I’m in Vienna, Austria, for the annual European Resource Bank meeting. I had the pleasure last night of listening to Jose Pinera speak about economic reform in Chile, particularly the system of personal retirement accounts. He shared a chart that conclusively shows…
Daily Analysis
A Rare – and Encouraging – Glimpse at How a Free Market Could Work in the Health Sector
I’ve complained ad nauseam about how government has screwed up the health sector, both because of spending programs such as Medicare and Medicaid and because of tax and regulatory distortions that have mutated the supposedly private insurance market into some bizarre…
A Primer on Austrian Macroeconomics
I had the gall to share a video yesterday of me lecturing for an hour about the economics of public policy (followed by another hour of Q&A). Though I also included this link to a six-minute video on the same topic for folks who just wanted to skim the surface….
Everything You Ever Wanted to Know about Economic Policy
I’ve narrated a video that cites Economic Freedom of the World data to explain the five major factors that determine economic performance. But that video is only six minutes long, so I only skim the surface. For those of you who feel that you’re missing out, you can…
Relying on Dishonest Poverty Numbers, OECD Bureaucracy Urges America to Copy Europe and Adopt an even Bigger Welfare State
With many European nations already in the midst of a fiscal crisis caused by excessive government, and with most other industrialized nations heading down the same path thanks to aging populations and poorly designed entitlement programs, this would be a good time for…
Getting High with the Laffer Curve
Two of my favorite things in life are the Laffer Curve and the Georgia Bulldogs. So you know I’m going to approve when an economics professor from the University of Georgia writes a column about the power of the Laffer Curve. And since I’m a libertarian and the…
Discussing Europe’s Faux Austerity with John Stossel
I want a smaller burden of government spending, so you can only imagine how frustrating it is for me to observe the fight in Europe. On one side of the debate you have pro-spenders, who call themselves “growth” advocates, but are really just Keynesians. On the other…
Time to Say Something Nice about Obamacare
I’ve frequently argued that “third-party payer” is the main problem with the healthcare system. In simpler terms, this is the notion that a market won’t function very well if consumers think they’re spending someone else’s money. Why be a careful consumer, after all,…
Two Lessons from Calvin Coolidge
Last month, Amity Shlaes came to Cato to discuss her superb new book about Calvin Coolidge. I heard her discuss the book back in January while participating in Hillsdale College’s conference on the 100th anniversary of the income tax, but the book is so rich with…
Helping Workers…to the Unemployment Line
Several European nations are suffering from a fiscal crisis. But that’s just part of the story. They also have significantly lower incomes than the United States, with living standards about 30 percent-40 percent below American levels. And while many people are upset…