For nearly 40 years, Independent Institute was led by a founder in whom the foundational principles of life and liberty were deeply ingrained—in both his mind and heart, rooted in reason and faith.
Why is the average quality of consumer goods so bad under central planning? For a peak behind the (literal) curtain, see this fascinating video:
Earlier this year, the EPA (Environmental Protection Agency) issued a proposed rulemaking on New Source Performance Standards for greenhouse gas (GHG) Emissions from New and Reconstructed Electric Utility Generating Units (EGUs). It is colloquially known as the “Power Plant Rule.”
Ever since 1974’s Congressional Budget and Impoundment Act became law, members of the U.S. Congress have had a horrible track record in obeying their own budget rules.
The 1970s called and they want their economic policy back. This may sound like a cheap quip against the growing popularity of attempts to control prices in the face of inflation. After all, France is implementing price controls right now, while Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau also forced grocery stores to come explain price hikes with the hint that he might start doing the same. These policies and scapegoating of businesses are the same as in the 1970s, hence the quip. But I could have quipped about any number of historical examples – the 1940s, the 1930s in Germany, the 1910s, the 1790s in France, and on and on. After all, as one aptly titled book made explicit – “forty centuries of wage and price controls” teach us exactly “how not to fight inflation.”
President Biden’s poll numbers are dismal, and one factor diminishing his reelection prospects is Kamala Harris. With questions surrounding President Biden’s age and health, there is a very real probability that a vote for the Biden-Harris ticket in 2024 would be a vote for Harris to ascend to the presidency, should Biden be unable to complete his term.
The Federal Reserve and the Biden administration seem to have a very casual attitude toward inflation. When inflation started to draw some attention, the Federal Reserve’s official line was that it was transitory.
Standard and Poor, Fitch Ratings, and Moody’s Investors Service are the “Big Three” credit scoring agencies that assign grades to the creditworthiness of governments. That matters because governments with good grades get to borrow money more cheaply than governments with low grades do. Governments that manage their fiscal policies well get the best credit scores and the lowest interest rates for the money they borrow.
The following are remarks I delivered to a Neighbors Together Oakland rally on Collaborative Ideas to Improve Public Safety
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Oakland’s elected officials have been making bad plans, ignoring citizens’ wishes for a long time. In the 1950s and ’60s, “urban renewal” destroyed vibrant West Oakland neighborhoods and a thriving black business district. In 2020, City Hall passed a homeless Encampment Management Policy that ignored Oaklanders’ wishes.
State and local governments in the western United States (the Ninth Circuit’s jurisdiction[1]) are bound by the appellate court’s 2018 homelessness decision in Martin v City of Boise,
[A]s long as there is no option of sleeping indoors, the government cannot criminalize indigent, homeless people for sleeping outdoors, on public property, on the false premise they had a choice in the matter.
