Free Republic

The 2012 presidential race will be, in part, a showdown between two different models of economic growth. President Barack Obama and his Democratic administration will defend the once-discredited and now-resurgent theory that government must act as the economy’s “tutor” and use public funds to stimulate it. The Republican nominee, presumably Mitt Romney, will advance the free-market argument that the main source of new growth is the innovative energy of American entrepreneurs and that government needs to get out of the way. An essential part of the free-market argument is “creative destruction,” a theory proposed by the great Austrian economist...

And if your brother becomes poor, and his means fail with you, and you shall uphold him: as a stranger and a settler shall he live with you. Take no interest from him or increase; but fear your G-d; so that your brother may live with you. You shall not give him your money with interest, or give your food for increase. I am Hashem your G-d, who brought you forth out of the land of Egypt, to give you the land of Canaan, to be your G-d. (From this week's Torah portion, Behar, Leviticus 25:35-38) The Torah portion of...

Abbott and Costello Do Unemployment (Someone e-mailed this cleverly written riff to me just after the April 2012 Obama unemployment figures were released. If they were alive, I am sure that Abbott and Costello would do a gag just like this.) COSTELLO: I want to talk about the unemployment rate in America . ABBOTT: Good Subject. Terrible times. It’s 9%. COSTELLO: That many people are out of work? ABBOTT: No, that’s 16%. COSTELLO: You just said 9%. ABBOTT: 9% Unemployed. COSTELLO: Right 9% out of work. ABBOTT: No, that’s 16%. COSTELLO: Okay, so it’s 16% unemployed. ABBOTT: No, that’s 9%…...

...Q: But isn’t the way it would actually go is the Republican Party would say that what we need is tax cuts? A: But that won’t work. Remember, they don’t like tax cuts for ordinary people. They like tax cuts for the rich. That will be very ineffectual. And they want to raise taxes on the undeserving poor. Q: Speaking of Keynes, are you surprised that Europe ended up so far on the other side of, so to speak, the Keynes curve? A: No. I know the Germans. They’ve never believed in any of this. They’re at a point that...

Sparks flew when Paul Krugman and Congressman Ron Paul faced off today on Bloomberg TV’s “Street Smart” with Trish Regan and Adam Johnson…. Watch below to hear Ron Paul’s ideas about staying in the Republican race…whether he would support Romney as nominee…how U.S. monetary policy is like the Roman Empire and why there should be legal competition to the U.S. dollar (yes, gold and silver). Hear NYT columnist Krugman fire back on the role U.S. government should play in regulating the market economy…what economist Milton Friedman really thought about government stimulus…and what is the right level for debt for U.S....

There is nothing quite like a $70 billion debt auction settlement at the last day of a month to bring total US debt to a record $15.692 trillion, which happens to be just $600 billion shy of the $16.394 trillion debt ceiling. (and no, contrary to simple economic textbook lesson, this does not mean that the private sector just got another $70 billion in debt capacity courtesy of taxpayers, as explained here). And now that we know what Q1 GDP was at the end of Q1, or namely $15.462 trillion, it is simply math to divine that today alone total...

Mitt Romney has some simple advice for students who want to start their own business: Just borrow money from your parents. The presumptive Republican presidential nominee made the suggestion Friday during a pit stop at Otterbein University in Ohio.

You know its bad when...the net flow of Mexicans into the US has fallen so much that there is a high probability that it is now in reverse ending around forty years of inward migration. The Pew Hispanic Center notes that the standstill - after more than 12 million current immigrants have entered the US - more than half of whom are illegal - appears to be the result of many factors including a weakened US job and construction market, tougher border enforcement, a rise in deportations, growing dangers associated with border crossing, a long-term decline in Mexico's birth rate,...

Back in February, after Argentine authorities inexplicably seized the contents of a U.S. military plane that was delivering equipment for a routine police-training exercise, a local official in the Buenos Aires city government summed up [1] the dismal state of her country’s foreign policy: “Our only friend right now is Hugo Chávez.” On April 16, President Cristina Kirchner poisoned yet another bilateral relationship when she announced the nationalization of a majority stake in Argentina’s biggest oil company, YPF, which is owned by the Spanish firm Repsol. Her move prompted outrage in Madrid and threats of retaliation. Meanwhile, the Spanish technology...

