Taxes and Spending

Ryan, Tho, and Dr. Jonathan Newman discuss recent economics headlines, including interventions to prop up the yen, a bad jobs report, and troubling signs in bond markets.

California’s proposed billionaire wealth tax is being sold to voters as a way to replenish the state’s tax coffers with billions of new dollars. What it actually will do is to end the vital capital investment that has driven California’s economy for decades.

Some claim that if socialists understood economics they wouldn't be socialists. This is doubtful since the larger motivation is often political control.

The Universal Basic Income (UBI) is a bad idea that just won't die. Time to throw it on the ash heap of bad policies.

Norway sits on large oil deposits, yet has managed to avoid the “resource curse” that has bedeviled so many nations that have abundant natural resources, but severely mismanage their economies.

Norway sits on large oil deposits, yet has managed to avoid the “resource curse” that has bedeviled so many nations that have abundant natural resources, but severely mismanage their economies.

The prominent international commentator Saifedean Ammous

Keynesians claim that recessions occur because of a lack of consumer demand. However, demand comes from what we produce, so a growing economy needs more production.

Forget equity and fairness and reducing so-called wealth gaps. The current “tax-the-rich” movement is driven by an unspoken pathology: envy.

While China’s economy has boomed, many people wrongly associate that success with the Chinese government’s industrial policies. Intervention has created many problems there—just as it has done elsewhere.