One more big reason to fear a Democrat-controlled U. S. Senate is spelled out in a new report from the Senate Democrats’ Special Committee on the Climate Crisis. The report essentially lays out how the Federal Reserve and several other regulators will add climate change risk management to their portfolios. Just what we need after […]
Davos and Stakeholder Capitalism
Ever since the Business Roundtable’s announcement last year of its advocacy of “stakeholder capitalism”, the notion that customers, employees, vendors, and suppliers are co-equal in strategic priority with corporate shareholders, the term as become the new buzzword in elite circles. Even Sen. Marco Rubio has chimed in with his version, which he calls “Common Good […]
Challenging Conservative Economic Faith
The chattering and intellectual crowd of conservatives, through conferences, panels, and periodicals, has begun to seriously discuss what conservatism will look like after Donald Trump. For a good example of this phenomenon, see “Capitalism Under Fire” in the May 2019 edition of The Texas Pilgrim. Further in that vein, Oren Cass, Senior Fellow at the […]
Good for Amazon
One of the many boondoggles of government incompetence and worthless spending has been the Job Corps, which for 55 years has provided vocational training to enrollees from impoverished backgrounds. But according to most observers, this $1.7 billion per year program has not produced the results intended. Graduates often end up in low-skill and low-wage jobs […]
Capitalism Under Fire
It’s not enough that capitalism is under attack by socialists of all stripes, the far left wing of the Democratic Party, and their fellow travelers in most of the mainstream media. It now becomes necessary to defend the most productive economic system in world history with many of its leading practitioners. For example, my friend […]
Our Trade Policy Resembles “Industrial Policy”
If you are of a certain age you will remember the term “industrial policy”, a derisive description popularized 30 or 40 years ago to denote practices of nations, particularly Japan at the time, whose governments engaged in “picking winners” in economic competition in the private sector through subsidies or regulatory carve-outs for favored industries. It […]
The Dangers of Economic Populism
We now have even more firm evidence that President Trump does not appear to fully understand the importance of trade policy in sustaining economic growth, building alliances, and supporting American security. Nor does he seem to grasp the basic economics of trade, i. e., that a trade deficit is the converse, or mirror image, of […]
Year End Potpourri
I don’t normally publish in December, but the rush of events and the fact that I missed a few opportunities during my flood displacement this fall encouraged me to break with custom and briefly comment on a few items. **In early November we passed the 100th anniversary of the final takeover by the Bolsheviks of […]
The Tax Bill and the New Fed Chairman
I realize that in this essay title I am mixing fiscal and monetary policy, which are two different policy areas, but should compliment each other, and often do not. The real message that needs to be heard in both arenas is that we need a heightened focus on economic growth. In fiscal policy, taxes and […]
Good Economic News, but Key Problems Persist
What’s not to like about the recent employment numbers–211,000 jobs added in April, unemployment at 4.4%, the lowest figure in ten years, and no significant decrease in workforce participation, which means that the job market may be tightening, possibly a precursor of wage increases, and business and consumer confidence are on the rise. But significant […]
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