by Dan Mitchell | Mar 24, 2020 | Blogs, Economics, Health Care
In the past couple of weeks, we’ve discussed a bunch of coronavirus-related issues, ranging from big-picture topics such as the proper role of government and the catastrophic downsides of excessive bureaucracy to more-focused topics such as how gun control puts...
by Dan Mitchell | Mar 17, 2020 | Blogs, Economics, Free Market
After Hitler’s National Socialists were defeated in World War II, the allies imposed price controls on the German economy for the ostensible purposes of fighting inflation and preventing “price gouging.” That policy led to massive shortages, black markets, and...
by Dan Mitchell | Mar 4, 2020 | Blogs, Economics, Monetary Policy
The coronavirus is a genuine threat to prosperity, at least in the short run, in large part because it is causing a contraction in global trade. The silver lining to that dark cloud is that President Trump may learn that trade is actually good rather than bad. But...
by Dan Mitchell | Feb 23, 2020 | Blogs, Economics, Trade
Early last year, I shared a video explaining that trade deficits generally don’t matter. I even suggested trade deficits might be a sign of economic strength because foreigners who earned dollars were anxious to invest them in the American economy. I’m recycling this...
by Dan Mitchell | Jan 28, 2020 | Blogs, Economics, Free Market
Back in 2014, I compared Hong Kong’s amazing growth with Cuba’s pitiful stagnation and made the obvious point that free markets and limited government are the right recipe for prosperity. Especially if you care about improving the lives of the less fortunate....