The Federal Government’s Projected Bankruptcy
Which Way Can We go! (c) Can Stock Photo / svanhorn There is no doubt about it! Unless the federal government drastically reduces mandatory entitlement expenditures in the near future, … Read More
Tag: Economic Conditions
Get Ready For the Real Revolution!
President-Elect Donald Trump conversing with President Barack Obama in the Oval Office, November 10, 2016 Wikimedia Commons / Pete Souza The shell-shocked mass media and progressive pundits still are having … Read More
European Dirigisme Continues to Unravel
Italy’s Beppe Grillo, head of the Italian Five-Star Movement in 2012 Wikimedia Commons / Niccolò Caranti Last Sunday’s Italian constitutional referendum marks yet another step in the slow unraveling of … Read More
A Nervous Face-off Against Chinese Imperialism
Naval vessel of the the People’s Liberation Army Navy. Center for Security Policy In the United States over the past eight years, China has found its perfect enemy, more concerned … Read More
Human Values and the Dictates of Reality
Are you ready for your soul to be weighed? Morguefile.com / Southernfried This is not an an essay on how human values and ethics are irreconcilable with Reality. At least … Read More
Turning of the Tide of Dirigisme?
Karl Marx (5 May 1818 – 14 March 1883): Is his time finally finished? Wikimedia Commons / John Jabez Edwin Mayall The administration of President Barack Obama may have marked the high-water mark … Read More
How a Bursting Stock Market Bubble Will Hurt Everyone
OOPS! A Bear! (c) Can Stock Photo Approximately eight years ago, progressives were screaming that capitalists had with their avaricious, dishonest and selfish behavior thrown us into another Great Depression. … Read More
Does Trump Have a Chance?
Screen shot from last night’s final Presidential Debate As aired by C-SPAN Donald J. Trump is certainly not an articulate man, a weakness that is especially troubling for an aspirant … Read More
Why Isn’t the US Economy Booming?
A wartime factory worker in 1940s Fort Worth, Texas Wikimedia Commons/Library of Congress, Prints and Photographs Division On opening up my online edition of the Wall Street Journal this morning, … Read More
U.S. Economy and Stock Markets, October 2016
The time-evolution of the GDPNow statistic from the Center for Quantitative Economic Research of the Federal Reserve Bank of Atlanta. Image Credit: Federal Reserve District Bank of Atlanta/Center for Quantitative … Read More
Labor Market Not Nearly As Good As Many Think
The kind of jobs that are available? A railroad work crew in 1941 near Bellefont, Kansas. Photo Credits: Wikimedia Commons/National Archives and Records Administration/Charles O’Rear, 1941, Photographer Many have been … Read More
Hillary and The Donald On the Economy
Our sad choices: Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump Photo Credits Left to Right: WikiMedia Commons/Voice of America, Wikimedia Commons/Michael Vadon On the day when Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump are … Read More
Economic Optimism Fading
The Wall Street Journal considers these three declining indicators as indicative of continuing economic stagnation. Wall Street Journal/Federal Reserve District Bank of St. Louis The Wall Street Journal has just … Read More
The Dirigiste Mind
Particularly notable dirigistes from the past. From top-left clockwise: King Louis XIV of France, Karl Marx, Adolf Hitler, Benito Mussolini Image Credits from top-left clockwise: Wikimedia Commons/Louvre Museum, Wikimedia Commons/John Jabez … Read More
Another Reason Not to Be Economically Optimistic
Dow Transportation Average Index on top, S&P 500 index on the bottom Image courtesy of StockCharts.com In my last post I gave several reasons why you should be economically pessimistic … Read More
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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 Anguish of a Conservative Voter
OMIGOD! Donald Trump is going to be the Republican nominee!! (c) Can Stock Photo Now that Donald Trump is the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party, what is a principled … Read More
The Fecklessness of the U.S. Federal Reserve
From Top Left Clockwise: Janet Yellen, Federal Reserve Chairman; Haruhiko Kuroda, Governor, Bank of Japan; Mario Draghi, President, European Central Bank Wikimedia Commons/ US Federal Reserve, World Economic Forum, Asian … Read More
Where Leftists Take Over, People Vote With Their Feet
Vietnamese boat people, 1984, rescued by the amphibious command ship USS Blue Ridge (LCC-19) Photo Credit: Wikimedia Commons/PH2 Phil Eggman, U.S. Navy The photo above shows an extreme example of … Read More