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Understanding Imports and Exports Correctly
Trade association executives are paid to look after their member companies’ interests. Part of that responsibility is to advocate public policy positions that advance or protect those interests. Not surprisingly, such advocacy often cherry picks data and characterizes that data in ways that can generously be called suspect. Nearly always, trade association public policy positions…
Micro vs. Macro Economics and Predictions
In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, regular Journal contributor, Joseph Epstein, compares modern day economists with ancient augurs. Mr. Epstein points out that there has been an infusion of politics in economics as exhibited by the fact that prominent economists who frequently appear in the media seemingly interpret economic data and make predictions in accordance…
More on the Size of a Trillion Dollars
We now finally have the answer to the age-old question of what happens when an economist and a rocket scientist step into a bar. https://www.wsj.com/opinion/who-said-pondering-the-debt-cant-be-fun-36-trillion-moon-games-c35c1174?st=2YLKsi&reflink=desktopwebshare_permalink
How Does the Debt Stack Up?
According to some estimates, the present value of the cost of Social Security and Medicare’s unfunded promises now stands at more than $175 trillion. Add $36 trillion more in federal debt ($26 trillion held by the public) and the total is well over $200 trillion. Even with historical economic growth and productivity increases, there is no…
A Free Market Wish List for the New Administration
[Note: This post originally appeared in American Thinker magazine on July 31, 2024] For those who believe in the instrumental and moral value of free markets, these are not good times. Both major political parties routinely exhibit ever increasing departures from limited government and economic freedom. It is therefore unrealistic for free-market advocates to expect the…
Fighting an AI “Monopoly” Where None Exists
In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, former U.S. Attorney General William P. Barr complains that regulators have been “asleep at the switch over the past 25 years” with regard to oversight of Big Tech companies. (“Big Tech’s Budding AI Monopoly,” 05/28/2024.) Now Mr. Barr is especially concerned about these companies’ efforts to develop artificial intelligence.…
Some Debate Questions For the Republican Presidential Candidates: Testing Their Commitment to Free Markets
The Republican Party platform preamble states the Party’s belief that political freedom and economic freedom are indivisible. For decades, moreover, the Party has claimed to support free-market capitalism as the best means to promote economic prosperity and long-term rising standards of living. Yet, the Donald Trump presidency’s adherence to these principles was questionable at best…
The ‘Worst U.S. President’ Who Wasn’t
In a Wall Street Journal piece published on June 24 (print edition), longtime journalist and essayist Lance Morrow compares today’s turbulent times with earlier episodes in American history. He notes that what we are experiencing today is hardly new or exceptional. He ends his piece, however, with lumping in Warren Harding with James Buchanan and…
“Just the News” story about Biden FTC’s revised mission statement. Includes quote from me.
On December 8, 2021, I was interviewed by a reporter from Just the News and asked to comment on the Biden Federal Trade Commission’s revised mission statement for the Agency. You can read the reporter’s story and my comment here.
Capital Accumulation and the Reconciliation Package
[Note: This post originally appeared in The Daily Economy, a publication of the American Institute for Economic Research on Oct. 13, 2021] Americans are rightly concerned about their current and future economic well-being. Since the 2008 financial crisis, middle class household incomes have seen little overall growth. Owing to business lockdowns and other pandemic-related impacts on economic…
China’s Export Subsidies Are a Gift
[Note: This post originally appeared in The Daily Economy at the website of the American Institute for Economic Research on Sept. 16, 2021] Instead of making a beeline to the nearest Hallmark store to buy thank you cards to send to the Chinese government for the subsidies it provides to Chinese exporters, the Biden Administration is reportedly developing a…
What is Tax Fairness?
