Let's start with what is not wrong with the welfare state. Much criticism of the welfare state focuses on how it encourages dependence not only on the government, but dependence on others per se. In some circles the wish for a social safety net is disparaged as a...
Economics
TGIF: U(nspeakably) S(adistic) Foreign Policy
by Sheldon Richman | Mar 12, 2021 | Economics, Foreign Policy, Justice, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
If you had set out to construct a foreign policy designed to impose indescribable suffering on millions of innocent people around the world, you'd have a tough time coming up with anything more systematic and effective than U.S. foreign policy. An inventory of U.S....
How Wind Power Froze Texas
by Robert Murphy | Mar 10, 2021 | Economics, Featured Articles
In the wake of February’s tragic power outages in Texas, during which 4.5 million households suffered service interruptions, partisans on both sides have been quick to interpret the events as confirmation of their preferred energy policies. With news images of...
Can Libertarians Oppose Short Selling?
by Robert Murphy | Feb 25, 2021 | Economics, Featured Articles
Amid the controversy over GameStop, many cynics argued that something sinister was clearly afoot because the hedge funds had shorted 138 percent of the outstanding shares. In this article I’ll review that particular claim, as well as another seemingly dubious...
Prepare for Negative Interest Rates
by Daniel Lacalle | Feb 19, 2021 | Economics, Featured Articles
Negative rates are the destruction of money, an economic aberration based on the mistakes of many central banks and some of their economists, who all start from a wrong diagnosis: the idea that economic agents do not take more credit or invest more because they choose...
Bitcoin is King
by Tom Luongo | Feb 16, 2021 | Economics, Featured Articles
Bitcoin is winning. Period. In fact, it may have already won and the people arrayed against it, no matter how powerful, are finally beginning to realize this. This week saw a slew of major announcements which all point in this direction. Of course the big news...
How To Make Housing Less Affordable
by Bradley Thomas | Feb 15, 2021 | Economics, Featured Articles
Few things in life are more certain than the costs of something exploding whenever government embarks on programs to make them “affordable.” It took just five years after the passage of the “Affordable Care Act” for insurance premiums on the private market to more...
How Reddit Killed Stakeholder Theory
by Jeff Deist | Feb 4, 2021 | Economics, Featured Articles
The GameStop saga shows some "equity" movements are more equal than others. Stakeholder theory, the corporate version of social justice, attempts to install this hopelessly amorphous concept of "equity" in the business world. Equity, unlike equality, demands different...