Topic: Capitalism

Extend the Market, As Far as Possible

– July 11, 2020

“Private enterprise and private governance pushed along by people seeking little more than their own advantages work remarkably well. If you want more evidence, look no further than the package on your doorstep.” ~ Art Carden

Capitalism, Free Markets, Policy

A Green Minimum Wage

– July 10, 2020

“Farmers who want to retain good, experienced farm hands should be free to pay a dollar a week, day, hour, or minute to those same people, as they mutually agree. And when the world not only does not end but improves due to the policy, let’s extend it to other types of employers as well.” ~ Robert E. Wright

Capitalism, Fiscal Policy, Policy

The Adverse Economic Consequences of Higher Tax Rates

– June 30, 2020

“The political impact will be that “the rich” pay more. The economic impact will be less capital formation and entrepreneurship, and those are the changes that hurt the vast majority of us who aren’t rich.” ~ Daniel J. Mitchell

Capitalism, Central Banking, Gold Standard, Monetary Policy, Policy

Global Money Supply Growth and the Great Inflation Getaway

– June 30, 2020

“Maintenance of the level of employment rather than inflation has become the focus of official policy everywhere. Stimulus will continue until employment is restored to its pre-crisis level and there remains a colossal debt overhang to temper inflationary tendencies, but there is a real and present danger that, in the process of returning the economy to full-employment, consumer price inflation will get away.” ~ Colin Lloyd

Capitalism, Free Markets

Free Markets are Lousy Self-Promoters

– June 29, 2020

“Precisely because free and innovative markets ceaselessly expand our range of opportunities, comparing the economic statistics of today with those of yesterday too often masks the improvements brought to us by markets. What appear to blinkered or incautious eyes to be market failures are often the fruits of market successes.” ~ Donald J. Boudreaux

Capitalism, Economic History, History

Slavery Did Not Enrich Americans

– June 25, 2020

“The New History of Capitalism misfires badly, however, in its interpretation of these facts. Slavery was not necessary for cotton, and cotton was not necessary for industrialization. Had chattel slavery never taken hold in the United States, we would very likely be richer than we are today.” ~ Art Carden

Capitalism, Crisis, Economic Theory

Where Did The Wealth Go?

– June 24, 2020

“The cost of the lockdown is the forgone economic activity, all the meals and haircuts and vacations and flights and trips to the theater and the movies and the nightclub. Those things are gone, and they cannot be made up. We had access to fewer desirable things; that’s where the wealth went.” ~ Michael

Art and Culture, Capitalism, Economic Education

Managing the Chessboard of Human Society: Lessons from the Online Chessboard

– June 19, 2020

” It seems reasonable that we will never actually master every possible detail of chess, Monopoly, and other games. If games that happen within very well-defined spaces according to very well-defined rules present such insurmountable difficulties, I’m definitely skeptical of the notion that we can design and control a great society.” ~ Art Carden

Capitalism, Central Banking, Economic Education, Free Markets

The Fed Can’t Revive the Dead, But It Can Delay Their Recovery

– June 17, 2020

“Central planning was tried in the 20th century, and it failed miserably. As evidenced by the U.S. economy’s dynamism, the Fed’s actual power is a fraction of what its supporters and critics both presume.” ~ John Tamny

Capitalism, Crisis, Free Markets, Healthcare

Tear Down this Plexiglass!

– June 17, 2020

“To paraphrase Ronald Reagan, who challenged Mikhail Gorbachev to eradicate another major symbol of fear and mistrust in the world, I urge us to tear down this plexiglass.” ~ Anthony Gill

Capitalism, Central Banking, Economic Education, Policy

Ignore the Cooing of the Deficit Doves

– June 15, 2020

“We skeptics of government power should never stop warning of the dangers of deficit financing, for such financing lowers political decision-makers’ costs of expanding government’s size and scope.” ~ Donald Boudreaux

Capitalism, Central Banking, Economic Education, Monetary Policy

How the Federal Reserve Literally Makes Money

– June 11, 2020

“The Fed is spending up to US$2.3 trillion to help save the U.S. economy from the coronavirus recession. But where does all that money come from?” ~ William J. Luther