Shrink the State. End the Fed. Balance the budget. Make a profit. Leave an inheritance.
Gary North
Posted on April 15, 2014
A study recently released by Frontiers of Freedom suggests that in the Obama administration, money talks. The paper insists that crony capitalism is behind many of the Justice Department’s decisions when it comes to approving or rejecting mergers, and that “friends” of the Administration stand to gain enormous financial “gifts” in return for their generosity. […]
Continue reading →Posted on March 18, 2014
An unnamed Silicon Valley billionaire has purchased the world’s most valuable life insurance policy. The San Jose Mercury News reported Saturday that Guinness Book of World Record officials say the $201 million life insurance policy is more than double the previous record. A Southern California financial services company who helped put the deal together declined […]
Continue reading →Written by Gary North on February 24, 2014
I have learned over the last half-century that there are two litmus tests of an economist’s commitment to the idea of voluntary exchange as a means of increasing net productivity and net income. One of them is the doctrine of free trade. The other is the doctrine of minimum-wage legislation as a source of increased […]
Continue reading →Written by Gary North on February 6, 2014
Russia remains Russia: inefficient, shoddy, and careless workmanship. The workers are still the same as they were half a century ago. The free market has encouraged them to increase their output. But what gets produced is junk. What is a Potemkin village? Wikipedia says this: “According to the story, Grigory Potemkin erected fake settlements along […]
Continue reading →Written by Robert Murphy on December 27, 2013
My cousin has been asking me if I’m up to speed on the dangers of the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP). I explained to him that Paul Krugman had just declared that the TPP was no big deal, so I assumed it must be awful, but no–I didn’t really know much about it. After reading some of […]
Continue reading →Written by Gary North on November 20, 2013
Probably the most successful conceptual error that is promoted by defenders of tariffs is this one: “Tariffs are good for the nation.” Tariffs, being sales taxes, are good for the national government, but they are not good for the nation. At best, they are less bad for the nation than a graduated income tax. But […]
Continue reading →Written by Gary North on September 5, 2013
I am always astounded at what passes for economic analysis in the media. This is a recent example. Bloomberg ran a headline: Widening Trade Deficit Signals Improving U.S. Demand: Economy. I see. A trade deficit. Americans are borrowing more from abroad — foreign lenders — to buy things. What kind of things? We read: “The […]
Continue reading →Written by Gary North on July 11, 2013
Why would a huge steel production company build a plant in Texas? First, Texas has no labor unions to speak of. Second, America has cheap natural gas. With energy cheap, the USA has an advantage. To take advantage of this, America needs free trade. So does Austria. Will free traders in America pressure the federal […]
Continue reading →Written by Gary North on May 27, 2013
Gary North’s Reality Check This is a recent discussion between the Export Tariff Guy and the Free Trade Guy. ETG: What this country needs is an export tariff. FTG: How would it work? ETG: Every exporter would pay a tariff on the retail price of everything it exports. FTG: So, it’s a sales tax on […]
Continue reading →Written by Gary North on May 23, 2013
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 […]
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