[Note: This post originally appeared in The Daily Economy at the website of the American Institute for Economic Research on Sept. 7, 2021] Politicians, particularly those on the left, routinely proclaim that businesses and high income individuals should pay their “fair share” of taxes. This necessarily assumes that there is not only a share of…
Memo to American Youth from the Treasury Secretary (Parody)
United States Treasury July 4, 2021 Memo to: American Youth From: Janet Yellen, United States Secretary of the Treasury Subject: Facts of Life Each of you is now old enough to appreciate certain facts of life. Therefore, in the interest of transparency, I am writing on this 4th of July to inform you of debt…
The GOP Must Articulate and Sell a Better Vision
In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, former Treasury Secretary and Secretary of State James Baker III says that Republican electoral success in 2022 and 2024 will be enhanced if candidates focus on the core conservative principles of fiscal responsibility and economic growth. (Focus on Principle, Not Personality, for a Bright GOP Future, 6/7/2021) I concur. Nonetheless,…
Ignoring Microeconomic Conditions in Monetary Policy Risks Perpetual Failure
In a Wall Street Journal op-ed today, Hoover Institution Senior Fellow John H. Cochrane expresses his concern over the fact that some of President Trump’s potential nominees to the Fed’s Board of Governors have shown sympathy for a monetary system grounded in a gold standard. (John H. Cochrane, “Forget the Gold Standard and Make the…
Peter Navarro Is Wrong Still Again
Once again President Trump’s trade adviser displays his lack of understanding of how nations gain from trade. In an op-ed in today’s Wall Street Journal, Mr. Navarro contends that China’s trade practices victimize the U.S. (“China’s Faux Comparative Advantage,” 4/16/18) In doing so, he makes two errors. First, he is wrong to suggest that trade…
Today’s Extreme Rationalism, F.A. Hayek, and Elite Thinking
In a Wall Street Journal op-ed entitled “The Dark Side of the Enlightenment” (April 7-8, Weekend Edition), Yoram Hazony laments the proponents’ of pure reason failure to acknowledge the contributions of tradition, religion, and nationalism to human progress. He identifies Harvard Professor and cognitive psychologist, Steven Pinker, as an especial exemplar of this elevation of…
You Can’t Insure Illness That’s Already There
Who should pay the costs of treating pre-existing conditions has been a contentious topic of debate among the political class for some time. Regardless of how one comes down on this question, however, it is important to keep definitions tight and analytically correct. In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, Dr. Craig Blinderman perpetuates the erroneous…
Why Not a Stable Dollar?
In a “Letter to the Editor” in today’s Wall Street Journal, Michael Bird comments on the Fed’s 2% inflation target and on the long term effects on the purchasing power of American’s income. Mr. Bird is correct in his observations. Adding two more points to those observations, however, I submitted the following to the Journal…
Still More Trade Illiteracy from Peter Navarro
Sadly, President Trump’s instincts regarding trade wherein he believes negative trade balances to be a consequence of other countries’ ripping off the United States is reinforced by his chief trade advisor, Peter Navarro. Economists have long known this view to be specious, and acting on it in policy will only end up making Americans economically…
More Economic Illiteracy on Trade
In the “Letters to the Editor” section of today’s Wall Street Journal, Felix Dupuy of Whitefish, Montana laments that the 41 million U.S. jobs supported by trade come with a $500 million trade deficit, which he claims is largely paid for by the Treasury “in the form of increased debt.” (Letters, July 27, 2016) The…
Too Few Jobs: Trade Is Not the Problem, Slow Growth Is
[Note: This post originally appeared in American Thinker magazine on May, 27, 2016.] The irrefutable evidence of economic history over several centuries is that the wealth of societies (later nation states) significantly increases as trade expands. Scarce resources are conserved by being able to obtain goods from others who can produce those goods more cheaply. The…
Paying One’s “Fair Share” of Taxes Redux
[Note: This post is an update of an earlier one to take account of more recent developments, including President Obama’s news conference on May 6, 2016.] In his news conference on Friday (May 6), President Obama reiterated his claim that, owing to tax loopholes, the wealthy do not pay their “fair share” of taxes, a claim…
Demagoguery and the Minimum Wage
[This post was originally published by American Thinker magazine on April 2, 2016.] On Monday (Mar. 28) California Governor Jerry Brown announced that he would sign a bill to raise the state’s minimum wage to $15/hr. The increase from the current minimum of $10/hr. would be fully completed by 2022. Last year, New York passed…
The Basic Point of Trade
