Bohanon & Curott: The Fed should have adhered to its target
During the current recovery, the Fed has abused its discretion, purchasing trillions in Treasury bonds and mortgage securities, flooding the economy with money and credit.
During the current recovery, the Fed has abused its discretion, purchasing trillions in Treasury bonds and mortgage securities, flooding the economy with money and credit.
The great economist Walter Williams said the primary economic justification for government is to protect its citizens from thugs, both foreign and domestic.
After Vietnam, Iraq and Afghanistan, the USA hasn’t the political will to engage in another war.
The best way to assess how our policymakers have performed is by gauging how well they have kept the dollar value of income in the economy—what economists call nominal gross domestic product (NGDP)—growing on its expected path.
But what if a majority of voters or their legislative representatives think universities, or, for that matter, K-12 schools, should or should not teach certain ideas?
A major contribution Milton Friedman made to economics was his observation that most people don’t spend as much out of their windfall gains as they do out of increases in income that are more permanent.
It is no accident Ball State is targeting older, longer-tenured and higher-paid employees to reduce its costs.
Price ceilings are self-defeating because they short-circuit the very process that mitigates the initial supply disruption.
The primary way billionaires contribute to our well-being is not through their charity or beneficence. Rather, it is by the innovations they typically introduce.
We are very pleased that President Biden plans to reappoint Jerome Powell as chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank. With all the economic uncertainty from the COVID omicron variant, rising inflation, supply-chain struggles and fiscal imbalances, this is not the time to rock the boat at the Fed with a new and untried leader.
When you reduce criminal penalties and stop prosecuting thugs, don’t be surprised when crime soars.
Plymouth Plantation, home of the Pilgrims of Thanksgiving fame, was founded in 1620 under a system of communal property rights. But that system didn’t last long.
The economic principle of revealed preference comes into play: what people do reveals their preferences. In the family’s own estimation, they are better off!
We’re sure the progressives will assure us they are only proposing going after billionaires and other fat cats who are able to pay.
Many well-meaning American donor organizations have organized and financed community water projects in poorer nations. Too often these efforts have failed.
Before we get too cocky, we’ll be the first to admit that some of our predictions haven’t quite worked out.
First, let’s all stop vilifying one another. Progressives are not barbarians, conservatives are not oppressors, and classical liberals are not anarchists.
In the villages with the mask campaigns, 43% of adults wore masks in public venues and 29% socially distanced, whereas only 13% wore masks and 24% socially distanced in villages that had no campaigns.
In 1940, deaths among those 65 years old and older were 9,719 per 100,000; by 2019, they had dropped to 4,753 per 100,000, a decline of over 50%.
Most obviously, the eviction moratorium protects the housing security of millions of Americans who lost their incomes during the pandemic through no fault of their own. However, by distorting the incentives for tenants and landlords, the moratorium also creates some unintended and undesirable consequences.