Negotiations over increasing the federal debt ceiling continue in Washington. As has occurred several times over the past twenty years, Republicans and Democrats are presently using increases in the debt ceiling as a bargaining chip in negotiating how federal tax...
deficit
Elon Musk Has Freed Himself from the Advertiser’s Chains
by Tom Luongo | May 22, 2023 | Featured Articles
So, Elon Musk sure shook things up the other day with his interview on CNBC where he dared to break the Fourth Wall of media when he took a shot at George Soros comparing him to Magneto from Marvel’s X-Men. It’s a brutally funny exchange as Musk carefully measures his...
Blackrock’s Balance Sheet May Be Sicker Than You Think
by Tom Luongo | May 3, 2023 | Economics, Featured Articles
The big news this week was Tucker Carlson’s unceremonious firing by Fox News. The reasons for Tucker’s firing are still unclear. And even Tucker’s emergence from his man cave on Tuesday for two minutes did nothing to quell the speculation. What it did do was...
Debt Ceiling Drama Ignores Our Real Fiscal Crisis
by Ron Paul | May 2, 2023 | Economics, Featured Articles
Last week the House passed legislation increasing the debt ceiling. The bill was supported by all but four Republicans. For some Republicans, this was the first time they had ever voted for a debt ceiling increase. Perhaps the reason they did so this time was because...
If America Loses Its Reserve Currency Status, You’ll Still Be Okay
by Ryan McMaken | Apr 27, 2023 | Economics, Featured Articles
Earlier this month, Larry Kudlow insisted that it is "it's incumbent on the U.S. government, no matter who's in power, to maintain the reserve currency status of the dollar." Kudlow laments that a toppling of the dollar from that perch "seems to be the direction we're...
NPR Can’t Justify Its Existence
by Laurence Vance | Apr 24, 2023 | Featured Articles
One of the hallmarks of authoritarian countries is that the media is state-run or under the direct supervision or control of the government. The Xinhua News Agency is the official state news agency in China. Al-Akhbar, Al-Ahram, and Al-Gomhuriya are state-owned...
When the Petrodollar Dies, the Empire Dies
by Ron Paul | Apr 18, 2023 | Economics, Featured Articles, Foreign Policy
Future historians may say that the most significant event of 2023 had nothing to do with Donald Trump, other 2024 presidential candidates, or even the war in Ukraine. Instead, the event with the most long-term significance may be one that received little attention in...
Discovering Cooperation Through the Blockchain
by Zack Sorenson | Feb 27, 2023 | Economics, Featured Articles
In the twentieth and early twenty-first centuries, political hurdles and economic roadblocks have prevented the rise of a properly free and healthy society. Competitive pressures have allowed new inventions to be created and competitive barriers have helped innovative...
Raising the Debt Ceiling Is An Anti-Social Policy
by Daniel Lacalle | Feb 22, 2023 | Featured Articles
Every time the United States reaches its debt limit, we read that it is important to reach an agreement to lift it. The narrative is that the debt ceiling must be raised, or the US economy will suffer a severe contraction. There is even an episode of a TV series,...
Our System Has a Trust Deficit (And For Good Reason)
by Jeffrey Wernick | Feb 2, 2023 | Featured Articles, Politics
Trust is apparently an extremely elusive concept to implement. If you read The New York Times or Washington Post, you are told not to trust Fox News nor Newsmax nor OANN. If you listen to Fox News you are told not to trust the NYT nor WaPo nor CNN nor MSNBC. And they...
Bubbles R-Us
by David Stockman | Feb 2, 2023 | Economics, Featured Articles
The Wall Street Journal today brings word that a professor Efraim Benmelech of the finance department at Northwestern University thinks the Fed is hurting housing and the consumer too much. Opined he, ...those higher interest rates are making mortgages more expensive...
Your Social Security Money Is GONE, Understand?
by Ryan McMaken | Feb 2, 2023 | Economics, Featured Articles
After French protestors took the street to complain about the increase in the retirement age, I read quite a few jokes in social media about how protesting in France is the local pastime. That may be true, but let it not be said that Americans don't feel very, very...
Does the Death of the Petrodollar Signal the End of the U.S. Empire?
by Ryan McMaken | Feb 1, 2023 | Economics, Featured Articles, Foreign Policy
On January 17, the Saudi minister of finance, Mohammed Al-Jadaan, announced that the Saudi state is open to selling oil in currencies other than the dollar. “There are no issues with discussing how we settle our trade arrangements, whether it is in the U.S. dollar,...
The Insanity of Political ‘Moderation’
by Jeffrey Wernick | Jan 19, 2023 | Featured Articles
I find the self-anointed gatekeepers who claim to be the sole arbiters of the truth very amusing (also pathetic). Apparently if you want to accumulate unsustainable deficits, inadequately fund liabilities, print an infinite amount of money, and engage in never-ending...
Blog
A Response to My Memorial Day Critics
My article against Memorial Day drew a lot of ire and attention. This should not have been surprising; I was making a controversial statement. What did surprise me, however, was that many critics were self-described libertarians or former libertarians. There were many...
Ignoring Political Gossip & Sticking to Principle
https://youtu.be/ZwWHjYVY4tg In the private sector, firms must attract voluntary customers or they fail; and if they fail, investors lose their money, and managers and employees lose their jobs. The possibility of failure, therefore, is a powerful incentive to find...
The Myth of “Hyper-Rugged-Isolationist-Individualism”
Myth #1: Libertarians believe that each individual is an isolated, hermetically sealed atom, acting in a vacuum without influencing each other. This is a common charge, but a highly puzzling one. In a lifetime of reading libertarian and classical-liberal...
The Lesson From Germany and Korea
Institutions are, of course, in some sense the products of culture. But, because they formalize a set of norms, institutions are often the things that keep a culture honest, determining how far it is conducive to good behaviour rather than bad. To illustrate the...
Occupational Licensing Increases Prices and Deprives People of Options
When you shop online, vendors usually give you a bunch of different ways to sort your options. Take Amazon: One popular sorting option – especially for customers with low income – is “Price: Low to High.” You’ve probably used it yourself many times. This...
Free Book: An Anarchist Critique of the COVID Mandates
I’ve had the opportunity to write a short book offering what is essentially an anarchist critique of COVID mandates. This includes the accusation that states did most of the killing rather than the virus. The 123-page book, Measuring the Mandates: Questioning the...
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