Why Is There Economic Optimism?
The Bulls Are Charging! Photo Credit: Charging Bull — NYC via photopin (license)/ Sam Valadi Every now and then, I experience a modicum of doubt about my pessimistic picture of the economy. … Read More
Category: Economic Issues
Ideas about how an economy works. Organized ideologies about economies go by names like Keynesianism, neoclassical economics, socialism, etc., etc.
The US Is Drowning In Debt
U.S. Drowning in debt? (c) Can Stock Photo/Sangoiri [N.B. This essay was changed on 8/25/2016 to correct an error on the composition of the net federal debt.] Just when you … Read More
The Japanese Economy is Stalling Out
Shinzo Abe, Prime Minister of Japan Wikimedia Commons/US Embassy, Tokyo From the Wall Street Journal we learn that Japanese economic growth nearly sputtered out in the second quarter of 2016. … Read More
U.S. Economy and Stock Markets, August 2016
Real quarterly, annualized GDP growth rate in percent from Q1 of 2009 to Q2 of 2016 Image Credit: St. Louis Federal Reserve District Bank/FRED It is time for me to … Read More
A Defense for Democracy and Free-Markets
An Icon of Human Freedom with its Author, Thomas Jefferson Flickr.com/Drew Myers It is no secret that American progressives are at the very best terribly ambivalent about democracy, and about … Read More
The Fermenting of the West’s Discontents: Crisis of Ideology
Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and cauldron bubble. The three witches in Shakespeare’s Macbeth, Act 4, scene 1 Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons/Johann Heinrich Füssli 1783 The Western World’s political … Read More
If Hillary Clinton Were President …
Hillary Clinton speaking at the Brown & Black Presidential Forum in Des Moines, Iowa on January 11, 2016 Wikimedia Commons/Arthur Skidmore Given how the bombastic Donald is increasingly sabotaging his own … Read More
Where the Left Is Leading the World: Catastrophe
The storming of the Bastille, 14 July 1789 during the French Revolution Wikimedia Commons/Bibilothèque Nationale de France If you have read any of my posts and detected a somewhat gloomy … Read More
The GOP’s Better Way
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wi) taking over the House Speakership from Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) Wikimedia Commons/Office of Speaker Paul D. Ryan On a lot of issues Donald Trump has been … Read More
Dismal Economic Numbers
Real U.S. GDP growth rate from the first quarter of 2009 to the second quarter of 2016. The maroon curve is a linear fit to the data from Q1 2014 … Read More
The U.S. Federal Government Budget
Total U.S. Federal Government Debt in millions of dollars (blue curve with scale on the left), and its share of GDP in percent (maroon curve with scale on the right). St. … Read More
Donald Trump’s Acceptance Speech
Donald J. Trump giving his acceptance speech for the GOP presidential nomination on July 21, 2016 Image Credit: YouTube/ABC 15 Arizona Listening to Donald Trump’s acceptance speech last night, most … Read More
The Socialism of the Scandinavian Countries
The Scandinavian Countries of Denmark, Norway, and Sweden Image Credit: Wikitravel/Stefan Ertmann In the previous post Are European States More Socialist Than The US?, I noted that American progressives had … Read More
Are European States More Socialist Than The US?
Alphonse de Lamartine rejecting the red flag of socialism in front of the Town Hall of Paris during the 1848 French Revolution. Wikimedia Commons/ Henri Félix Emmanuel Philippoteaux (1815-1884) The … Read More
Economic Freedom in the United States
World Map of the WSJ/Heritage Foundation Index of Economic Freedom Image Credit: Heritage Foundation It would distress many Americans to learn the United States does not have the greatest economic freedom … Read More
A Closer Look at the Index of Economic Freedom
World Map of the WSJ/Heritage Foundation Index of Economic Freedom Image Credit: Heritage Foundation In a number of posts I have used the Wall Street Journal/Heritage Foundation Index of Economic … Read More
The United States: An Exceptional Country?
The draft Declaration of Independence being presented to the Second Continental Congress by the five man drafting committee on June 28, 1776. The five men standing before the Chair are … Read More
Are Leftist Economies Better Than Free-Markets?
Country per capita GDP vs. WSJ/Heritage Foundation Index of Economic Freedom for 195 nations Data courtesy of Wall Street Journal/Heritage Foundation and the World Bank In a comment to the … Read More
Spain Struggles Against the Keynesian Current
Mariano Rajoy, Prime Minister of Spain, addresses supporters in the 2011 electoral campaign Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons/manulqsa After the success of the Leave side in the Brexit election last Thursday, … Read More
Economics Is Mostly About Human Psychology
An African market: a place where economic balances are discovered Photo Credit: Freeimages.com/Stewart Aston Last night I was musing about how I could persuasively sell the idea that an economy’s functions … Read More
Comparing the Economies of All Countries on Earth
World Map of countries by per capita GDP in 2014 Image Credit: St. Louis Federal Reserve District Bank/FRED Plus or minus a few controversial states (like Taiwan, the Holy See, and Palastine), … Read More
The Fed Hangs Fire on Interest Rate Rise
Janet Yellen, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board of Governors Wikimedia Commons/U.S. Federal Reserve As widely expected, the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee (FOMC) hung fire on raising the … Read More
The U.S. Economy and Stock Markets, June 2016
Real quarterly, annualized GDP growth rate in percent from Q1 of 2008 to Q1 of 2016 Image Credit: St. Louis Federal Reserve District Bank/FRED Having just updated my Leading Economic … Read More
Are We No Longer a Nation of Laws?
Contemplation of Justice Image Credit: Flickr.com/dbking American Exceptionalism is an ideology based on the concept we rule ourselves through our government representatives, and that government is strictly limited … Read More
The Keynesian Emperors Have No New Clothes!
The Emperor has no new clothes! Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons/Vilhelm Pedersen (1820-1859) Given all their failures in suggesting successful economic policies around the world, one would have thought … Read More
The Thoughts that Haunt Me
A profligate government bureaucrat with you behind him! (c) Can Stock Photo More and more, the words haunting me are the ones I wrote in the final sentence of my … Read More
The Role of Ideology in Politics
The School of Athens, a place for the development of ideologies Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons/Raphael (1505) Many of the people with whom I have talked over my lifetime, if indeed not most, hated the … Read More
Donald Trump’s Lack of Knowledge
Sweeping up Hungarian banknotes after the Hungarian pengö was replaced in 1946. Wikimedia Commons/Mizerák István – Magyar Nemzeti Múzeum Történeti Fényképtára, Budapest Donald Trump’s loose lips could sink a whole … Read More
An Indonesian Reagan
Joko Widodo, President of Indonesia Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons/Government of Indonesia For a country that is widely reputed to have a lot of crony capitalism, Indonesia is pretty lucky to … Read More