Argentina cannot afford to wait for an IMF rescue package, which will only prolong the current unsustainable monetary regime. It must act now to reform its paralyzed monetary and financial system. In this interview, QJAE editor Joseph Salerno discusses the financial and banking chaos in Argentina.
Arthur Andersen's transgressions have opened the doors to unbridled regulatory madness, writes Karen De Coster. The effect of legislation (like CARTA) will be to replace the oversight bodies that currently watch over the accounting profession with regulators who will do an even worse job of it.
This is how government works: If you can be really egregious at what you do--say you run Amtrak, the Defense or Education departments or, better yet, the SEC--you scream out that there is a dire national need. Then it will be easy to find legislators to turn on the money spigot for you and give you “whatever” you need.
In a recent article, New York Times writer Paul Krugman puts out a clever analysis of state demographics. He alleges that the pro-Bush states have more crime, divorce, single moms and net-tax eaters than the pro-Gore states. Krugman's analytic knife, however, doesn’t cut deeply enough to get to the truth of the matter.
It was only a matter of time before the Feds realized that political capital could be created from the Enron mess. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is now investigating all electricity sellers for evidence of pricing schemes employed during California’s energy crisis. In true Soviet-like fashion, the FERC has issued a deadline by which suspected firms must “admit or deny” their complicity in engaging in spurious pricing schemes during the time period.
The Swedes, we have been told, enjoy free medical care, generous welfare benefits, time off from work, and subsidies for just about everything. According to a recent study, however, the cat is out of the bag: relative to families in the United States, Swedish family income is considerably less.
Free trade creates wealth, writes Gary Galles. But when free trade threatens the wallets of interest groups, support for government restrictions to protect them in order to assure "fair" trade suddenly blossoms--only because that sounds better than "gimme money." It is still just a form of welfare, which can only impoverish Americans by restricting our access to lower-cost sources of supply.
Individuals and foundations have sunk millions of dollars into D.C. "think tanks" and seminars, writes William Anderson, in hopes of teaching economics to those who are in positions of political leadership. Lest we be tempted to think this is working, read the latest U.S. Senate "investigative report" on oil prices. The political classes and their media allies have cooked up yet another conspiracy theory on the evils of private enterprise.
In his first inaugural address, Lincoln said he had no intention of disturbing slavery, and he appealed to all his past speeches to any who may have doubted him. But with the tariff it was different, notes Thomas DiLorenzo. Lincoln was willing to launch an invasion that would ultimately cost the lives of 620,000 Americans to prove his point.
Mark Thornton shows that George Lucas is taking bits and pieces of our own historical experience to retell a battle between good and evil that also touches on themes in political economy, particularly the choice between self-determination (essential to freedom) and imperialism (linked to war and state expansion).
