"[A]ny man can be a capitalist if only he wants to be. He can derive his funds solely from the fruits of previous capitalist investment or from past 'hoarded' cash balances or solely from his income as a laborer or a landowner. He can, of course, derive his funds from...
Economics
TGIF: Supply Precedes Demand
"Consumption is the sole end and purpose of all production." —Adam Smith, The Wealth of Nations, 1776 "In the market economy the consumers are supreme. Their buying and their abstention from buying ultimately determine what the entrepreneurs produce and in what...
Donald Trump’s Economic Wars Serve No Purpose
The incoming Donald Trump administration seems determined to wage as many economic wars as it can. The president-elect reportedly plans to pursue another “maximum pressure” campaign against Iran with the goal of “bankrupting” the country. Now he is threatening new...
TGIF: On Fairness
Fairness and its synonyms are among the most abused words in English. By that I mean they are commonly manipulated for ideological ends. Wokeness has aggravated a situation that has existed for some time. What better way to score points for a political position than...
Economics and Everyday Life, 2
"[E]conomic relations constitute a machinery by which men devote their energies to the immediate accomplishment of each other's purposes in order to secure the ultimate accomplishment of their own, irrespective of what those purposes of their own may be, and therefore...
Economics and Everyday Life
"[T]he general principles which regulate our conduct in business are identical with those which regulate our deliberations, our selections between alternatives, and our decisions, in all other branches of life. And this is why we not only may, but must, take our...
TGIF: “You Didn’t Build That”
Remember Barack Obama's profound 2012 campaign speech about success? Here's part of what he said: There are a lot of wealthy, successful Americans who agree with me -- because they want to give something back. They know they didn’t -- look, if you’ve been successful,...
Whether the Interest Rate Rises or Falls, Inflation Is Here to Stay
In an economic landscape shaped by the aggressively rising prices of 2020-2022, the Federal Reserve's monetary policy pendulum swung dramatically. Starting from rock bottom rates, it engaged in a series of hikes the likes of which had not been seen since the early...
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