Headlines
Interest on the National Debt—Who Does It Go To?
This week, to start off “Ask an Economist” for the year, I have a question from Stan K. about the national debt. I’m happy to report that after asking for questions in early January, I have received the most ever.
In Memory of Dr. James Gwartney (1940–2024)
A couple of weeks ago, I was informed of the passing of Dr. James (Jim) Gwartney. Professor Gwartney was a longtime professor at Florida State University, the director of the Gus A. Stavros Center for the Advancement of Free…
Justin Trudeau’s Rebuke from Court over Abuse of Emergency Powers Shows Why Checks and Balances Are Essential to Freedom
In February 2022, Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced he was invoking the 1988 Emergencies Act, a new Rubicon in Canadian history. The action marked the first time federal emergency powers had been activated in…
The Gambling Industry Wants to Make Fantasy Sports Leagues Illegal
Here's a sad and textbook case of how companies all too often use the strong-arm of government to destroy their competition. The online gambling industry in America spent years and years fighting against the powerful Las…
Taylor Swift Shows Us Why We Need to Shake Off Intellectual Property
Taking on Taylor Swift, a recent documentary on CNN, tells the story of Sean Hall and Nathan Butler, a pair of songwriters for the early 2000s hip-hop group 3LW. Hall and Butler sued Taylor Swift in 2021 over Swift’s hit song…
It’s Time to Stop the Prejudice against Mergers and Acquisitions
Change can be a challenge for industry giants, and new ideas are sometimes hard to come by for established and incumbent firms. Competitive inertia and NIH syndrome (a marketing acronym for Not Invented Here) can creep in…
What Seinfeld Can Teach You about the Government’s Senseless War on Appliances
The Biden administration took a major action in 2022 to show it meant business in a war that had quietly raged for years. The action was not related to the war in Afghanistan, which had just ended, or the conflict in Ukraine,…
Is NPR ‘State-Affiliated Media’? Their Coverage of the Federal Debt Certainly Suggests as Much
In late December, after US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen borrowed $90 billion in just one day, the federal government’s public debt eclipsed $34 trillion for the first time in history. The steady accumulation of public debt…
Why Australia Day Is a Holiday to Raise a Glass (Of Rum) To
This week—January 26—marks Australia Day, special in the fabled “Land Down Under” for two reasons. First, it was on this date in 1788 that the last of 11 ships in a British fleet landed at what is now Port Jackson near the…
The Rise and Fall of Japan’s First ‘Enlightenment’
In the Western world, we think of feudalism as predominant during the period from (roughly) the reign of Charlemagne to about 1500. That’s 700 years, a long time for serfdom to put down deep roots. Eventually it dissolved…
