Taxes and Spending

Daniel Lacalle joins Bob to tout the BBB as a pro-growth piece of legislation that is as good as libertarians are going to get.

Trump's now-infamous “Big, Beautiful Bill” has become the classic bait-and-switch, in which the president promises fiscal responsibility as a candidate but delivers profligacy when he reaches the White House.

Protectionism really isn‘t a theory of betterment for all but a claim that certain people in certain occupations are special. They must be paid more handsomely than the market—meaning you and me—wishes to pay. It will be big business and big labor who will be the beneficiaries of tariffs.

Modern macroeconomic theory claims that government spending, taxation, and monetary creation is essential for economic growth. Austrian Economists, however, note that government stifles the economy.

While President Trump rails against US trade deficits, he forgets that they are due to the fact that the US dollar is the world‘s reserve currency. This, in turn, encourages deficit spending and a bloated national debt.

Elon Musk has found out the hard way that one can ferret out hundreds of billions of dollars that Congress wastes, but fail in getting its members to stop wasteful spending. Jim Bovard learned that hard lesson 30 years ago.

President Trump‘s so-called “One Big, Beautiful Bill” is more of the same: big and bloated. It adds billions to the federal deficit and does nothing to deal with the government‘s ruinous debt. Naturally, the Republicans support it.

The Trump administration has pursued a high tariff policy, reversing the movement to lower trade barriers around the world. The justification for this policy is the presence of trade deficits with other nations. However, what if  US trade deficits don't matter?

There are numerous critics of free markets. However, all of those critics also are consumers and they gladly depend upon free markets to satisfy their needs.

Forbes called this explosive loan situation, a “perfect storm…of heavier debt loads, higher payments, and an unforgiving economy.”