Economics

The Fallacies of Another New Deal, Part 1

by William L. Anderson March 1, 2009

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 As the financial panics on Wall Street seem to be never-ending, a lot of commentators are openly asking whether the United States will slide into something akin to the Great Depression of nearly 80 years ago. Certainly, there is real fear in the air, and at this writing, the current ...

Two Ways to Fight an Economic Depression

by Gregory Bresiger March 1, 2009

“There was a depression in 1920? Really?” That was the comment I received recently from a smart, usually well-informed editor. Yes, there was a depression. But it was over so fast that few people seem to have heard of it. Yet almost everyone knows about the Great ...

Obama’s Uninformed Optimism

by Sheldon Richman February 27, 2009

President Obama is optimistic that “We will rebuild, we will recover, and the United States of America will emerge stronger than before.” That and $5 will get you coffee at Starbucks — until inflation kicks in. In his appearance before Congress, Obama demonstrated he can give a speech. Big deal. We ...

Hope for Economic Wisdom

by Sheldon Richman January 30, 2009

Should people who disagree with Barack Obama hope he succeeds in his presidency? Conservatives are caught in this question because their leading radio star, Rush Limbaugh, said he hopes Obama fails. Radio stars need regular public controversy to keep their listeners tuned in, so there’s no point in analyzing what ...

Stimulating Consumption Won’t Help Economy

by Sheldon Richman January 16, 2009

Many politicians, economists, and pundits — under the influence of Keynesian “economics” — worry that Barack Obama’s stimulus package won’t be stimulative enough because too much of the money might go to people who won’t spend it. Typical is this recent editorial paragraph from the New York Times about the tax-cut component ...

Government Can’t Really Stimulate the Economy

by Sheldon Richman January 9, 2009

The money sluices are about to open wide on Capitol Hill. With a new Congress convened and a new president about to take office, we are likely to see record-shattering government expenditures. All inhibitions about deficit spending, as weak as they have been in recent years, are now dissolved. The ...

What Greenspan Missed

by Sheldon Richman January 1, 2009

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan made headlines around the world with this admission: “hose of us who have looked to the self-interest of lending institutions to protect shareholders’ equity (myself especially) are in a state of shocked disbelief. Such counterparty surveillance is a central pillar of our financial ...

Paper Money and the Constitution

by Rick Lynch January 1, 2009

Why do we have a Constitution? How and why did it come into existence? Just what, exactly, prompted the calling of the Constitutional Convention, which gave birth to it? Most Americans believe, logically enough, that with the passing of the British from the scene it was simply time to create a new government to take the place of the ...

Economic Stimulus Amounts to Central Planning

by Sheldon Richman December 17, 2008

That there will be a huge “stimulus” package in the early days of the Obama administration is a certainty. Nearly everyone thinks the government must do something drastic to, using President-elect Obama’s word, “jolt” the economy into recovery. That something is deficit spending on “infrastructure.” But it’s not as ...

No, the Government Can’t

by Sheldon Richman November 7, 2008

Barack Obama will assume the presidency on a wave of hope among millions of Americans that he will deliver on promises that countless politicians have made before him. Rising above partisanship and committed to solving long-festering problems, Obama will inspire and unify the American people and, as a result, ...

Economic Liberty Lecture Series: Austrian Economics and the Present Crisis

by Peter J. Boettke October 17, 2008

On October 6, 2008 at the inaugural lecture for The Future of Freedom Foundation’s “Economic Liberty Lecture Series,” Pete Boettke analyzed the current credit crisis from an Austrian perspective. No one is more qualified and the lecture series could not have started better.

The Corporate State Wins

by Sheldon Richman October 3, 2008

The Senate’s passage of the $700 billion bailout of Wall Street, and its presumed acceptance by the House, exposes once and for all the true nature of the American political-economic system. It is free-enterprise in name only. In fact, and especially for large well-connected companies, it is nothing of the ...