With the emergence of the Omicron COVID-19 variant, renewed restrictions on liberty or calls for their reinstatement have broken out around the world. The new wave is probably only beginning, and with it will surely come sermons on how we must face trade-offs between...
Economics
TGIF: Racial Polarization Is Poison
by Sheldon Richman | Nov 26, 2021 | Economics, Featured Articles, Justice, Libertarianism, Politics, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
Be they "left" or "right," those who agitate for racial polarization seem to have no sense of the harm they could do to everyone in our society. As the wise Glenn Loury would say, they are playing with fire. By polarization, of any kind, I mean more than merely a...
The Media Is Lying To You About Inflation
by William Anderson | Nov 23, 2021 | Economics, Featured Articles
With the recent rise in inflation—with subsequent increases in both consumer and producer price levels—one suspects that sooner or later people on the left either would downplay it or find a way to spin the bad news into something positive like an alchemist would want...
The Fed’s Big Flub Up
by Ron Paul | Nov 18, 2021 | Economics, Featured Articles
What do the Federal Reserve and neoconservatives have in common? They both refuse to admit that their policies—the neocons’ promotion of perpetual war and the Fed's manipulation of the money supply—are complete failures, having produced the opposite of the promised...
TGIF: Equal Rights Now!
by Sheldon Richman | Nov 12, 2021 | Economics, Featured Articles, Justice, Libertarianism, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
A pet peeve of mine is the distinction, drawn even by some market enthusiasts, between so-called personal liberty (or civil liberties) and economic liberty. The former, which usually includes freedom of conscience and religion, speech, and press, is thought to be...
TGIF: Another Climate Conference
by Sheldon Richman | Nov 5, 2021 | Economics, Featured Articles, Justice, Libertarianism, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
Sometimes we've got to be grateful for hypocrisy. If those who pretend to be world leaders actually delivered a fraction of what they promise in Glasgow, Scotland, where the UN's COP26 (Conference of Parties) Conference on Climate Change runs through Nov. 12, we'd be...
Protectionism: Morally and Economically Dumb
by Jim Bovard | Nov 1, 2021 | Economics, Featured Articles
Protectionism is reviving in Washington on both sides of the political aisle. Democrats are cheering proposals to restrict trade to benefit labor unions and save the environment while some Republicans are reviving Smoot-Hawley style salvation schemes. Protectionist...
2% Inflation Is Killing Us
by Ryan McMaken | Oct 28, 2021 | Economics, Featured Articles
Fed chairman Jerome Powell is increasingly under fire for his apparently inability to take inflation seriously or admit it may be more than “transitory.” There’s been much talk of tapering the Fed’s enormous asset purchases, yet—as is typical for the Fed, actual...