All Posts Tagged With: "tariffs"
FDR’s Lucky Timing
It’s not clear how any of FDR’s 1933 policies could have accounted for a 17 percent increase in GDP, even if they promoted expansion, because they wouldn’t have had time to ripple through the economy. It seems more likely that FDR had the good fortune to come into office near the bottom of the Depression, and enough adjustments in wages, prices, and other factors had occurred that the economy was ready to recover.
10Jun2009 | Jim Powell | 5 comments | ContinuedFrom Good Samaritan to Robin Hood
The clamor from interventionists against inequality morphs into a clamor for a larger and larger state. This path leads to the loss of liberty and a distortion of both democracy and justice. It distorts democracy because, by attempting to solve inequality, it removes limits to power and expands the field of state action. It distorts justice because the only way to solve inequality politically is for the state to have the power to treat individuals unequally. Thus the struggle to eliminate inequality ends up destroying the most important form of equality for an open society: equality before the law.
10Jun2009 | Carlos Rodríguez Braun | 1 comment | ContinuedLet’s Not Be Energy Independent
“Energy independence” is a term that sounds good but falls apart on closer examination. Although the United States could achieve energy independence, we could do so only at an enormous cost. Energy “dependence” is much cheaper and much more desirable.
Before considering the costs and benefits of energy independence, I should define my terms. What is [...]
Dry-Cleaning Economics in One Lesson
Another day, another news story about economic wackiness. Gas prices rise, the dollar sinks, and stores are limiting rice sales. What could be next? Clothes hangers.
Yes, clothes hangers. Marie Sledge, co-owner of Rome (Georgia) Cleaners, states, “Hangers last year at this time were $28 a box, where now they are $56.” News reports indicate that [...]
The End of Poverty: Economic Possibilities for Our Time
By Jeffrey D. Sachs Reviewed by Jude Blanchette
1Mar2007 | agardner | 0 comments | ContinuedFree Trade: Key to Peace and Prosperity
Contributing editor William Peterson (whpeterson@ aol.com) is an adjunct scholar with the Heritage Foundation.
At a time of international tension and a so-so economy, we are fortunate that the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas has issued its essay (online or in hard copy) “The Fruits of Free Trade.”
It comes from the Dallas Fed’s 2002 annual report, [...]
The Absurdity of "Saving Jobs"
Timothy Terrell teaches economics at Wofford College in Spartanburg, South Carolina.
In any period of economic distress there is a renewed search for political solutions to unemployment. It seems obvious that jobs must be saved, and the government must be the key to preserving those jobs. So we get another round of government intervention: economic stimulus [...]
Free Trade and Flexible Markets
Christopher Mayer, a commercial loan officer, is studying for his MBA at the University of Maryland.
International trade plays a critical and often overlooked role in the prosperity of the world’s economy. Imprudence on the part of governments can stifle growth and trigger painful unnecessary contractions. The Smoot-Hawley tariff of 1930 was a major cause [...]
The Civil War’s Tragic Legacy
Walter Williams is the John M. Olin Distinguished Professor of Economics and chairman of the economics department at George Mason University in Fairfax, Virginia.
The Civil War produced at least two important outcomes. First, although it was not President Lincoln’s intent, it freed slaves in the Confederate States. Second, it settled the question of whether [...]
Flies in the Sugar Bowl
Dr. Poirot is a member of the staff of the Foundation for Economic Education.
If anyone seeks an example of the utter and total failure of government intervention as a substitute for the free-market method of satisfying human wants, let him study the sugar situation in the United States.
In strict confidence, many an American [...]
Principles Are Inflexible
Extracted from Social Statics. New York: D. Appleton and Company, 1865.
Make a hole through a principle to admit a solitary exception, and, on one pretence or other, exceptions will by and by be thrust through after it, as to render the principle utterly good for nothing. In fact, if its consequences are closely traced, [...]
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The End of Prosperity: How Higher Taxes Will Doom the Economy–If We Let it Happen
By Arthur B. Laffer, Stephen Moore, and Peter J. Tanous
