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...
Economics
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...
Wall Street Is Setting a Trap For Bitcoin Buyers
by Tom Luongo | Oct 25, 2021 | Economics, Featured Articles
So Tuesday October 19th, 2021 was supposed to be the day that changed everything for bitcoin. And it may, just not in ways anyone bullish on crypto should be comfortable with. Finally the SEC approved a Bitcoin ETF, the ProShares Bitcoin Futures ETF (BITO) began...
TGIF: That Bloody Government Debt
by Sheldon Richman | Oct 22, 2021 | Economics, Featured Articles, Justice, Libertarianism, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
The government's attraction to borrowing is hardly a mystery. If the politicians had to extract every dollar they wanted to spend directly from the taxpayers, they might have a revolt on their hands--a bad career move for sure. Borrowing tends to make people more...
Can Bitcoin Fix America’s Economic Woes?
by Avik Roy | Oct 22, 2021 | Economics, Featured Articles
Cryptocurrencies like bitcoin have few fans in Washington. At a July congressional hearing, Senator Elizabeth Warren warned that cryptocurrency "puts the [financial] system at the whims of some shadowy, faceless group of super-coders." Treasury secretary Janet Yellen...
Down With Fraudulent ‘Fair’ Trade
by Jim Bovard | Oct 21, 2021 | Economics, Featured Articles
The Biden administration is embracing the same flawed “fair trade” mantra that previous administrations used to sanctify protectionist policies. Biden’s team has “largely dispensed with the idea of free trade as a goal in and of itself,” the New York...