Over the years, I have heard many people say that the government’s adoption of a laissez-faire stance during a business recession or depression amounts to “do-nothing government”—the unstated assumption always being that it is better for the government to “do something” than to do nothing. Recommending such a hands-off stance is often described as...
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In late June Congress acted to freeze the interest rate on certain college loans at 3.4 percent for an additional year, claiming this move would help make college more affordable. Of course, a relative handful of college students saving a few dollars each month doesn’t translate into college affordability—and the Obama administration knows it....
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With every Keynesian trick having failed to bring the economy out of its post-meltdown Great Recession, and having apparently concluded that there’s no more conjuring they can do to improve it before the election, President Obama’s re-election strategists look to be latching firmly onto social issues. Really? In an era of continuing depression-level unemployment...
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When JPMorgan announced it had sustained a $2 billion trading loss a few weeks ago, some commentators, including Paul Krugman, argued that their irresponsible investing was more evidence that we need stronger financial regulation. The evidence in the JPM case actually shows the opposite. Krugman’s column presents the arguments on both sides. The correct...
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On May 8th, five economists, including our Research Fellow Peter Klein, appeared in testimony before the U.S. House Committee on Financial Services Domestic Monetary Policy and Technology Subcommittee, chaired by Congressman Ron Paul. The panelists included two economists from the Austrian School, two Keynesians, and one monetarist: Peter G. Klein, Research Fellow, The Independent...
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How has the vision of our forebears—of men and women, black, white, and every other complexion, standing tall, shoulder to shoulder, in free and full access to equal opportunities and enjoying the blessings of equal rights in the sanctity of our persons and property—devolved to skirmishes among dependent subjects of the state over the...
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Capitalism without bankruptcy is like religion without hell, the saying goes. The grain of truth here is that we depend on markets for error-correction; “people are fallible, but competition selects”, as Adam Smith well noted. But many who fail in the marketplace seek a way out via politics. This includes bail-outs, as well-documented in...
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Last week I posted a blog about crony capitalism, with the suggestion that crony capitalism is undesirable. The next day Vice President Joe Biden was bragging that he and President Obama support crony capitalism, as if crony capitalism is a good thing. Mr. Biden was criticizing Republican presidential candidates for their opposition to the...
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Here are a few good reasons to think about just how much more federal money ($5 billion and counting) should be poured into subsidizing electric cars: A new study from the University of Tennessee finds that electric cars cause worse pollution in China than standard gas-burning cars. The bottom line is that one has...
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Back in 2008, Mitt Romney published an editorial in the New York Times saying that American auto companies should go bankrupt. He’s received some criticism for that op-ed, but the criticism is unfair because in fact, under President Obama’s watch, they did go bankrupt. Romney defends his 2008 opinion here, and further criticizes the...
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