I sometimes wonder whether journalists have the slightest idea of how capitalism works. In recent weeks, we’ve seen breathless reporting on the $2 billion loss at JP Morgan Chase, and now there’s a big kerfuffle about the falling value of Facebook stock. In response…
Daily Analysis
The Moral Case for Capitalism and Small Government
We know that the United States and most other developed nations are in deep trouble if we leave government policy on auto-pilot. And we know the painful day of reckoning will arrive even faster if we continue the Bush-Obama policies of expanding the burden of the…
Time to Follow Sweden’s Lead on Fiscal Policy
Sweden has a very large and expensive welfare state, but it’s actually becoming a bit of a role model for economic reform. I’ve already commented on the country’s impressive school choice system and noted that the Swedes have partially privatized their Social Security…
Labor, Capital, Entrepreneurship and Economic Growth
A problem in Washington is that people who specialize in particular fields are tempted to exaggerate the importance of their issues. To cite a couple of examples: People who work on monetary policy think their issue is most important, and you can understand why after…
The Small Business Administration Should Be Abolished
Being pro-market is not the same as being pro-business. A free market means that nobody is using the coercive power of government to obtain unearned goodies, and that is true for big business as well as big labor, or any particular segment of the population. Indeed,…
When Obama Rejects Government Intervention and Says It Is Better to “Let the Market Work on Its Own,” You Need to Read the Fine Print
Back in 2009, I got very excited when President Obama stated, “No business wants to invest in a place where the government skims 20 percent off the top.” Did that mean he wanted to reduce America’s punitive and anti-competitive corporate tax burden? Or maybe even fix…
What’s the Recipe for Growth and Prosperity?
What is the best way improve economic performance and boost living standards? If you listen to politicians, they would like us to think that adopting Policy A or repealing Policy B is a magic elixir. And if that means adopting a flat tax or repealing Obamacare, I’ll…
Lasting Economies Are Not Built
During his State of the Union speech, President Obama expressed his desire for an “economy built to last,” an oxymoron emblematic of the President’s embrace of Keynesianism and other failed economic philosophies. Simply put, strong economies are not…
The Price of Big Government: America Again Drops in Global Ranking of Economic Freedom
The 2012 Index of Economic Freedom has just been released. This is my favorite publication from the Heritage Foundation, and second only to the Economic Freedom of the World Index as a measure of global public policy. The news scores for 2012 are not pretty. We have…
Walter Williams on the Moral Difference Between Markets and Statism
Since starting this blog, I’ve cited several columns by Walter Williams (see here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here), in large part because he’s so good at explaining economic concepts, but also because he’s…