Our high levels of malinvestment mean that negative interest rates will not have the steroidal effect that's hoped for. But they will deliver another few years of subpar debt-fueled economic activity.
Government policy has been driving out smaller providers and driving up healthcare costs. The covid-19 lockdowns will only make things worse.
Reparations advocates wish to tax countless millions of Americans descended from people who only arrived in the US after slavery was outlawed, and thus couldn't have possibly been responsible for slavery.
All price changes have real effects on demand for goods, and therefore alter goods' prices relative to one another. For this reason changes in the money supply can't fail to affect resource allocation.
It does not bode well for our society when proposals to simply expropriate property are becoming more and more prevalent and discussed with more seriousness.
At best, lockdowns have deferred death for a short time, but the lockdowns cannot possibly be continued for the long term.
As Ronald Hamowy put it, Cato's Letters is “unmatched for its breadth and vigor in the literature of the period.”
It is often claimed that inflation reduces the true burden of debt. This is true for existing debt, but those who advocate it as a remedy for government indebtedness fail to understand that it also increases the cost of the government’s future debt.
Arguments over the gold standard are not merely technical disagreements. Rather, the gold standard often serves as a proxy for “sound money,” which was a central element in the classical liberal tradition of limiting government’s ability to wreak havoc on society.
One of the standard criticisms of the free market point of view is that it treats individuals as isolated atoms who view other people only as means to the pursuit of their selfish ends.
