How Antitrust Ruined the Movies

It wasn’t the free market, consumerism, or capitalism that killed the movies after World War II. It was antitrust regulation, as enforced by the Federal Trade Commission. This government intervention in the 1940s radically altered the structure of the film industry for the worse. The direct and immediate result was a decline in acting, scripts, scores, content, and the cultural contribution of films.

Should People Just Ignore Economists?

BusinessWeek has done us a favor by pointing out that most economists continue to accept the very theories that prevented them from anticipating the financial collapse. However, the magazine errs in concluding that we should now listen to those same economists. It would make more sense to ignore those economists that not only failed to predict but also had a hand in creating the crisis.

The Power of Gold

 

With the world economic crisis in full tilt, the US dollar is on the ropes and the clock is ticking. Chinese ministers have accused the United States of “squandering the world’s wealth” and have expressed immense distaste towards the US Government’s daily fiscal decisions. Special Drawing Rights (SDR), issued by the International Monetary Fund, has been proposed as a replacement as the world’s reserve currency.

Randy Barnett’s Proposed “Federalism Amendment”

Randy Barnett has an interesting article in the Wall Street Journal, “The Case for a Federalism Amendment,” where he proposes “that states petition for a convention to propose an amendment repealing the 16th Amendment authorizing an income tax,” or, “Alternatively, states could include the repeal of the 16th Amendment in a more comprehensive ‘Federalism Amendment.’”

Depression Update: Crocs to disappear forever

Well according to this article, Crocs will not live out the year. This means you’ll have to look at fewer people walking around in brightly colored plastic shoes, and only backs up Jeffrey Tucker’s theory that Depressions produce better style (among men at least).

But interestingly, the article also notes 11 other major brands that will die before year’s end. The Chrysler and Saturn line of cars will be gone as will at least one more major Airline.

History as Fiction Designed to Unite Us

Until late in the 19th century, most historians regarded themselves neither as social scientists (a concept that did not even exist before the 19th century) nor as humanistic scholars, but rather as literary men, men of letters. The stories they were telling were true, of course, but nonetheless they were telling stories, just as though they were novelists, and their job, as they saw it, was to tell their stories as vividly and poetically as any novelist.

The Nuttiness of Negative Interest Rates

In his April 18 New York Times op-ed, Harvard professor (and Bush adviser) Greg Mankiw calls on the Federal Reserve to promise future inflation, in order to fix the economy. Mankiw’s article beautifully illustrates what is wrong with today’s economics profession: it consists of very sharp guys (and gals) who can develop interesting models that spit out policy recommendations that would destroy the economy.