The worst may be yet to come in the global financial crisis as the central bank spending that kept defaults low runs out, according to Deutsche Bank AG. Credit-default swap prices imply that four or more European nations may suffer so-called credit events such as having to restructure their debt, strategists led by Jim Reid and Nick Burns said in a note. Although defaults have been low, recoveries are falling because the public spending that kept non-payments down has failed to spur economic growth, according to the analysts. "If these implied defaults come vaguely close to being realised then the...

Not since the "lost generation" of the First World War has the errors and miscalculations of their elders so disastrously affected the younger generation. Yet, today's youth seem curiously unaware of the bad hand dealt them. Witness the aimlessness of the Occupy Wall Street protest, whose cause and goal should have been clear. What enabled the young OWS protesters to camp out for months was their unemployed status. Indeed, the unemployment rate for all 16- to 24-year-olds is a stratospheric 17 percent. So jobs should have been their unambiguous and elemental cause. Instead, OWS squandered its energy on class warfare,...

WORLDWIDE E"COW"NOMICS - explained at last!SOCIALISM You have 2 cows. You give one to your neighbour. COMMUNISM You have 2 cows. The State takes both and gives you some milk. FASCISM You have 2 cows. The State takes both and sells you some milk. NAZISM You have 2 cows. The State takes both and shoots you. BUREAUCRATISM You have 2 cows. The State takes both, shoots one, milks the other, and then throws the milk away. TRADITIONAL CAPITALISM You have two cows. You sell one and buy a bull. Your herd multiplies, and the economy grows. You sell them and...

In this clip from the 1980 special 'Free To Choose,' socialist Frances Fox Piven tangles with economist Thomas Sowell. Sowell discusses the "process" versus aspiration - concluding that whatever the purported social goals of egalitarianism, liberty suffers.

California need not drown in debt and economic failure. So says Arthur Laffer, the happy advocate of a flat tax for California to solve the Golden State’s ills. We are inclined to favor a flat tax, as we’ve intimated and bellowed from time to time. And Laffer’s new book, Eureka! How to Fix California, is a blueprint for replacing the existing state and local taxes with a single, 5.8-percent flat income tax on personal unadjusted gross income. . .

Dr. Friedman discusses why freedom and fairness sometimes conflict; and how the free market solves this problem.

Imagine a city where all the major economic planks of the statist or "progressive" platform have been enacted: A "living wage" ordinance, far above the federal minimum wage, for all public employees and private contractors. A school system that spends significantly more per pupil than the national average. A powerful school employee union that militantly defends the exceptional pay, benefits and job security it has won for its members. Other government employee unions that do the same for their members. A tax system that aggressively redistributes income from businesses and the wealthy to the poor and to government bureaucracies. Would...

The next time you drive to the gas station, only to find prices are still sky high compared to just a few years ago, take notice of the rows of foreclosed houses you'll pass along the way. They may seem like two parts of a spell of economic bad luck, but high gas prices and home foreclosures are actually very much interrelated. Before most people were even aware there was an economic crisis, investment managers abandoned failing mortgage-backed securities and looked for other lucrative investments. What they settled on was oil futures. An oil future is simply a contract between...

Government spenders use a common playbook to convince policymakers to open the public purse. In it, the multiplier analysis is the most commonly called play. Residents expect demonstrable economic results from policymakers — especially with a 24-hour news cycle to account for their policies’ productivity. Thus, every state legislator is accountable to monthly employment statistics. Monthly employment fluctuations, however, are rarely caused solely by policymakers' actions, but rather by the complex interplay of economic forces. Regardless, Lansing insiders hold policymakers to a higher standard: proof is required that a politician’s policies pushed the economic needle. This environment creates a market...

Protectionism, and economic nationalism more generally, are usually held up by the supposed sophisticates today as dumb ideas. Sometimes, of course, they are. Bone-headed protectionism belongs in the junkyard of history with all the other ideologies rusting there. Nothing in this booklet is intended to defend it. But it can also be a smart, productive, pro-growth policy—and very much in the American and conservative traditions—when implemented correctly. The fundamental message of this booklet is that nations, including the U.S., should seek strategic, not unconditional integration with the rest of the world economy. Economic openness, like most things in life, is...

This question has gnawed at my brain ever since someone stated on another board (one pertaining to the radio-TV industry) that "control" of a company consists of owning a plurality of shares, not a majority.Can FReepers help me with this (with something other than a Wiki link)? I never took an economics course.ff