U.S. Economy

Modern arguments for tariffs smack of the same old mercantilist arguments that have been refuted by economists going back to Adam Smith.

The American people have not seen widespread bank runs since 1933. In that object at least, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation has succeeded. But Scott Trask asks: at what cost? To insure deposits is to invite bad banking—and worse; it is to foster reckless speculation and unsound investments, help make inflation permanent instead of intermittent, obstruct the curative powers of economic contractions, and divorce freedom from responsibility.

Gold is the best money, because for centuries, as a result of countless individual choices, it has evolved as such. It was not imposed on the  market by force, but was cultivated in the soil of the market itself. Christopher Mayer explains.

By following U.S. Government policies from beginning to end, Bill Anderson writes, United and American airlines inadvertently aided those individuals who snuffed out nearly 3,000 lives through their vicious actions. Yet, we also know that to have thwarted those attacks would have turned some employees of United and American into felons.

Keynesian economics has few virtues, but Paul Krugman’s  book, the bulk of which collects many of his controversial columns for the New York Times, shows that even a Keynesian can on occasion have valuable things to say.

Why do governments get into bad situations so often? The real problem is not usually out and out corruption, writes Tibor Machan. The problem is systemic. Essentially, governments lack the needed basis for assessing the relationship between their resources and their expenses. They are unavoidably ill informed because the means by which that relationship is best understood is plainly unavailable for governments.

The answer is no, says Joseph Salerno. The Fed's performance has been astoundingly bad throughout Greenspan's tenure as Chairman. Perhaps worse, Greenspan has been a relentless purveyor of economic fallacies designed to obscure and justify this egregious performance. However, his departure from the stage might not be cause for unalloyed joy among proponents of sound money—Ben Bernanke could be lurking in the wings.

What free-marketeers don't always make explicit is that the government and media Chicken Littles are right in part: Corporations are indeed out to make a profit. Of this point we must first observe the first lesson of business economics, as taught by the classical school markets in the 18th century. The institutions of the market channel questionable motivations to a social end. 

Morgan Reynolds: "When the Bush administration took office in January, 2001, a downturn was already underway. The president and his coterie said so and blamed Clinton, but then hushed up. That was a mistake—a dose of truth about the economy would have worked better—but they learned an early lesson about psychology and confidence in Washington, D.C. Politics is all about (the) confidence (game) and prestige in the nation's capital."

It's easy to be depressed when you look around and see the state of monetary affairs, writes Christopher Mayer. But as many  historical vignettes show, we have one great force in our favor. The inability of governments to maintain fixed exchange rates in the face of opposing market forces is proof of the impotency government managers.