Too Much Interest in College

No, I don’t mean that people are too interested in getting an education: I mean that a college education ends up imposing enormous interest costs on those who incur debt to finance it, and it’s even worse when you note the … Read More

The Fed, Jobs Bank for the Ruling Class

I really can understand why Americans increasingly feel that the system is rigged — to a large degree, it is. I don’t mean the system of free-market capitalism; freedom is non-rig-able, at least in the long run. It takes … Read More

Taiwan’s Mistake

The cure to deficits is not tax hikes, it is spending cuts. No amount of taxing the rich will exceed the political class’ appetite for spending. If Taiwan goes this direction it will mean a downgrade in the quality … Read More

Why College and Traditional IQ Measures Barely Matter

Great paragraph from Rich Karlgaard, which will be relevant to proponents of the College Bubble thesis such as Glenn Reynolds, Chris Bowyer, and others — how little college matters during most of your career. This rings true to me. … Read More

Surprise! Lerner Pleads the Fifth

“Appearing before Congress Wednesday, retired IRS official Lois Lerner once again pleaded the Fifth. When Rep. Darrell Issa demanded to know, for example, what Lerner meant when she said in one email, “Tea-party matter very dangerous,” she stonewalled. It was … Read More

Russia’s Security Dilemma

There is a concept in realist international relations theory called the “security dilemma.” Among other things, this refers to the inherent problem in international politics wherein state actions taken purely for defensive motivations almost always appear offensive in the eyes … Read More

El Laffer Curvo

Spain figures out that if you really want enough tax revenues to pay for government services you need low rates, simple compliance, and broad reach. In other words, don’t make a few people pay a lot, but make a lot … Read More

Time for Germany to Get Fracking

A new study by IHS, by my friend Daniel Yergin (well, acquaintance, at least), shows that Germany has lost large sums of export revenues due to its move towards highly expensive ‘green’ energy. I think that Germany — the … Read More

Captive Consumers: How Colleges Prepare Students For a Life of Debt

A certain industry gets five billion dollars a year in exchange for helping to get kids hooked on credit card debt. Why is the left not freaking out about this? Because they industry is higher education. These students are … Read More

The Anglosphere Privatization Wave Doesn’t Include U.S.

Australia is launching a 100 bn dollar privatization initiative. Britain sold part of its post office last year; New Zealand has recently been engaging in privatization too; even India has done some privatizing. But the U.S. stands out among ‘the … Read More

Why Bitcoins Won’t Become “Money”

In his book Money Mischief, Milton Friedman reported the well-known story of the monetary system of a small island in Micronesia. At the end of the 19th century, the inhabitants used stone wheels as a medium of exchange and … Read More

Messianic Multiculturalism Meets Reality

The European project originally was based on the idea of free-flowing capital, goods and labor in a market system. It’s post WWII founders saw fascism and communism as the problems and market economies as the solution.

But over time, … Read More

Reuters Rethinks Emerging Markets Rout Refrain

Another international media company back-peddles from the story that all emerging markets are doomed, doomed, doomed in the era of modest Fed tapering. We’ve steadfastly maintained that it is intellectually lazy to treat all developed economies the same, all emerging … Read More

Oh “Good” – Credit Card Debt Just Jumped

You gotta love mainstream, that is to say, Keynesian, media coverage. Credit card debt just jumped substantially last month and Reuters spins it as good economic news.

Perhaps consumer debt is not a good thing. Perhaps it’s better for people … Read More

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