Today in his weekly Wall Street Journal column, William Galston says that trade has not lived up to its promise because it has cost the U.S. too many jobs. (“Why Trade Critics Are Getting Traction, Mar. 30, 2016″) Someone should give Mr. Galston a copy of Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations as quickly as possible. In equating…
Donald Trump v. Adam Smith
[This post originally appeared in American Thinker magazine on March 1, 2016] In the 1980s Reagan Republicans were fond of wearing Adam Smith neckties. (I personally still have two hanging in my closet that hail from that era.) Adam Smith, of course, was the 18th Century Scotsman who wrote An Inquiry into the Nature and…
Justice Antonin Scalia — RIP
I did not know Antonin Scalia, who passed away unexpectedly February 13 at the age of 79. I did, however, have the opportunity to meet the Supreme Court justice from time to time at Federalist Society events in Washington, but only long enough to shake hands and exchange pleasantries. More significantly for me in remembering Justice Scalia is the dramatic impact…
Economic Libertarians Will Have a Friend in Ted Cruz
[This post was originally published in American Thinker magazine on Feb. 11, 2016] In considering the current crop of presidential candidates, economic libertarians and others who place a high value on property rights, the right to earn a living, and the right to open a business will find no better friend than Texas Senator Ted…
The Federal Reserve and the Inflation Tax
[This post was originally published in American Thinker magazine on Feb. 6, 2016.] Article I, Section 7 of the Constitution states, “All Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives.” In other words, the Framers wanted to make sure that, when taxes are imposed on the people, the legislation giving rise to…
Capital Accumulation: The Missing Variable in Economic Policy Debates
[This post appeared originally in a slightly shorter form in American Thinker magazine on Feb. 3, 2016.] Americans are rightly concerned about their current and future economic well-being. For several years, middle class household incomes have seen little overall growth, and tepid growth in hourly wages has meant that the purchasing power of incomes for…
Why I Am Supporting Ted Cruz for President
[This post originally appeared under the title of “The Real Ted Cruz” in American Thinker magazine on January 25, 2016.] Contrary to some who have expressed concerns about Ted Cruz’s temperament and qualifications to be an effective President, my experience in working with the Texas Senator and Republican presidential candidate during the early 2000s convinces me that he…
The Democratic Presidential Debate, Economic Literacy, and the Minimum Wage
During last Saturday’s Democratic presidential debate Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, Former Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley, and Former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton vigorously competed to display which one is most earnest in his or her support of raising the federal minimum wage. In so many words, each claimed that it is necessary, as well as…
Business Acumen and Economic Understanding
In a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed, Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump asserted that the Chinese government imposes a de facto tariff on all imported goods by intentionally devaluing the yuan. (“Ending China’s Currency Manipulation,” Nov. 10, 2015) According to Mr. Trump, the undervalued yuan makes international trade unfair and hurts China’s trading partners. By…
The House Freedom Caucus and Its Critics
Christopher DeMuth has long been one of the more distinguished leaders in the conservative intellectual movement. As such, his views warrant a very high degree of respect. In a recent Wall Street Journal op-ed, he contends that members of the House Freedom Caucus — a group of about 40 -50 highly conservative House Republicans elected with Tea…
Mrs. Clinton’s Repudiation of Scarcity
Imagine that you have all the ingredients to bake a twelve inch apple pie, including crust and filling. Imagine further that the baked pie is initially cut into ten slices. Under a new government program intended to ensure that everyone has access to quality pie, all citizens are required to buy pie insurance which, among…
ZIRP Has Failed; So More ZIRP
If the definition of insanity is repeating the same thing and expecting a different result, the Fed is becoming close to being properly labeled as insane. After some six years of the Fed’s zero interest rate policy (ZIRP), economic growth rates remain in the tank. Plainly ZIRP’s failure to bring about anything close to a…
Janet Yellen and the Power to Tax
Article I, Section 7 of the Constitution states, “All Bills for raising Revenue shall originate in the House of Representatives.” In other words, the Framers wanted to make sure that, when taxes are imposed on the people, the legislation giving rise to those taxes springs from the people’s House, the body closest to the nation’s…
Adam Smith and the Republican Presidential Candidates
In the 1980s Reagan Republicans were fond of wearing Adam Smith neckties. (I personally still have two hanging in my closet that hail from that era.) Adam Smith, of course, was the 18th Century Scotsman who wrote An Inquiry into the Nature and Causes of the Wealth of Nations, a book considered by many to…
