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Recession Episode III: The Revenge of Keynes
I have to run to a power lunch* but when I return, I promise to explain why these financial press discussions of recession are absurd. Reading these conventional analyses, you would think that if the dollar just kept falling, and consumers ran up their credit cards to buy DVDs and steak dinners, then we would [...]
Read moreSix More Join the Gang
Oh great, the Gang of Ten is now the Gang of Sixteen. These terms are thrown around as if they’re funny, when the serious truth is that the entire Congress is a Gang of 535. (Fine fine, Ron Paul fanatics, the Gang of 534.) If you want to see a point-by-point critique of the original [...]
Read more"Presumptive": One Down, One to Go
At this point, the press can stop referring to Obama as the “presumptive nominee,” right? It would be interesting to do a graph of how often the word “presumptive” was used in news stories during 2008. I’m guessing there was a bit of a spike in the last few months…
Read moreIs Tax-and-Spend Worse than Borrow-and-Spend?
Larry Kudlow interviewed Rudy Giuliani (transcript here), and they naturally started bashing Obama. Here’s Kudlow’s question: Kudlow: [O]ne of the big topics of this program tonight for investors is, are we going to return to a real tax-and-spend approach to economic policy, which was used in the 1970s? As you well know, it caused — [...]
Read moreWill Dollar Fall Another 40 Percent?
“Jurg Kiener, CEO of Swiss Asia Capital, expects the dollar to lose another 30% – 40% on the dollar index over the next 3 – 4 years.” See the full story. I’m not sure about the specific magnitude of his prediction, but I definitely agree that the dollar still has to slide significantly, in order [...]
Read moreAre You Rich If You Make $250,000?
Barack Obama has suggested that people making $250,000 are rich, and so can afford to pay higher taxes. Now there are all sorts of quibbles we could raise. For example, if you are a young, single professional, then $250,000 per year allows you to live it up. On the other hand, if you are in [...]
Read moreWe Need Privacy From the Government
At LRC today I have an article explaining why the free market provides the efficient amount of privacy, while government is the true threat. An excerpt: Even in a completely free society where everyone respected private property rights, it would still be the case that your doctor would know what medications you were taking, your [...]
Read moreTyler Cowen Accidentally Confirms Austrian Business Cycle Theory
This is almost too delicious to be true. Back in January 2005, Tyler Cowen (an econ prof at George Mason who runs the very popular blog MarginalRevolution) had a post titled, “If I believed in Austrian business cycle theory.” It’s hilarious because Cowen did (and does) not believe in ABCT, yet his “predictions” were uncanny–I [...]
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