Socialist Hell Holes vs. Genuinely Emerging Markets

The Wall Street Journal was talking sense this morning about the riskiness of developing economies. Instead of the standard rhetoric that everyone outside of the developed world is in trouble, they’re starting to distinguish between socialist hell-holes like Venzuela and … Read More

Obama’s Entitlement Zones Vs. Xi’s Freedom Zones

A few weeks ago, on the 50th anniversary of the beginning of LBJ’s War on Poverty, President Obama announced the first of 20 ‘Promise Zones’. To briefly summarize, these zones are relatively poor cities or counties where there will … Read More

China Business Tax Cuts Led to Lower Deficit

Once again we see the Laffer Curve, originated by my friend Arthur Laffer (Tip of the hat, via Ford Scudder). China did a little stimulus last year, but in general China’s policy was towards tighter money and lower taxes, which … Read More

Poland Goes From Hero to Zero

The Financial Times has it about right. Poland has been heroic in its moves away from socialism towards a free-market order. Fairly low and flat taxes, limitations in government spending, much lower debt than the developed world. But next week’s move … Read More

Press Moving Toward Understanding Emerging Market Crisis

I’m glad to see the WSJ and now the FT moving beyond the kill ’em all and let God sort ’em out approach to emerging markets. How a country behaves matters very much. Some have controlled spending and operated some … Read More

Japan’s Third Arrow Not So Sharp

Shinzo Abe promised to get the Japanese economy growing again with a ‘three arrow’ plan. The first two arrows were pure Keynesianism: unlimited monetary easing, and a huge borrowing spending plan. The third arrow was to be deregulation. But … Read More

France’s Bizarre Reason to Increase Economic Growth

French President, Francois Hollande, announced plans for business tax cuts and reiterated plans for some modest government spending cuts. Strangely, instead of focusing on the welfare of the French people should the economy continue to suffer, he pointed to … Read More

World’s Second Largest Nation Takes Another Step Away From Keynes

India’s central bank is moving away from its reliance on a wide array of aggregate economic metrics, some of which are based on the flawed Keynesian model, to focus exclusively on fighting consumer price inflation in its monetary policy. … Read More

Europe Wisely Considers Abandoning Its Utopian Green Dream

The Green Bubble started in Europe, therefore it popped first in Europe, therefore its painful lessons were learned first by Europe. Green subsidies, especially in Spain, were a significant factor in the European credit crisis. Now Europe is wisely … Read More

Are Downton Abbey Nobles “Monsters”?

Last year I wrote a column for Forbes pointing out ways in which left-wing critics were attacking the popular Downton Abbey TV series. The response of many angry readers was to simply ignore the quotes and links in my article … Read More

Blatant Pension Expropriation

In general Poland has been moving towards greater economic freedom and stronger property rights. This trend made them the only European nation which did not suffer a recession during the European debt crisis.

But they’re taking a big step backwards … Read More

Fee at Last

They call it a fee, but it’s really a tax. The next tax hike of ObamaCare hit on Jan. 1. It’s a tax on medical devices and prescription drugs which is imposed through health insurance companies, because, you know, they … Read More

Well-Rounded?

Forget the argument that an elite college education is necessary to make one well-rounded, because it is increasingly likely to make one block-headed, narrow, ignorant and proud of it. The notion that, even though college might not be worth the … Read More

Why Does the Economy Feel So Bad?

A large majority of Americans are convinced that the economy is performing quite poorly. But usually after a recession the economy recovers quite quickly, and the deeper the recession, the stronger the recovery. This time is different, because this time … Read More

More Sticks and Carrots Capitalism From Japan

This year capital gains rates doubled, but you can avoid that if you put the money into a special account which can only hold Japanese equities. The proper way to get people to buy stocks is to make them attractive … Read More

Dear President Obama: I’m Only My Brother’s Keeper If My Brother Is My Sheep

Since Obama chose to repeat his abuse of the Scriptural phrase ‘brother’s keeper’ in his Christmas remarks. I thought I’d re-post my detailed refutation of the idea that the Bible says that we are supposed to be our brothers’ keepers. … Read More

The Hypocrisy of Humanitarian Interventions

If the current trend of the Syrian Civil War is not reversed, it will end in an Assad victory. And the recent in-fighting between opposition forces only makes that outcome more likely.

Much like the situation in Libya before … Read More

An Important New Book Which When Heeded Could Make a Difference

Ned Phelps’ new book is full of ideas which are both surprising and yet well supported by data and historical analysis. His respectful rebuttal of Schumpeter is worth the price of the book in and of itself. The distinction between … Read More

Ex-Central Planner Sees Error of Central Planning — Too Late

Good review of Alan Greenspan’s new book by international economist, Richard Rahn. It almost makes me want to read the book… almost. Main point is that after he has given up the levers of power, Greenspan has seen that central … Read More

The Most Important Chart For 2013

As we ring out the old and ring in the new, investors face what seems a fresh world of opportunity. After all, stock market gains exceeded 20% last year, with “more of the same, but not quite as much” on … Read More

Malaysia Cuts Spending, Gets Bond Rating Upgrade

The thing about being a small, emerging market country as opposed to a developed world welfare state, is that you can’t get away with fiscal bloat for long. Markets punish bad ideas quickly. That’s why Malaysia has been forced … Read More

China’s East Asian Gamble

The general consensus among analysts regarding the expanded Air Defense Identification Zone established by the People’s Republic of China in November is that it was simply a mistake. But when you consider the possibility that China is playing for … Read More

Spain Chooses Short Term Pain

… Which is a lot smarter than long term insolvency. If you don’t have many children and those few children don’t have many children, then you simply cannot afford the most generous pension system in the world, because there’s nobody left … Read More

The Middle-Eastern Power Vacuum

One of the central, but mostly unstated, foreign policy goals of the Obama Administration has been to decrease US involvement in the Middle-East. The Iraq War is over, the Afghanistan War is nearing its close, the US declined to … Read More