Paying One’s “Fair Share” of Taxes
I have always been puzzled when I hear politicians, particularly Democrats and others of the left, talking about people needing to pay their “fair share” of taxes. Most recently, Vermont Senator Bernie Sanders, Independent Socialist and candidate for the Democratic presidential nomination, has made this claim in most, if not all, of his campaign speeches. …
Hillary Clinton and Trickle Down Economics
Few utterances in public life over the last 30 years annoy me more than the term, “trickle down economics.” I know of no economics textbook, treatise, or journal article that even mentions TDE, let alone discusses it as a recognized economic theory or school of thought. Yet, in her recent speech outlining her economic plan for…
Peter Singer’s Impoverished Ethical Prescriptions
This past weekend in the Wall Street Journal, Alexandra Wolfe wrote about her interview with Princeton professor, Peter Singer. In the article, Ms. Wolfe describes Singer’s views on philanthropy. In this regard, Singer, a professor of moral philosophy, contends that ethics demands that people, especially people of means, donate a substantial portion of their income…
The WSJ Continues Its Antitrust Errors
In a February 16 editorial, the Wall Street Journal comments on the Justice Department’s antitrust case against Apple in which the DOJ ultimately prevailed in a verdict handed down in 2013. 952 F. Supp. 2d 638 (S.D.N.Y. 2013) (“All Along the Apple Watchtower”) The thrust of the editorial speaks to the activities of the Special…
Central Banks Are the Problem, Not the Solution
In an op-ed in today’s Wall Street Journal entitled “Beware the Currency Wars of 2015”, Mike Newton, a former macro trader for Caxton Associates LLC and global head of emerging market FX strategy for HSBC, argues that global policy coordination among nations and central banks is called for to manage what otherwise will be all…
Why Econometric Forecasting Is a Fool’s Errand
In a Wall Street Journal op-ed entitled “Government Forecasters Might as Well Use a Ouija Board” (appearing today, Oct. 16, 2014), Professor Edward Lazear of Harvard University cites several historical examples of gross inaccuracies in government macroeconomic forecasting that nonetheless were critical to policy formation. In light of this history, he properly urges government officials…
Modeling Climate v. Modeling the Economy
Recently the Wall Street Journal published an op-ed by theoretical physicist, Steven Koonin wherein Dr. Koonin discussed the difficulty in modeling the climate and climate change. As a consequence, climate science is hardly settled. The op-ed, as well as subsequent Letters to the Editor, brought to mind what I believe to be a similar difficulty…
The Wall Street Journal Has Antitrust Law Wrong
In a recent editorial, the Wall Street Journal claimed that the Department of Justice was doing Amazon’s bidding in the DoJ’s antitrust suit against e-book publishers Apple, Hachette, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin and Simon & Schuster. The DoJ alleges that the defendants conspired unlawfully to set prices for e-books. Amazon is the largest seller of e-books.…
Judge, Jury, and Executioner
I submitted a Letter to the Editor of the Wall Street Journal, commenting on an op-ed by Russell G. Ryan wherein Mr. Ryan identified due process concerns respecting the Security and Exchange Commission’s administrative law hearings. My letter notes that the administrative procedures at the Federal Trade Commission, where I once served in a senior…
It Is the Left that Relies on Violence
James Taranto in his regular Wall Street Journal “Best of the Web” column reports on the reaction of the Left to the January 8th Tucson shootings at which Representative Gabby Giffords along with 18 others were shot in a supermarket parking lot. (See “Violent Fantasy Goes Mainstream on the Left,” WSJ online, Jan. 10, 2011.)…
Earmarks and the New Republican House Majority
Despite the Pledge for America , I am not in the least convinced that Congressional Republicans have learned their lesson. Today’s Wall Street Journal reports that Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-CA) continues to defend earmarks, stating that they are a form of “direct democracy” and that “members know better than the bureaucracy does on what the real…
Is Economics a Science?
The Wall Street Journal recently published an op-ed by George Mason University economist Russ Roberts wherein Roberts questions whether economics can legitimately be called a science. (Is the Dismal Science Really a Science? Feb. 27, 2010.) Although Roberts makes excellent points on this question, I thought some additional ones were pertinent and submitted a Letter…
Evolutionary Understanding of the Sherman Act
In a series of letters published by the Wall Street Journal (Rockefeller, July 10; Boudreaux, July 14, and Libert, July 19), the authors discuss the original intent of the Sherman Act and contemporary policy. In his brilliant polemic, The Antirust Religion, Edwin Rockefeller correctly questions the arrogance of mainstream economic “science” that undergirds modern antirust…
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