Presidential elections in the United States spawn Really Bad Economic Policies, and 2016 is a vintage year. Bernie Sanders is resurrecting socialism, and others seek to outdo him. However, before leaping into the abyss of campaign rhetoric, I first note that none of the current candidates are doing what Ron Paul did during his presidential primary campaign four years ago: expose misdoings of the Federal Reserve System.

CNBC reports today that a blind man is suing McDonalds for refusing him service at the drive-thru window. The man, Scott Magee of Louisiana, could not access the inside of the restaurant because it was after hours when the dining room was closed. Magee — who cannot drive a car — claims he attempted to purchase food at the drive-thru window on foot and was refused. 

New York Fed President Dudley recently commented that “real consumer spending growth appears to have moderated somewhat from the relatively robust pace of the second half of 2015.” While this may suggest headwinds from cyclical economic conditions, there are emerging signs that ultra-accommodative policy also acts as a constraint on consumer spending via income effects.

In early June, the Swiss will be called upon to make a historic decision. Switzerland is the first country worldwide to put the idea of an Unconditional Basic Income to a vote and the outcome of this referendum will set a strong precedent and establish a landmark in the evolution of this debate.

The socialists have engineered a semantic revolution in converting the meaning of terms into their opposite.

F.W. Taussig is most famous for his 1888 Tariff History of the United States and his 1911 Principles of Economics. Less well known is a book he wrote in the interim, Wages and Capital: An Examination of the Wages Fund Doctrine (1896).

Last month, central bankers and finance leaders from the Group of 7 (G-7) advanced economies met in Sendai to discuss the global economy at large. As expected, the United States cautioned Japan, a US currency watchlist country, to refrain from taking further steps to manipulate its currency.

Three recent stories regarding three government agencies — the IRS, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), and the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) — show why we should oppose big government for practical, as well as philosophical, reasons.

In recent months, many Americans have missed their flights because of longer-than-usual TSA security lines. In typical DC fashion, the TSA claims the delays are because of budget cuts, even though Congress regularly increases the TSA’s funding!