In September 1993, President Bill Clinton reassured his radio audience that “if you work hard and play by the rules, you’ll be rewarded with a good life for yourself and a better chance for your children.” Picking up that theme over eighteen years later, President Barack Obama affirmed that “Americans who work hard and play by the rules every day deserve a government and a financial system that does the same.” The trouble is neit
How big is government in the United States? The answer depends on the concept used to define its size. Although many such concepts are available, and several are used from time to time, by far the most common measure, especially in studies by economists, is total government spending (G) as a percentage of the gross domestic product (GDP).
Central banks have embarked on a transition from relative secrecy to relative transparency over the last two decades. This has led researchers to investigate the ramifications of transparency on important economic outcomes. By and large, the results reported have been favorable, favorable with qualifications, or ambiguous. This paper examines the communications of officials from the Federal Reserve during 2007, the year between the end of the housing bubble and the beginning of the financial crisis.
All Keynesian roads lead to stagflation. That was the case in Europe and in the United States in the 1970s when both stagnation and inflation hit the economies at the same time. Currently, this is the case in Brazil.
In spite of a seemingly endless number of examples to the contrary, we continue to be confronted, even in 2015, with the widespread idea that technological innovation can destroy jobs and wealth. Each new labor-saving technology leads to worried speculations by those who fear any challenge to the status quo.
Some of the most fascinating innovation in digital markets happens in video game worlds. It wasn’t so long ago that the idea of an “in-game economy” was little more than a hopeful metaphor, but today, many games feature intricate and evolving marketplaces.
Lew Rockwell and Jeff Deist cordially invite you to join them at our upcoming Mises Circle in Stamford, Connecticut, on Thursday, May 7. Register here.
How many people in the United States have trouble buying enough food for their households? The number is surely larger than zero, but beyond that, we’ll never know more because the federal surveys that measure “food insecurity” are so hopelessly skewed, as to be useless.
Most economists hold that a growing economy requires a growing money stock, on grounds that an economic growth gives rise to a greater demand for money which must be accommodated.
Failing to do so, it is maintained, will lead to a decline in the prices of goods and services, which in turn will destabilize the economy and lead to an economic recession, or even worse, depression.
Like a good guy in an old Western determined to put things aright, George Selgin has once again arrived on the scene shooting from the hip--and displaying remarkably bad aim.
