The policies the Fed cooked up during the mid-1990s that brought on the unsustainable boom (mistakenly called the "New Economy") are also the policies that Greenspan employed in the last year, ostensibly to give us a "soft landing." The government is now engaged in a number of foolish regulatory ventures that certainly will make economic life more difficult as we seek to climb out of this latest downturn.
Now that the economy is in a slump, many of the workers who gave up their welfare benefits are finding themselves without a job. Many of the industries that were most likely to hire former welfare recipients have been those worst affected by the recession. These workers are finding that they have no legal right to a resumption of welfare payments because the disgraceful Aid to Families with Dependent Children program was abolished.
AmeriCorps is little more than social work tinged with messianic delusions. Citizens should no longer be forced to pay hundreds of millions of dollars of taxes each year for a bunch of photo opportunities for politicians and do-gooders.
The Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development says it wants to eliminate tax havens because their practices are harmful, if not criminal. What it really wants is to eliminate tax competition.
By subsidizing sports facilities, governments are taxing average people and boosting the incomes of some very wealthy individuals. What justification exists for this practice?
The Hirohito gold coin was fixed at a very high legal-tender value in terms of yen. Then the price of gold fell.
Tax protestors prevailed and stopped a new tax. Some lawmakers called it "mob rule," but it was really just state taxpayers trying to preserve liberty.
Contrary to popular belief, interest rates have nothing to do with money. The attempt to manipulate interest via the money supply can only cause distortions.
The Alternative Minimum Tax was supposed to soak the rich. Predictably, it is now poised to soak huge swaths of the middle class.
Tax cuts are always a joy. But let's dispense with the fiction that they constitute an economic stimulus. For that, we need an increase of savings and dramatic spending cuts.
