According to the establishment survey of employment, released last week by the Bureau of Labor Statistics, total employment increased, month-over-month by 263,000 jobs. The "job market stays strong" reads one CNBC headline, and the new jobs print was hailed as a great...
Economics
Understanding the Fed’s Real Mandate
by Mark Thornton | Oct 10, 2022 | Economics, Featured Articles
The Federal Reserve has a legal dual mandate to minimize unemployment and price inflation. The current “dual” between the two mandates is to reduce price inflation by increasing interest rates to increase unemployment and kill businesses to choke off aggregate demand....
More States Should Abolish Their Income Taxes
by Chris Edwards | Oct 4, 2022 | Economics, Featured Articles
State and local governments raised $1.9 trillion in taxes in 2020. The main sources were sales taxes (35 percent), property taxes (32 percent), and individual income taxes (23 percent). But nine states do not impose an individual income tax. How do they run their...
Europeans Prepare for a Very Cold Winter
by Claudio Grass | Sep 27, 2022 | Economics, Featured Articles
As the citizens of the European Union and the United Kingdom are increasingly struggling to make ends meet due to record levels of inflation, and as the winter draws closer, a serious cost of living crisis is set to spiral out of control. Skyrocketing energy costs,...
TGIF: Sam Harris on Saving Democracy from Voters
by Sheldon Richman | Sep 23, 2022 | Economics, Featured Articles, Justice, Libertarianism, Politics, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
Neuroscientist/philosopher Sam Harris caused quite a stir recently by defending the social networks' conspiracy (his word) to suppress news coverage of Joe Biden's son Hunter's smoking-gun laptop shortly before Election Day 2020. Harris said the suppression was...
Capitalism is Being Strangled
by Jim Cardoza | Sep 20, 2022 | Economics, Featured Articles
It was out of a revulsion for tyranny and a hunger for liberty that Americans were inspired to revolution. We don’t like being told what to do. We went to war to secure the rights to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.In our founding document, liberty was...
Is Energy Independence from Russia Worth the Cost?
by Bas Spliet | Sep 19, 2022 | Economics, Featured Articles, Foreign Policy
As the trade war over Ukraine heats up, we should ask ourselves what costs and benefits come along with energy independence from Russia. Even if we accept current Western policy, the divestment campaign will not yield the desired political outcomes. As episodic...
TGIF: Question Intuition!
by Sheldon Richman | Sep 16, 2022 | Economics, Featured Articles, Justice, Libertarianism, Politics, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
In the 1960s a popular button that New Left activists wore implored everyone to "Question Authority!" It was good advice, even though many kinds of authority exist. Some authority is chosen (for example, one's doctor) and others are compulsory (the government). But in...