Private saving and investment are the heart and soul of the dynamic market process. Together they provide and allocate the resources used to augment the economy’s productive capacity, generate sustained long-run economic growth, and thereby make possible a rising level of living. Economic crises interrupt this process by discouraging investors and causing them to...
Read More »

Joining the growing tide of those calling for an end to federal regime uncertainty, Moody’s economist Mark Zandi, a frequent adviser to Congressional Democrats, on CBS’s “Face the Nation” on the importance of quickly extending the tax cuts scheduled to expire at year end: I wouldn’t raise anyone’s taxes in 2011. I mean, I...
Read More »

The New York Times finally gets what we on the “free market “fringe” have said from the beginning (under Bush and now under Obama): Housing subsidies, easy credit, bribing banks to refinance those “under water,” and–even worse–extending “first-time homeowner” programs to the nth degree just doesn’t work! Artificial stimulation of housing caused this bubble....
Read More »

It must be a condition of employment that a journalist who writes about the current recession include in his article the statement, “consumption makes up more than two-thirds of the economy” or “consumption spending accounts for 70 percent of GDP.” This seemingly simple, factual statement, however, is nearly always intended to carry some explanatory...
Read More »

As businessmen, including many who supported Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, continue to go public with complaints about regime uncertainty and its discouraging effect on the economy’s recovery, some observers are speculating that the tycoons’ animus is driven at least in part by their sense of betrayal: they had recognized Obama as a member in...
Read More »

The Wall Street Journal has been polling economists throughout the recession on their forecasts, including for unemployment—which have not been very accurate—as well as advice on government policy. Their most recent response: “Economists Want Policy Makers to Back Off Now.” Despite the continuing challenging conditions, 30 out of 48 economists ... said the economy...
Read More »

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 enter the...
Read More »

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...
Read More »

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...
Read More »

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...
Read More »