As a creature of Congress and, effectively, an arm of the US Treasury, everything it does has bearings on elections, consumer sentiment (and therefore incumbent approval ratings), and the wealth of the big political donor class.
Economists are fond of claiming that employing data and statistical analysis is actually “doing economics.” No, they are “doing data” and nothing more. Real economics employs real theories that explain economic phenomena.
No state regime is a business and it doesn't have a business model. Real businesses rely on free voluntary exchange with customers. States rely on violence and coercion.
Modern international law tends to grant a right to “remedial self-determination” only in extreme cases. Unfortunately, this position accepts that states ought to be free to violate human rights so long as the abuses fall short of war crimes and genocide.
In the wake of the financial meltdown fifteen years ago, some countries placed strict limits on piling on public debt. Despite cries that this harms investment opportunities, the ”debt brakes” have worked well.
When Adam Smith and the English classicals promoted division of labor as the most important ingredient in economic development, it took Carl Menger and his Austrian successors to point out that error and promote the proper economic theory of production.
Paul Krugman has declared a “better-than-Goldilocks soft landing” due to (his favored) measures of price inflation reaching two percent. What does the economy look like under the hood?
Continuing his examination of Scott Sehon's book on socialism, David Gordon asks if socialism violates people's rights. Gordon concludes that it does.
For close to eighty years, Argentina has been the world's poster child for reckless and spendthrift government. Today, the world watches it for a very different reason: Rothbardian reforms.
We don't think of Serbia as a “free” country, but there were movements toward limited government in the past. Unfortunately, the events of the twentieth century overwhelmed the freedom movements there.
