We spent a lovely evening with friends last night, enjoying a lovely dinner of baked potatoes with homemade chili garnished with bits d’bacon and locally-sourced shredded cheddar—the nearest Target isn’t that far, after all—and served with a sour cream reduction. Even the kids, who had gathered in the downstairs playroom to trade Halloween candy, liked it.

The COVID-19 pandemic gave us, among other evils, the bizarre spectacle of bipartisan calls for protectionist measures. In 2020, as the world reacted to the COVID-19 pandemic, shortages of key supplies quickly developed. Medical necessities such as personal protective equipment (PPE), inputs for various drugs, hand sanitizer, wipes, and even common household items like toilet paper disappeared from shelves and left consumers scrambling. The presence of these shortages became a bipartisan rallying cry for protectionism. Republican Senator J.D. Vance blamed a shortage of amoxicillin (a common treatment for ear infections) on free trade and has used it to issue calls for “reshoring.” Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen has endorsed protectionist policies in the name of “economic” and “national security.” Protectionism, they say, is necessary to shore up American supply chains and reduce fragility and vulnerability to the U.S. economy. 

When the Treasury Department released its final monthly statement for the U.S. government’s 2023 fiscal year, it reported the government’s budget deficit was $1.695 trillion. That is an increase of $320 billion from the deficit of $1.375 trillion it reported at the end of its 2022 fiscal year.

In the countdown to the 2024 presidential election, leading Republican candidate Donald Trump finds himself embattled in legal controversies. Within this context, a hotly debated question looms large: Can the President actually pardon himself?

When speaking to the New York Economics Club last week, Jerome Powell, the Chair of the Federal Reserve, did not mince words about the U.S. government’s fiscal situation. Barron’s Megan Cassella reported on his comments:

The Penn-Wharton Budget Model is a unique resource that can simulate how the U.S. government’s spending and tax policies affect the country’s economy. Because it has that capability, it may be used to predict how the economy’s response to federal spending and tax policies will impact the government’s fiscal situation many years into the future.

Anyone wanting to take a crash course in monetary matters could not do better than spending a few days in Argentina. 

California Governor Gavin Newsom recently signed Senate Bill 593, a measure designed to finance the construction of affordable housing units. The bill promises to rectify the historical injustice of the city’s urban renewal projects that destroyed low-income neighborhoods between 1955 and 1975.

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: