Fishermen haul their catch near a fishery in Goa, India. 2016. Nobel Prize–winning economist Esther Duflo thinks rich countries should pay poor countries $500 billion in compensation each year for climate-change damages. It is our “moral debt.” She proposes an international 2-percent wealth tax on the ultra-rich and an increase in the global minimum corporate tax rate to fund this $500 billion transfer.  You and I may be shocked by such a suggestion but don’t worry: “It’s really necessary. And it’s reasonable. It’s not that hard.” Only someone in an elite, progressive bubble could say som ..read more

This Tax Increment Financing (TIF) designated community in Atlanta’s Westside now boasts a $1.6 billion stadium — and a 49 percent poverty rate. 2020. Article I, Section 10 of the US Constitution prohibits states from interfering with trade or inhibiting free commerce. But over the last half-century, we’ve witnessed the transfer of what some call tyrannical powers from the federal government to local governments.  Tyranny, large or small, is undesirable, and for all its benefits, decentralized government comes with the real danger of local tyrannies. Local special interests regularly form ..read more

Jerome Powell testifies before a Senate Subcommittee, 2016. Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell has realistically assessed the limits of the Fed’s knowledge, models, and legislative mandate.  Bravo!  His candor is far superior to any “pretense of knowledge” displayed by central banks and is a sound warning of the mission creep to which their regulatory activities are tempted.  Speaking at the Stanford Business School in early April, Powell observed that “Of course, the outlook is still quite uncertain.”  Indeed, inflation is looking worse than the Fed had hoped, long-ter ..read more

Cartoon by Thomas Nast, titled “Pacific Chivalry – Encouragement to Chinese Immigration” (engraved wood) Harper’s Weekly, 1869 Bipartisanship is often heralded as the pinnacle of legislative achievement. The recent votes on foreign aid to Taiwan, Israel, and Ukraine offered a display of this heraldry. But we should stop praising bipartisanship as a virtue. It is not inherently praiseworthy. Bipartisanship is praiseworthy as a byproduct of the legislative process. When powers are divided, mechanisms slow down legislation and encourage debate, and legislators will pass fewer laws. Thos ..read more

One of my favorite cartoons chronicles a man who lives in an apartment with an aggressive cat and a nice dog. The animals can talk, and argue, but their ability to reason is about what you’d expect: crude inference based on limited observation. The man is constantly irritated by what the cat and dog call “The Magic Food Cupboard.” In the pet’s minds, the shelf where their kibble is stored is literally “where food comes from.” They attribute the process to magic, of course, because that makes as much sense to them as some elaborate supply chain of purchases and delivery. As Arthur C. Clarke fa ..read more

An illustration from The Diary of a Girl in France in 1821 depicts washerwomen and tradespeople at work. 1912. In 1911, the labor activist and songwriter Joe Hill’s “The Preacher and the Slave” parodied the hymn “In the Sweet By-and-By” It dismissed the preachers’ exhortations and promises of a better future in eternity as lying, empty promises of “pie in the sky when you die” meant to keep the labor force docile and contentedly exploited. “You’ll get pie in the sky when you die (That’s a lie!)” — Joe Hill The answer, the song argues, is not to listen to the preachers or give money to the gri ..read more

Senator Elizabeth Warren speaks at a rally in Washington Square Park, 2019. Competitive pressures abound in a market-based economy, and companies need to determine quickly if there is a need to adjust their efforts or pivot their product offerings. Recently, Apple quit its pursuit for developing a self-driving car and has redirected efforts toward the development of in-home robotics. And this summer, we can preview what an automatized butler service could be like via the Apple TV Plus series, Sunny, slated to air in July. Apple’s competitive advantage in relation to product innovation and iOS ..read more

Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) participants pose for a group photo during a meeting in December 2022. A book that offers up the weighty observations of leading economists, academics, and policymakers on the highly topical subject of monetary policy should rightfully be a runaway bestseller. The trick, though, is to make the discussion not only relevant for readers, but engaging and motivating. While Americans are plenty focused on the angst-inducing effects of inflation, it turns out that endless dissection of Federal Reserve foibles using graphs, tables, charts, and econometric formulat ..read more

Interior roof of the rotunda, Texas State Capitol. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton was schooled on X recently. After he claimed “a unanimous 9-0 win at the Supreme Court” in a takings case, a “Readers added context” note was added to the post, noting, “Texas did not ‘win’, in fact it was the complete opposite. A 9-0 (sic) against Texas allowing the ranchers (sic) lawsuit to move forward.” You see, Paxton is defending the state from a claim for compensation for a government taking of property rights. That’s not exactly something you’d expect from a liberty-loving Texan.  The episode poin ..read more

 A staged photo of Nikola Tesla and power transmission equipment to accompany a feature in Century Magazine, “The Problem of Increasing Human Energy,”1899. It is often said that only a madman — or economist — could believe that we can have infinite growth on a finite planet. Resources are scarce and dwindling, we’re told. Day in and day out, we seem poised to use up some civilization-critical ingredient, or we might overuse materials to the point of our own downfall.  The mindset that makes people believe that we’re perennially on the cusp of some disaster is on display everywhere fr ..read more