Economic Policy

While central banks use administered interest rates in hopes of emulating the natural rate, these efforts are always going to fail. Without free markets, there is no natural rate.

Some free-market advocates are pushing for dollarization in Argentina. But the devastating US sanctions against Panama in 1989 show us how dollarization helps the US exercise more hegemonic power over foreign economies. 

The US government doesn't just blow money in the US. Indeed, the reach of its wasteful spending spans the globe, and Congress seems incapable of stopping it.

Infamous hyperinflations like what hit Germany in 1923 did not begin as a flood. Instead, they started as smaller bouts of inflation initiated by governments that printed money to pay for deficit spending.

Andreas Granath joins Bob to discuss his recent article explaining the different definitions of "inflation" and why it matters.

The decision to use artificial intelligence–powered robots in the fast food industry depends upon differences in costs and performance between humans and robots. State minimum wage laws are pushing the industry toward robots.

Bastiat reminded his readers that economic analysis involves not just what we see on the surface, but also the costs that are hidden from view.

On yet another crusade, US authorities have sanctioned Chinese cotton imports. The sanctions won't change Chinese policies but they will create hardships for many.

Because California’s government has hamstrung electricity producers in the state, its legislature now wants EVs to be “bidirectional,” that is, to put power from their batteries back into the grid.

Alex Pollock explains to Bob the mechanics of the Fed's current insolvency and its implications for ordinary Americans.