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Read More »The Fed Is Helping Facilitate Trailer Park Evictions
The Federal Reserve is helping corporate real estate investors evict poor people from mobile home parks. NPR highlighted the growing number of mobile home part evictions. According to the report, real estate investors continue to buy up mobile home parks across the US. They then raise lot rents and fees, and evict residents who can’t pay. As the report explains, the government makes this scheme possible with easy financing through agencies such as Fannie Mae and...
Read More »Using the “Natural Interest Rate” In Setting Monetary Policy Is an Impossible Dream
"The ideas of economists and political philosophers, both when they are right and when they are wrong, are more powerful than is commonly understood. Indeed the world is ruled by little else. Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influence, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist."–John M. Keynes1 It is held by many commentators that the Fed’s monetary policy, which is aimed at achieving price stability, is the key...
Read More »A Legacy of Corruption in the FDA and Big Pharma
Our healthcare system is broken, a fact nobody would have disputed in precovid days. Regulatory capture is a reality, and the pharmaceutical industry is fraught with examples. Yet we trusted private-public partnerships to find an optimal solution to a global pandemic, assuming a crisis would bring out the best in historically corrupt institutions. Here is a brief list of less-than-savory behavior demonstrated by our titans of healthcare: Pfizer and Johnson &...
Read More »Preserving Capital through Bankruptcy
While bankruptcy has a negative connotation in the business world, “Bankruptcy fulfills the crucially important social function of preserving the available stock of capital.” Original Article: “Preserving Capital through Bankruptcy” The New York Times recently published a piece entitled “When Kmart Moved Out, Churches and Flea Markets Moved In.” The article, penned by Kevin Williams, provides an instructive subtitle: “The retailer’s former stores are being used...
Read More »What Texas’s Unilateral Immigration Policy Tells Us about Washington
Could Texas usher in a uniquely decentralized approach to immigration? Texas Governor Greg Abbott recently embarked on a unique policy drive to have the state government lead the charge on immigration policy. It’s no secret that talks of immigration evoke powerful emotions on both sides — another indication of the elevated levels of polarization present in the US. As I’ve previously mentioned, the present level of friction in Washington DC has effectively prevented...
Read More »How to Cheat with Cost-Benefit Analysis: Double Count the Benefits
[unable to retrieve full-text content]Because my economics courses focus on public policy, I often deal with benefit-cost analyses (BCA) in them. While little discussed, the central idea is simply to identify and include all the relevant benefits and costs of a decision, do our best to estimate their values, then choose the option that provides the greatest net benefits. Hardly a radical idea. It can be useful in disciplining our thinking to be more consistent. Benjamin Franklin employed a...
Read More »The Terrible Economic Ignorance Behind Covid Tradeoffs: My Speech to the Ron Paul Institute
Some of you may know the name Alex Berenson, the former New York Times journalist who comes from a left-liberal background. He has been absolutely fearless and tireless on Twitter over the past eighteen months, documenting the overreach and folly of covid policy—and the mixed reality behind official assurances on everything from social distancing to masks to vaccine efficacy. He became a one-man army against the prevailing covid narratives. Mr. Berenson is famous for...
Read More »Remember When Conservatives “Canceled” Anyone against the War on Terror? I Do.
[unable to retrieve full-text content]Life in American changed twenty years ago after the 9/11 attacks. Many Americans became enraged at anyone who did not swear allegiance to President George W. Bush’s antiterrorism crusade. Anyone who denied “they hate us for our freedoms” automatically became an enemy of freedom.
Read More »The Secret Ronald Reagan Told Me about Gold and Great Nations
Today [August 15] marks 50 years since President Richard Nixon closed the “gold window,” ending the ability of foreign governments to exchange United States dollars for gold. Nixon’s action severed the last link between the dollar and gold, giving the U.S. a fiat currency. America’s experiment with fiat has led to an explosion of consumer, business, and—especially—government debt. It has also caused increasing economic inequality, a boom-bubble-bust business cycle,...
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