Columns
The Buffett Rule Will Create Jobs?
In the Raleigh News and Observer last fall, David McAdams, associate professor of economics at Duke University’s Fuqua School of Business, claimed—contrary to even Keynesian economics—that President Obama’s proposed tax on millionaires would create jobs. The so-called Buffett rule, named after billionaire investor Warren Buffett, is supposed to ensure that “millionaires and billionaires” pay no [...]
23Feb2012 | Roy Cordato | 5 comments | ContinuedFearing Hayek
Economics and business reporter David Warsh is getting much attention for suggesting that F. A. Hayek, far from being one of the two most prominent economists of the 1930s—the other being Keynes—is rather more like the woman who was thought to have won the Boston marathon in 1980 when in fact she had joined the [...]
23Feb2012 | Sheldon Richman | 5 comments | ContinuedObamacare Abominations
President Obama says his health care “reform” will be good for business. Business has learned the truth. Three successful businessmen explained to me how Obamacare is a reason that unemployment stays high. Its length and complexity make businessmen wary of expanding. Mike Whalen, CEO of Heart of America Group, which runs hotels and restaurants, said [...]
23Feb2012 | John Stossel | 4 comments | ContinuedThe Case Against Sanctions on Iran
When I was a kid, Glen, the boy next door, once played a nasty trick on my brother, Paul. Glen held his cat in his arms, brought it within a few inches of Paul’s face, and pulled its tail. The suddenly angry cat bit Paul’s face. My brother and I were upset; we both thought [...]
23Feb2012 | David R. Henderson | 8 comments | ContinuedLawrence O’Donnell and Government Job-Creation
The commercial seems like a parody, but that sure looks like Lawrence O’Donnell of MSNBC’s “Last Word.” In the spot O’Donnell mocks politicians who say that “government can’t create jobs.” “The government created your job!” O’Donnell fires back, smiling triumphantly. Imagine: In a battle of wits with a phantom politician, O’Donnell lost. Of course he [...]
23Feb2012 | Sheldon Richman | 0 comments | ContinuedGlobal Warming Is about Social Science Too
It is perfectly possible to accept the science of global warming but reject the policies most often put forward to combat it.
23Feb2012 | Steven Horwitz | 16 comments | ContinuedAre We Looking at the Wrong Depression?
Today a lot of people are looking to economic history for help in understanding the current world economic situation and the options open to us. (This includes economists, many of whom have finally rediscovered an interest in economic history.) Most of this attention is being paid to the Great Depression of the 1930s. However, it [...]
22Feb2012 | Stephen Davies | 9 comments | ContinuedCollectivism as Apartism
Perhaps the secret of the classical liberalism that undergirds the free society is that it doesn’t ask us to agree on a endless laundry list of priorities in order to belong to the Great Society.
21Feb2012 | Sandy Ikeda | 7 comments | ContinuedIt’s Not about Contraception
When you bake a bad ingredient into a cake, no matter how nicely you decorate it, the cake will still be bad.
17Feb2012 | Sheldon Richman | 99 comments | ContinuedPets, Vets, and Borders
The artificial political boundaries human beings draw virtually disappear when it comes to nonhuman beings that are not subject to citizenship rules.
16Feb2012 | Steven Horwitz | 33 comments | ContinuedContraception: Insuring the Uninsurable
It makes no sense to talk about insuring against the eventuality that a particular person will reach child-bearing age and use contraception.
10Feb2012 | Sheldon Richman | 19 comments | ContinuedThe Snow Plowers’ Petition
Looking for the unseen effects of economic policy is the beginning of wisdom.
9Feb2012 | Steven Horwitz | 16 comments | ContinuedSuper Bowl versus Education?
It appears that spending on government education in one year was 324 times the amount companies spent on Super Bowl advertising over 20 years.
7Feb2012 | Sandy Ikeda | 17 comments | ContinuedCapitalism, Corporatism, and the Freed Market
The system that most immediately threatens individual liberty is corporatism.
3Feb2012 | Sheldon Richman | 22 comments | ContinuedCreating Jobs versus Creating Value
The next time anyone starts talking about job creation, stop listening. Jobs come into existence when entrepreneurs are free to create value.
2Feb2012 | Steven Horwitz | 27 comments | ContinuedThe Boston Red Sox and Bad Baseball Economics
If you don’t understand the law of supply and demand, you may end up promoting the very outcome you want to avoid.
1Feb2012 | Aaron Gordon | 5 comments | ContinuedThe Chimera of Tax Fairness
Let’s hear no more about tax fairness, unless it’s to point out that fairness is approached as tax rates move toward zero.
27Jan2012 | Sheldon Richman | 21 comments | Continued-
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