Washington Post columnist Megan McArdle recently wrote that the best argument made in favor of limiting the size of the stimulus during the Great Recession—part of a larger conversation about austerity—was one of ethos. "We weren't spending the money in theory," she wrote, "or in 1945, when an ethos of fiscal responsibility prevailed. We were spending it in the 21st century, when that ethos had collapsed, so there was a considerable chance that when the good times finally rolled around, no politician would willingly undertake the sacrifices necessary to get the budget back in shape." She got ..read more

All politics are local politics, the saying goes. And Turkey's local elections, held this weekend, were a very good sign for the opposition to President Recep Tayyib Erdogan. Despite a very slanted playing field, opposition parties managed to outcompete Erdogan's conservative Justice and Development Party (AKP) nationwide for the first time in over two decades. The AKP's loss was something of a surprise. During last year's presidential elections, Erdogan had managed to eke out another four-year term. This time around, Turkish voters clearly rejected AKP rule—which has been marked by censorshi ..read more

Former President Donald Trump's plan to impose a 10 percent tariff on all imports to the United States would hike prices and cost the average American household $1,500 annually. That's the sobering conclusion reached by a new economic analysis from the Center for American Progress (CAP) Action Fund, a left-leaning think tank and advocacy organization. The proposed tariff, which would be applied on top of existing tariffs according to Trump's campaign, would translate into $1,500 in higher costs for the average American household. That includes "a $90 tax increase on food, a $90 tax increase o ..read more

The economy is growing, unemployment is low, wages are up, and inflation is down. However, the American people remain grumpy about the state of the economy. This puzzle was just investigated by four economists. They found that people often know that something is wrong even if statistics don't reflect the problem. In this case, people are perceiving that inflation is still, in fact, high. For months now, Americans have been told that inflation's downward trend, from almost 9 percent annually to around 3 percent, should make them feel good about the economy. But it isn't working. A recent Gallu ..read more

The Pennsylvania-based U.S. Steel company recently agreed to be purchased by the Tokyo-headquartered publicly traded company Nippon Steel. This deal makes sense to economists. It will encourage other foreign companies to invest in the U.S., creating wealth and new job opportunities, and further shoring up the U.S. economy, particularly amid inflation worries. More importantly, this deal makes sense to the owners of U.S. Steel. And yet, in our age of government shoving its fingers into everything, President Joe Biden announced that he opposes this purchase for muddled, misguided reasons. Forme ..read more

Few individuals have had a bigger impact on the libertarian movement than David Boaz, the longtime executive vice president of the Cato Institute. Boaz recently turned 70 and gave a keynote address at LibertyCon, the annual gathering of Students for Liberty, in Washington, D.C. Reason's Nick Gillespie caught up with Boaz to discuss the disarray in the libertarian movement, why he thinks the nonaggression principle and cosmopolitanism form the core of the movement, why libertarians can never seem to take wins when they get them, and whether there's anything to look forward ..read more

Four years ago, government officials told us, "Stay home!" We have "15 days to slow the spread." Days turned into months and then years, while officials chipped away at our freedoms. I have long been wary of politicians, but even I was surprised at how authoritarian many were eager to be. Some demanded police to go after people surfing. They took down the rims of basketball hoops. Children's playgrounds were taped up like crime scenes. They told people in rural Utah and Wyoming to stay in their homes. In the name of safety, politicians did many things that diminished our lives, without making ..read more

Inflation ticked up in the latest figures from the U.S. government's Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), released March 12. It's not a huge rise, but enough to keep the eroding value of the dollar in the headlines, feed Americans' dissatisfaction with the economy, and be received as very bad news by the White House. The president and his allies work hard to claim credit for what they tout as a thriving economy, but all they've done is link the Biden brand to rising prices and a general distaste for the president's management. Rising Prices, Again "The Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumer ..read more

What we know about the inflation report: A new Consumer Price Index report was released this morning. "Overall inflation is expected to hold steady at 3.1 percent on an annual basis. That's down notably from a 9.1 percent high in 2022, but still quicker than the roughly 2 percent that was normal before the 2020 pandemic," reports The New York Times. "After stripping out volatile food and fuel costs for a better sense of the underlying trend, inflation is expected to moderate to 3.7 percent, down from 3.9 percent in January compared with a year earlier." "The core consumer price inde ..read more

President Joe Biden will reportedly use tonight's State of the Union address to once more rail against what the White House has taken to calling "shrinkflation"—the annoying corporate practice of shrinking the size of products rather than raising prices. Politico reported this week that "recent drafts of Biden's State of the Union address have included a reference to shrinkflation as part of a broader segment on administration efforts to pressure companies to lower costs across the board." A White House spokesperson told the outlet that Biden "will continue to call out rip-offs such as shrink ..read more