As a libertarian, I accept that any relatively free society will tolerate certain disreputable business models and inadvisable personal choices. As a general principle, adults should largely be free to make their own decisions, even if they’re unwise. And prohibitionist policies…
Remember when Republicans on the campaign trail would talk about how they would make sure to put the U.S. on a fiscally sane path? I miss that time. While a few of the current crop have paid lip service to…
With the close of the U.S. Treasury’s fiscal year on September 30, 2023, there came an important update (provided by the Heritage Foundation) on the U.S. Treasury budget for the prior fiscal year. A brief summary of the update is…
There’s much talk this week about the need for a fiscal commission. The House Budget Committee held a hearing about it a few weeks ago. Pundits are Substacking about whether using the approach to put federal finances on a sustainable…
Some policy experts who, over the last few decades, saw little need for serious fiscal austerity because the government could borrow at low interest rates are now changing their tune. Their argument is that with rates now rising and the…
Congress and the Biden administration seem unaware that rising interest rates are about as “transitory” as they told us inflation would be — meaning, likely to be around for quite a while. Why does this matter? Ask someone who’s been…
Countless financial soothsayers and Wall Street wizards were once members of a curious cult. Their doctrine? The unshakable belief that interest rates had managed to find something resembling the fabled Fountain of Youth, leaving their numbers eternally low and never…
Junkies jonesing for a fix say anything to satisfy their addiction. Big-government addict Janet Yellen, who unfortunately also serves as secretary of the treasury (dangerous combination, that), wants more of her drug of choice, which, in her case, means money…
We Need to Talk About Inflation: 14 Urgent Lessons from the Last 2,000 Years By Stephen D. King (Yale University Press, 230 pages, $28) The current inflation rate in the USA is 5 percent, significantly down from its June 2022…
The nation needs the Congressional investigations, but they are, I caution again, predictably un-strategic, even awkward. Republicans stupidly sold the hearings as conclusive (thus inorganic), accordingly seen as partisan payback, not transparent good government. Lacking choreography, they appeal mainly to…