, will we enjoy growing prosperity as we did in days of yore. Some of these Chicken Littles do see a possible means of escape from the impending doom, but only if the government carries out an ext... (more)
“Paranoia” is one of the primary factors motivating the wealthy to purchase secret getaways in New Zealand, according to one realtor, with concerns about personal safety and global crises driving the search to acquire a safe haven in a remote location.
During the Davos Economic Forum, economist Robert Johnson made headlines when he revealed that “hedge fund managers all over the world….are buying airstrips and farms in places like New Zealand because they think they need a get... (more)
We are the generation that gets to witness the end of the American Dream. The numbers that you are about to see tell a story. They tell a story of a once mighty economy that is dying. For decades, the rest of the planet has regarded the United States as “the land of opportunity” where almost anyone can be successful if they are willing to work hard. And when I was growing up, it seemed like almost everyone was living the American Dream. I lived on a “middle class” street and I went to a sch... (more)
Social democrats want to nationalize childhood by having government fund and manage universal day care. Social conservatives want the family to be the day care, which is a lovely idea when it’s affordable. Libertarians don’t seem much interested in the subject at all. That leaves virtually no one to tell the truth about the only solution to the shortage and high price of day care: complete deregulation.
It will cost the federal government – taxpayers, that is – $50,000 for every person who gets health insurance under the Obamacare law, the Congressional Budget Office revealed on Monday.
The number comes from figures buried in a 15-page section of the nonpartisan organization's new ten-year budget outlook.
The best-case scenario described by the CBO would result in 'between 24 million and 27 million' fewer Americans being uninsured in 2025, compared to the year bef... (more)
Radical leftists have been catapulted to power in Greece, and that means that the European financial crisis has just entered a dangerous new phase. Syriza, which is actually an acronym for “Coalition of the Radical Left” in Greek, has 36 percent of the total vote with approximately 80 percent of the polling stations reporting. The current governing party, New Democracy, only has 28 percent of the vote. Syriza leader Alexis Tsipras is promising to roll back a whole host of austerity measures t... (more)
Popular opinion seems to be that falling prices–or even stable prices–are bad for the economy, but I’ve never seen any good arguments about why. I’ve just read another article about this, that gives six clearly numbered reasons, so let’s look at what the article says to see if they hold up.
First, the article says, “When shoppers see persistent price declines, they hold ou... (more)
Boris Johnson has finally agreed to pay a huge tax bill to the US government ahead of his visit to America, despite previously insisting he would not bow to the “absolutely outrageous" demand.
The London mayor, who was born in New York and holds a US as well as a British passport, has said he will pay the unsettled capital gains tax bill, thought to be in the region of £100,000.
His decision will ensure that his visit to Boston, New York and Washington next month -... (more)
By ending its three year currency peg to the weakening euro Switzerland has become the first major economy to surrender in the international currency war, and in so doing has given a long-delayed victory to the Swiss people. Contrary to the indignant reaction by the media and financial establishment, the decision is not a disaster for Switzerland. A continuance of an open-ended peg to the euro could have ultimately ruined the country. Its surprise move, perhaps prompted by the European Central B... (more)
Central banks lie. That is what they do. Not too long ago, the Swiss National Bank promised that it would defend the euro/Swiss franc currency peg with the “utmost determination”. But on Thursday, the central bank shocked the financial world by abruptly abandoning it. More than three years ago, the Swiss National Bank announced that it would not allow the Swiss franc to fall below 1.20 to the euro, and it has spent a mountain of money defending that peg. But now that it looks like the EU is... (more)
