We seem to forget that a tariff is a tax. It is formally levied on importers, not on foreigners or things, but since it can usually be passed along, it ends up as an indirect tax on consumers. The point of tariffs is to protect certain domestic businesses and their...
Economics
Rate Cuts Are Coming, Ready or Not
by Joseph Solis-Mullen | Feb 5, 2024 | Economics, Featured Articles
According to the Fed’s “preferred” inflation measure, the Personal Consumption Expenditures Index (PCE)—you know, the one that excepts those extraneous things you never buy, things like food and gas—well, according to recent PCE readings the Fed has been doing a...
Public vs Private Performance Standards
by Owen Ashworth | Feb 1, 2024 | Economics, Featured Articles
There is an interesting paradigm in political culture where we seem to hold differing standards for private versus public entities. If you were to ask your average person walking down the street whether we should bail out a random, private company that is not...
New Merger Guidelines Could Make 2024 a Difficult Year for Business and Biden
by Norman Singleton | Jan 31, 2024 | Economics, Featured Articles
A common way politicians and government officials bury bad or controversial news is to release it at a time when it is guaranteed to receive limited attention, such as 4:45 p.m. on a Friday or right before a holiday. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and the...
Josh Hawley Is Protecting the FTC from Accountability
by Norman Singleton | Jan 24, 2024 | Economics, Featured Articles
Last March, Federal Trade Commission (FTC) board member Christine Wilson resigned following publication of an op-ed in The Wall Street Journal detailing FTC Chair Lina Khan’s mismanagement of the agency. The op-ed details possible violations of federal ethics...
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...
TGIF: Milei at Davos
by Sheldon Richman | Jan 19, 2024 | Economics, Featured Articles, Justice, Libertarianism, Politics, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
Javier Milei, the newly elected president of Argentina, spoke the other day at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland. The WEF is essentially a group of people who want world affairs centrally planned by political authorities. They are...
TGIF: The Right to Move
by Sheldon Richman | Jan 5, 2024 | Economics, Featured Articles, Foreign Policy, Justice, Libertarianism, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
If people individually own themselves and have a right to be free of aggressive force, then they have a right to change their location in ways consistent with other people's rights. Whether you call this moving around relocating, emigrating, or immigrating, doesn't...