Apparently, the “Brains Trust” really is stupid if it doesn’t understand “Government and the Uncertainty Trap,” year after recessionary year. For years, economist and historian Robert Higgs emphasized (and measured) “regime uncertainty” as a cause of the Great Duration — i.e., why the Great Depression “lasted so long.” Higgs’ “delicious expression” is starting to...
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Big business leaders—heretofore merry shills for Obama’s disastrous policies—have finally woken up to the fact that such policies are bad even for those with friends in the White House. The Chairman of the Business Roundtable, a group whose support helped further ObamaCare, Cap-and-Trade, and any and all Keynesian “stimulus” spending, now warns: By reaching...
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Businesses—especially small businesses—that have managed to survive the ongoing depression face an even steeper uphill battle as Obama’s regime uncertainty continues to play out. They’ll now have to find the time and money to file an average—for small businesses—more than 200 additional tax forms annually, as explained by CNNMoney “Stealth IRS changes mean millions...
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Speaking to CNBC in Las Vegas recently, Steve Wynn, the billionaire developer and operator of entertainment properties, said: “Washington is unpredictable these days. No one has any idea what’s next . . . the uncertainty of the business climate in America is frightening, frightening to everybody, and it’s delaying recovery.” Wynn complains of “wild,...
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I was interviewed recently by Angel Martin for Libertad Digital, an interesting Spanish website. The interview was posted today. Topics discussed include the recent financial debacle, the current recession, the government’s recent policy actions, and several related, more general subjects, such as “regime uncertainty” and U.S. foreign policy. For those who might be interested...
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Not everyone has the stomach for perusing the national income and product accounts, but one who does can learn a great deal about what ails the present economy and about its prospects for returning to a healthier condition. (I draw the data I discuss here from Table B-2, “Real gross domestic product, 1960-2009,” in the...
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According to this article, small businesses are reluctant to hire because of the very real prospect of additional tax and regulatory burdens they will have to bear. The possibility that Obamacare will make them responsible for their employees’ health insurance expenses is but one example of the tax and regulatory burdens that may be...
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Has the recession ended? If not, do “green shoots” foretell a recovery’s advent in the near term? The answer, of course, depends on which indicators we check. Unfortunately, the mainstream economics profession and the public alike place too much emphasis on highly aggregative measures, such as estimates of quarterly GDP and the standard rate...
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Writing in today’s Wall Street Journal, Gary S. Becker, Steven J. Davis, and Kevin M. Murphy discuss how the government’s multifaceted efforts to “reform” health care, energy and environmental controls, financial regulation, taxation, monetary policy-making, and various other aspects of the politico-economic order have created such great uncertainty that business people are reluctant to...
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How many jobs has the “stimulus” package created? Sensible economists of course know this question cannot possibly be answered. Government spending directs resources toward politically favored projects at the expense of others, but the net effect on resource allocation, including the net effect on “jobs” — a heterogeneous category that depends on hours worked,...
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