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As I write, the Democratic Congress is contemplating various measures designed to alleviate poverty levels in the United States. They include: the doubling of the minimum wage; the expansion of child credits. Let’s review both.
In an interview with National Public Radio’s “Morning Edition” program on Thursday, March 25, 2021, Fed chair Jerome Powell said that even with the economy rebounding faster than expected, any change in monetary policy would happen “very, very gradually over time and with great transparency. Rate increases would only be considered when the economy is all but fully recovered.” Powell also said that “as we make substantial further progress towards our goals we will gradually roll back, the $120 billion monthly bond purchases.”
Professor Toshio Murata of the Yokohama College of Commerce died on March 12, 2021, at the venerable age of ninety-seven. During World War II, he was a staff officer responsible for economic planning in Shanghai, under the Japanese occupation. He soon found out that central planning in a city of that size did not work, and, when his opinions become known to the central authorities, he was removed from his post. After the war, an American student sent him a copy of Human Action, and he was immediately convinced by Mises’s free market views.
It was about this time in March 2003 that the bombs began to fall on Baghdad. I remember it well. I watched with a bit of trepidation as the TV news carried image after image of phosphorescent flashes lighting up the black desert night sky. I wondered what would happen to American society as we entered what looked to be a long season of war.
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