Topic: Government

Economic History, Government, Monetary Policy

The Tooth-Fairy Economics of Slavery Reparations

– March 7, 2023

“If the US government tried to implement the reparations program that the 1619 Project espouses, we would get huge increases in both taxes and inflation. Yet the key economist advising on this proposal denies that any taxes would have to increase.” ~ David R. Henderson and Phillip W. Magness

Free Markets, Government, Technology

The Myth of Rural “Assistance”

– March 6, 2023

“Just as in the New Deal electrification boondoggle, it is a much better value, from a bureaucratic perspective, to waste taxpayer money than to allow organic, free-market solutions to beat them to the punch.” ~ Paul Schwennesen

Classical Liberalism, Government, History

This is Why We Can’t Have Nice Things: Directionalists vs. Destinationists

– March 6, 2023

“Being proud of the purity of your positions by defining Friedman, Stigler (and Munger, let’s face it) as ‘reds’ is a recipe for well-deserved irrelevance in a system governed by numerical majorities.” ~ Michael C. Munger

Fiscal Policy, Free Markets, Government

For a Fair and Efficient Tax Policy, Restore the SALT Deduction

– March 3, 2023

“Restoring full deductibility would realign the Republican party’s position on this issue with a more free-market approach to tax fairness and its long-time support of supply-side tax analysis, which guided most of the other changes in 2017.” ~ Roy Cordato

Fiscal Policy, Free Markets, Government, War and Peace

Proponents of Fiscal Stimulus Need to Stop Using World War II as an Example

– March 2, 2023

“If proponents of fiscal stimulus want to use wartime spending as an empirical illustration to make their case, they need to be aware that doing so relies on a bad understanding of economic facts.” ~ Vincent Geloso

Fiscal Policy, Free Markets, Government

Responsible Budgeting Corrects Bipartisan Overspending Crisis

– March 1, 2023

“The negotiations around raising the debt ceiling should be that opportunity to provide fiscal sanity. If not, we will have more costly consequences that Americans can’t afford.” ~ Vance Ginn

Crisis, Government, Science

Hospitalized With, or Hospitalized For?

– March 1, 2023

“It has been three years. Isn’t it about time we got more accurate data on COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths?” ~ Jon Sanders

Economic Education, Free Markets, Government

Why Austrian Economists Are Not Employed as Policy Advisers

– February 28, 2023

“The problem is not so much our reliance on economics as our reliance on politics. Politics insists that we must pretend to believe in the fiction of central direction of markets as effective policy.” ~ Michael C. Munger

Books, Government, History

Sowing the Seeds of 1776

– February 28, 2023

“In April 1768, an opinion writer known only as ‘A Farmer in Pennsylvania’ finished the last letter in a series decrying the Townshend Acts and making the case for colonial Americans’ natural rights.” ~ Guy F. Burnett

Free Markets, Government, Regulation

Biden’s Industrial Policy Flop

– February 27, 2023

“Biden’s industrial flop will disrupt entrepreneurial activity and hobble the American economy. We should learn the lessons of the past and accept, once and for all, that industrial policy doesn’t work, no matter how much we will it.” ~ Michael N. Peterson

Art and Culture, Government, Regulation

Treating Adults like Children

– February 25, 2023

“Now more than ever, those of us who simply want to be able to think new thoughts and try new things must defend the rights of those whose lifestyles we may not wish to copy. Treat adults like… adults.” ~ Jason Sorens

Crisis, Fiscal Policy, Government

Apres Biden, Le Deluge: When the Republican Party Gives Up Entitlement Reform

– February 24, 2023

“Even the Biden Treasury Department labels the present financial path as ‘unsustainable.’ Refusing to look at so-called entitlements, most importantly Medicare and Social Security, ensures growing outlays, deficits, and debt.” ~ Doug Bandow