The alarm raised by mainstream economists that corporate cost cutting will undermine the real foundation of the economy is based on a flawed view of the essence of savings. On the contrary, writes Frank Shostak, cost cutting is an important means in correcting previous erroneous decisions so that real wealth can be generated again.
The Enron scandal fueled the drive for campaign finance reform well enough for a campaign finance reform (CFR) bill to get signed into law. However, immediately after this occurred, various interest groups presented legal challenges to the new legislation based on its questionable compliance with the First Amendment.
When a politician talks of "reform," grab your wallet. As in "welfare reform," for example. For as any hardened inside-the-Beltway observer of dark Washington ways can tell you, "welfare reform" is typically a spin for tightening the screws on the taxpayer and easing welfare access.
At a time when the foundations of freedom are again threatened by collectivist hysteria, we need more books like the new one by Ed Younkins, that do away with the fallacies and reaffirm the tenets of a "just and proper political and economic order that is a true reflection of the nature of man and the world properly understood."
In economics literature, the rhetoric about "market failure" too often serves as a mask for boundless faith in the power of the state. D.W. MacKenzie examines the case of Joseph Stiglitz, who is always hopeful that government will change under his guidance.
Creating traditions of free trade, property rights, and entrepreneurship in an impoverished continent, often amid lethal tribal and religious conflict, will take decades to achieve. But it is the only way to throw off the yoke of foreign aid.
The latest self-appointed "savior" of capitalism is Senator John McCain of Arizona, who likes to speak of himself as "straight talking," but actually is nothing more than one of the many who are now pushing for destructive new regulations. William Anderson examines the proposals to empower politicians, of all people, to clean up business.
As soon as Abraham Lincoln and the new Republican Party gained power, the average tariff rate was quickly raised from a nominal 15 percent to 47 percent and higher, and remained at such levels for decades after the war. South Carolinian John C. Calhoun's free-trade arguments, as eloquent and advanced as they were, were no match for a federal military arsenal.
Economic life is an intricate global system of exchange, one that works without any central direction. It generates prosperity and its own form of order within the framework of liberty. This is what is sometimes termed the magic of the marketplace, and we should never under-estimate its power. We can see by looking south to Argentina how a failing economy, one thrown into shock by bad legislation and monetary policy, has destroyed the livelihoods of the entire population.
As oil and gasoline prices begin their annual rite of spring, I am waiting for another rite that occurs among media pundits and some economists—who ought to know better. That particular ritual is the accusation levied against oil companies that they are "manipulating the market" in order to force up prices. Like the oil companies two decades ago and electricity producers and distributors during the California crisis, the mantra is going to be repeated ad nauseum, "They are manipulating the market. That is why prices are increasing."
