Amity Shlaes has written a fine piece in National Review Online on one particular aspect of the Great Depression having to do with minimum wages (NRO, May 7, 2014).  As she points out, recent research has changed the way we evaluate that event in economic history.  In case you don’t remember, the dominant narrative had been that […]

Allan Meltzer is perhaps the greatest living monetary economist; his A History of the Federal Reserve, is the definitive standard on the Fed.  He was a contemporary of Milton Friedman, and a noted monetarist scholar in his own right.  Discussing the Fed today, he ventures slightly off course: Broadly speaking, the Obama administration has pursued […]

Another commencement speaker bit the dust, as Condoleesa Rice, former Secretary of State, withdrew from her appointment to speak at Rutgers University, the New Jersey flagship institution of higher (or lower) education, due to the vocal and aggressive protests by a handful of faculty and students.  Now let me say that I was not in […]

Ron Swanson took my politics class! In my introductory government class, I had an exam turned in by “Ron Swanson.” I am attaching pictures of this piece of genius that some student took the time to craft, either instead of, or in addition to, their examination. I have no doubt that if Ron Swanson, of […]

We are all collectively the “point one percent” now.  That is, we live in an economy that measured ,1% (you read that right) growth in GDP in the first quarter of 2014.  Are we in for a “double dip” recession–have we really emerged from the previous one, despite fine economic definitions (and let’s be clear, […]

Readers should check out this short article in Investors.com on United States regulatory costs (April 30, 2014).  The article is entitled “U. S. Regulatory Costs are World’s No. 10 Economy.”  As the title suggests, the total cost in one year to affected parties of all Federal regulations is larger than all but ten of the […]

You know someone is not really concerned about carbon emissions if they reject natural gas and nuclear energy You know someone is not really serious about getting the deficit under control if they are in favor of near-term stimulus (more spending) and long-term spending cuts (i.e., when they are out of office) You know someone […]

Pity the poor people of Illinois.  They have perhaps the worst government policies in the nation, and have less than 43 cents on the dollar funded of their pension liabilities for the large public sector.  The state settled with the SEC in March after it was charged with securities violations in fraudulent reporting of its […]

Truth is sometimes uncomfortable, especially for those of us who want to cheer, sometimes uncritically, for one “side” versus the other. Fandom and devotion can be truth’s enemies, even in the political realm. Our preferred labels often override anything resembling objectivity. At its worst, this practice degenerates into a justification of “us” as we find […]

It isn’t widely reported, though religious liberties organizations are well aware, but religious liberties are under attack from a significant portion of the modern liberal political class.  More than that however, religion in general, specifically the Christian religion is being mocked by that same element.  Snickers could almost be audible when some public figure or […]