All The Circle Bastiat
Will health care reform be successful? Capital Hill barbershops show noPresident Obama has promised that more government will make health care cheaper and more available.聽A comparison of two Capitol Hill barbershops sheds some light on whether the president has it right.
Obama's misguided views on fair tradeRecent remarks on China and fair trade illustrate some crucial errors in Obama's views.
The Pentagon is a gas guzzlerThe Pentagon spent $17.3 billion on oil in 2011, a 26 percent increase from 2010. This despite the Pentagon's public efforts to "go green."
Billionaire is the new millionaireThere were 230 billionaires worldwide a mere 14 years ago. Now, there are 1,226.
Will nationalizing mines make South African poverty worse?South Africa has a 20 percent unemployment rate and rampant poverty, which will only get worse if the government begins interfering in mining operations.
A democracy funded by the few (it's not the US)The聽South African Revenue Service announced聽a record number of tax returns filed this year. But the total is still from less than 10 percent of the population.聽
Trade creates wealth. Regulation destroys it.The auto industry is a perfect example of how regulation can hinder the market.
Beverly Hills goes vacantThe 90210 crowd are abandoning their underwater mansions in increasing numbers. Is this a bad sign for the rest of the country?
Half of Americans don't pay income tax. So what.The increase in reliance on government assistance is the problem, not a lack of people who pay income tax.
Why we're paying more for cornThanks to government subsidies supporting a specific type of corn farm, land value is increasing, and prices are going up. The same is true of other federally supported crops.
How to invest in the housing market. Really.Greg Lippmann, made a star by author Michael Lewis in The Big Short, for making millions on the housing collapse, is now taking the other side of the bet and buying mortgage backed securities. It seems foolish on the surface, but it's actually a shrewd investing opportunity.
Hillary Clinton's new job: At the world bank?Hillary Clinton has announced that she is interested in a job at the World Bank, opening up when Robert Zoellick retires.聽
Spanish real estate bust leads to ghost townsThousands of apartments and houses in Spanish towns go uninhabited after real estate demand evaporates.
Why the food stamp program is a fraudThe federal government vastly overstates the benefits the food stamp program provides low income families 鈥� which isn't worth the cost to the taxpayer.
Why do European central bankers sound like Austrian economists?After attending a European Central Bank workshop on global liquidity, the author learned that European monetary economists sound surprisingly like Austrian economists.聽
The decline of the shopping mallShopping malls across the country are experiencing near-record vacancy rates, thanks a flagging retail market.
Ron Paul's Fed chairmanFor both Paul and Gingrich, Jim Grant would be an important player in federal finances.
Is Ron Paul's gold standard idea dangerous?Ron Paul wants to end the Fed and go back to the gold standard. Many call that a dangerous idea, but the US was quite prosperous on the gold standard.
The free market doesn't make people poor. People do.Restricting free trade arrangements (beyond preventing the use of force and fraud on others) cannot solve the real problem, yet it hobbles the market鈥檚 ability to coordinate people鈥檚 cooperative and productive plans, causing harm in the misguided attempt to accomplish good.
Beware of China's housing bubbleThe housing frenzy has driven prices so high, so fast, that a crash on the scale of the real estate collapse in Japan in the 1990s is a virtual certainty in China
