Shrink the State. End the Fed. Balance the budget. Make a profit. Leave an inheritance.
Gary North
In his little 1944 masterpiece, Bureaucracy, Ludwig von Mises identified the supreme agent in the free market economy: the consumer. The capitalists, the enterprisers, and the farmers are instrumental in the conduct of economic affairs. They are at the helm and steer the ship. But they are not free to shape its course. They are [...]
Continue reading →The figure for first-time jobless claims — unemployment insurance claims — jumped to 360,000 last week. Anything above 350,000 is considered poor job growth. The figure had been below 330,000 the week before. The trend had been down. There were lots of stories on “happy days are here again.” Then, without warning, the figure wiped [...]
Continue reading →Unemployment has fallen, but it is still in recession-level territory. With respect to long-term unemployment (15 weeks to 26 weeks), it is rising fast. To prevent a return to 2008 numbers, the Federal Reserve creates $1 trillion a year to buy government bonds.
Continue reading →The vast majority of Americans drive to the office and then drive home. They do not telecommute. Working at home by means of the Internet is not a popular option. Over 80% of Americans do not work at home part time. It turns out that most of the hours worked by telecommuting are put in [...]
Continue reading →Janet Yellin is the Vice Chairman of the Federal Reserve System’s Board of Governors, a government agency. She recently gave a speech on how bad the unemployment situation has been, is, and will remain. But she ended on a note of optimism. It was an optimism that was not supported anywhere in her speech. Let [...]
Continue reading →The union that tried to create problems for Walmart in the Thanksgiving sales failed miserably. There were pickets at 26 stores nationally. It was a complete flop. Now the National Labor Relations Board has ordered the union to cease picketing. This means that the picketing was illegal after all, just as Walmart had claimed in [...]
Continue reading →The recovery is A-OK. Did jobless claims rise by 38,000, to 368,000 last week? Yes. No problem. The total number of people claiming benefits in all programs for the week ending January 12 was 5,914,983, an increase of 255,501 from the previous week. No problem. Did GNP fall in December? Yes. No problem. How do [...]
Continue reading →I regard survivalism as a legitimate lifestyle that is hedging against a series of events that are unlikely to take place, but which if they ever take place, would place the serious survivalist in a much better position to deal with these events than most others who live in an urban environment. The basic issue [...]
Continue reading →The USA gained 155,000 jobs in December 2012. In December 2011, it added 200,000 jobs. Something is wrong. Job growth is slowing down. Why? One reason is Obamacare. It now pays firms with about 50 people on their payrolls to fire workers, or to cut back their hours below 30 a week. This makes these [...]
Continue reading →The threat of fines totaling $2,000 a year for not providing health care to full-time workers will be a great subsidy for companies that supply part-time workers. They will be in greater demand. Workers who already work less than 30 hours a week will find lots of new competition. They are likely to be locked [...]
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