Very rarely do I have a reason to praise Chris Christie, but he delivered one today by winning his Supreme Court case granting states the power to legalize online gambling. 

Looking to the next few years ahead, is America and the world going to continue riding a wave of economic growth, improving standards of living, falling and lower unemployment, and technological changes that will continue to raise the quality and variety of life? Or will this turn out to be, at least partly, an artificial economic boom that will end in another economic and financial bust? Reading the economic tealeaves is never an easy task.

I recently traveled to Texas to speak about South Africa, at the Free Speech Forum of  the Texas A & M University.

To travel from the Pacific Northwest all the way to College Station, Texas, without experiencing more of the “Lone Star State” was not an option.

During the housing bubble that ended in 2007-8, the amount of new housing construction was remarkable. Enormous subdivisions were being constructed in metro areas across the land. Buildings of condominiums sprang up in city centers, and the ready availability of credit meant many were buying more than one house as “investments” or summer homes. New housing, it seemed, was everywhere. 

Only CNN was surprised by Donald Trump’s recent announcement that he was pulling the United States out of the Iran Deal negotiated by his predecessor. Following the same failed approach of the last Republican administration, the President opted for confrontation with the Iranian regime rather than uplifting more moderate factions within the country through trade.

[Newsweek column from June 25, 1951, and reprinted in Business Tides: The Newsweek Era of Henry Hazlitt.]

Regardless of what Congress actually does before June 30, it is instructive to consider what a sensible anti-inflationary legislative program would be like if we could get it.

Austrian economists have an great frustration of not being able to quickly change public policy in the short run despite having great theoretical insights on economics and policy.  However, we know that in the long run that we can help change public policy when we can use scientific insights and theories to change public opinion or ideology which in turn changes public policy.

A new piece in The Economist’s series on the shortcomings of the economics profession tackles the tricky question of the boundaries of economic science. It points out two flaws in the modern study of prices and exchange: first, the idea that “prices are all we need to know” about the economy and economic well-being. Second, the issue that “economists today still treat things which cannot easily be measured as if they matter less.”

This week, the governor of Iowa signed into law new restrictions on abortions in the state, prohibiting abortions in cases where a fetal heartbeat can be detected. This would make Iowa one of the most restrictive states in the Union in terms of abortions, prohibiting most abortions after six weeks into pregnancy.