Thomas Eddlem | The Libertarian Institute

Lower Interest Rates Don’t Stimulate (Not Ever)

by Thomas Eddlem | Aug 14, 2024 | Economics, Featured Articles

Fueled by panic over a weak July jobs report and a one-day crash in global stock markets, an unstoppable growing chorus arose among the political establishment calling for the Federal Reserve Bank to cut interest rates. The reality is that interest rates, as represented by the Federal Reserve’s Federal Funds Effective Rate to banks, have been at historic lows since 2001, with real rates rarely even being positive. Today’s 5.00-5.25% rate in real terms is only about a positive 2% after accounting for inflation. And these lower rates have not brought stimulus to the U.S. economy, but economic...

Is the Economy Headed For a Soft Landing?

by Thomas Eddlem | Aug 8, 2024 | Economics, Featured Articles, Politics

Official propaganda is trumpeting that the Federal Reserve Bank is pulling off a soft landing for the economy after the excesses of the COVID deficit/inflationary era. For example, CNN circulated a story on July 25 boasting that: “America’s economy is about to stick what’s called a ‘soft landing,’ which is when inflation returns to the Fed’s target without a recession — a feat that’s only happened once, during the 1990s, according to some economists.” But is the Fed sticking the landing or just giving the country the shaft? First, the good news: the Federal Reserve Bank has in the last...

What Is Government Costing Your Family?

by Thomas Eddlem | Aug 1, 2024 | Economics, Featured Articles

What would you do if the government came to you and said your family owes it $75,000 this year, and every year, adjusted upward for inflation? You might respond “I can’t afford it.” Don’t worry, you are already paying that. That’s the price the average American household is already paying (or borrowing on behalf of) your government. You read that right, the average family. According to the Congressional Budget Office, the federal government will spend $6.88 trillion in fiscal 2024 (which ends October 1), including $1.99 trillion in deficit spending. The U.S. Census bureau says there are...

The Trillion Dollar Social Security Trust Fund Robbery

by Thomas Eddlem | Jul 24, 2024 | Economics, Featured Articles

It may be the most successful financial swindle in human history, one more than a dozen times bigger than Bernie Madoff’s $65 billion swindle. By suppressing interest rates using federal Treasury bills, the Federal Reserve Bank has managed to deprive the Social Security OASDI trust fund of more than $900 billion in interest payments since 2001. And it’s just getting started. It’s long been a truism among libertarians that because the Social Security program is force-based from taxation, it’s therefore anti-social. In addition, the line goes, there's no security in it, they're not worthy of...

On Wealth Inequality, the Left Has a Point

by Thomas Eddlem | Jun 12, 2024 | Economics, Featured Articles

The federal government has been waging a war against the middle class and working poor since at least 1970. Wealth inequality has steadily increased since the early 1970s, and it’s not a coincidence. It’s a result of a series of policies. The government wants the masses of American working people broke, propertyless, and dependent upon elected officials for the crumbs they give back as handouts from taxes taken. The most insidious attack on working people has been inflation, which really took off when the federal government decoupled the dollar from gold in 1971. The inflation tax is the...

Home Ownership Crisis: How the Fed Creates a Financial Underclass

by Thomas Eddlem | Jan 23, 2024 | Economics, Featured Articles

Both of the Federal Reserve Bank’s stated policies of under-market interest rates and generating a minimum of two percent general price inflation are creating a permanent financial underclass in America by keeping home ownership perpetually out of reach for struggling lower-middle class American workers. The goal of general price inflation—among many other impacts that disparately impact the poor—makes it much more difficult for people to save up for a down payment on a mortgage, especially during those fairly frequent times when the Fed exceeds its target level of inflation. And the tighter...

Millionaires No More: Social Security is Impoverishing Our Seniors

by Thomas Eddlem | Sep 28, 2023 | Economics, Featured Articles

Imagine you win your state lottery for $1.1 million. You have the option of collecting the cash prize of $1,100,000 or taking $55,000 per year in twenty annual installments. Your financial advisor will always tell you the smart move is to take the full cash payout and invest the money in a stock index fund earning interest and dividends. If you do that, you can take out seven percent after taxes in perpetuity with adjustments upward for inflation and on average never lose any principal. But what if the state lottery came in and changed the terms of the deal? Instead, you have to wait a few...

We’re Primed for a Spark

by Thomas Eddlem | Sep 7, 2023 | Featured Articles, Politics

In the final Monday pre-dawn moments of every city, you can see the work vans and work trucks turn noisily onto the highway on-ramp of the city’s suburbs and exurbs, ladders rattling over every bump. They’re city-bound, heading toward work in wealthy people’s homes within the suburbs, city businesses and crane-adorned high-rises. If you listen carefully, you can hear the drone of sports radio, country music, or―in full cabins―the compromise “classic rock” music on the construction tradesmen's radio. And except for the scent of second-hand marijuana smoke unashamedly lingering along the...