Imagine two candidates for president, and ask yourself who is more likely to win. Candidate A observes that people are facing generally rising prices. Their total at the supermarket checkout is higher than last year. Filling up the car at the gas station takes a...
TGIF
TGIF: Doing Good at a Profit
by Sheldon Richman | Aug 30, 2024 | Economics, Featured Articles, Justice, Politics, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
[P]eople started to believe that the bourgeoisie and its economic activities of trade and innovation were virtuous, or at least tolerable. In every successful lurch into modern riches from Holland in 1650 to the United States in 1900 to China in 2000, one sees a...
TGIF: Back to Barbarism
by Sheldon Richman | Aug 23, 2024 | Economics, Featured Articles, Justice, Politics, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
Has Kamala Harris inadvertently done free-market advocates a favor? Let's not get too hopeful, but maybe. How so? By pandering to voters and marketing herself as a consumer watchdog who will stamp out (undefined) supermarket "price gouging." This could create teaching...
TGIF: Gaslighting
by Sheldon Richman | Aug 16, 2024 | Economics, Featured Articles, Foreign Policy, History, Justice, Politics, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
I wonder who's gaslighting us now. Here are some of the major perpetrators: The pundits and pseudo-economists of all tribes who try to convince us that the government can spend, borrow, and create money almost without limit or harm. What happens when interest on the...
TGIF: Khan Controlling Trade
by Sheldon Richman | Aug 9, 2024 | Economics, Featured Articles, Justice, Libertarianism, Politics, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
Lina Khan is a Washington, D.C., rock star. She is not only President Joe Biden's celebrated chief of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC); she's also a favorite of J. D. Vance, Donald Trump's pick for vice president. This Lina Khan must really have something going for...
TGIF: Democracy as Religion
by Sheldon Richman | Aug 2, 2024 | Economics, Featured Articles, History, Justice, Libertarianism, Politics, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
During a conversation with someone who loves representative democracy but hates America's current political situation, I pointed out a problem with his view. The current situation, I said, is a product of representative democracy. So you can't have the system without...
TGIF: Damn Consumers!
by Sheldon Richman | Jul 26, 2024 | Economics, Featured Articles, Foreign Policy, Justice, Libertarianism, Politics, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
Global free trade is about individual, not national, freedom—for consumers and producers who import raw materials, tools, and semi-finished products. Aside from its role as an aspect of personal liberty, free trade's efficiency benefits have been well-established...
TGIF: The Populist Trap
by Sheldon Richman | Jul 19, 2024 | Economics, Featured Articles, Foreign Policy, Justice, Politics, Sheldon Richman, TGIF
If you care about individual freedom and general prosperity, you'll want to avoid all shades of populism like the plague. It is economic illiteracy proudly proclaimed and writ large. As an alternative to libertarianism, it is bad in its own right—freedom is not on its...