By Mary L. G. Theroux •
Monday, August 15, 2011 3:19 PM PDT
As Dave Barry used to say, I’m not making this up. Deeply mired in the fatally flawed myth that World War II ended the Great Depression, Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman yesterday proposed that an invasion by space aliens would well provide the economic stimulus this country needs: As Dr. Robert Higgs has more than…
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By Robert Higgs •
Wednesday, August 3, 2011 11:28 AM PDT
The humor columnist for the New York Times, Paul Krugman, has recently taken to defending his vulgar Keynesianism against its critics by accusing them of making arguments that rely on the existence of a “confidence fairy.” By this mockery, Krugman seeks to dismiss the critics as unscientific blockheads, in contrast to his own supreme status…
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By Jonathan Bean •
Sunday, July 24, 2011 9:13 PM PDT
(Continued from previous post). During the 1932 campaign, Franklin Roosevelt had a reputation as a mealy-mouth politician who made many promises but held his real plans close to his chest. The following cartoons capture that well: Of course, we now know that with his First Inaugural address (listen here), FDR took on the role…
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By Mary L. G. Theroux •
Monday, July 11, 2011 11:56 PM PDT
Any day now I’m going to be accused of being a one-note blogger, but the TSA is just providing too much material to pass up. (Just for the record, I’m also known to post on Regime Uncertainty, education, the Census, and other issues.) Case in point: the TSA’s own blog, where “Blogger Bob”—presumably the…
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By Robert Higgs •
Thursday, June 23, 2011 1:49 PM PDT
Since late December 2008, the bank prime lending rate — the interest rate banks charge their best corporate customers — has remained steady at 3.25 percent. Meanwhile, during the same period, the excess reserves that commercial banks hold at the Fed have increased from $2 billion in August 2008 to $1,513 billion in May 2011. Ordinarily,…
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By Mary L. G. Theroux •
Friday, June 3, 2011 5:39 PM PDT
In a Bloomberg report today, “Economic Recovery Is Languishing as Americans Await Signal of Better Times,” Peter Coy casts about for explanations for why the economy is not in recovery, and ends with this offer: A Nobel prize goes to whoever can end this routine and get America growing again. OK, Mr. Coy, send…
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By David J. Theroux •
Thursday, March 17, 2011 10:12 PM PDT
In a new article for the Gannett newspapers, “Is this any way to run a government?”, Chuck Raasch interviews Robert Higgs, Senior Fellow at the Independent Institute and author of the book, Depression, War, and Cold War. With Congress debating a possible shutdown of the federal government, Dr. Higgs discusses why: “The government can…
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By Randall G. Holcombe •
Monday, February 7, 2011 11:02 AM PST
President Obama spoke to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce today (February 7), to try to encourage the CEOs of American businesses to do their share to reinvigorate the economy by investing, hiring, and matching what his administration has done through its various stimulus programs. In part, the president said, “As we work with you…
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By Robert Higgs •
Tuesday, November 9, 2010 12:13 PM PST
On November 4, an op-ed article written by Ben Bernanke, “What the Fed Did and Why: Supporting the Recovery and Sustaining Price Stability,” was published in the Washington Post. In this article, Bernanke presents an apologia for the Fed’s decision to undertake QE2, the purchase of $600 billion of longer-term U.S. government bonds during…
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By Carl P. Close •
Tuesday, September 21, 2010 8:59 AM PDT
This week’s Lighthouse discusses the Independent Institute’s new Government Cost Calculator at www.MyGovCost.org, Robert Higgs on regime uncertainty, Joseph R. Stromberg on the decline of the Fourth Amendment, and Alvaro Vargas Llosa on next week’s elections in Venezuela. Here are links to the individual items: 1. What Is Washington’s Spending Costing You? 2. It’s…
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