There are a lot of wealthy, successful Americans who agree with me -- because they want to give something back. They know they didn't -- look, if you've been successful, you didn't get there on your own. You didn't get there on your own. I'm always struck by people who think, well, it must be because I was just so smart. There are a lot of smart people out there. It must be because I worked harder than everybody els
Where would the European economy be today without Germany? Compared with all the other states in the European Union, Germany is the viable cash cow for the rest to milk, and that's only because of the economic reforms that took place before the Great Recession hit.
It was the Social Democrats, led by Gerhard Schroder (in power from 1998-2005), who did what had to be done. His government lowered taxes, consolidated welfare programs and liberalized labor law enough to spare Germany ... (more)
The media is now fixated on an apparently new feature dominating the economic landscape: a "fiscal cliff" from which the United States will fall in January 2013. They see the danger arising from the simultaneous implementation of the $2 trillion in automatic spending cuts (spread over 10 years) agreed to in last year's debt ceiling vote and the expiration of the Bush era tax cuts. The economists to whom most reporters listen warn that the combined impact of reduced government spending an... (more)
The glaring omission of IP abolition/reform is rather odd. State granted monopolies (copyrights/software patents) enforced through the barrel of a gun are actively destroying the internet in the present, and they're the #1 threat to internet freedom in the future. - Chris
Here's a snapshot from the American landscape of convoluted crony capitalism: starting this September, if a man in Los Angeles buys a book from Amazon.com, the local sales tax he pays could go to the city of San Bernardino, which will then give 80 percent of the tax money back to Amazon itself.
Such roundabout arrangements of redistributive robbery are in fact an unavoidable consequence of the doctrine Mises called "interventionism." Nowadays, it is more often called "economic dev... (more)
JPMorgan benefited from the assumption that there’s a “very high likelihood” the U.S. government would back the bank’s bondholders and creditors if it defaulted on its debt, according to
U.S. tomato growers on Monday said they have formally asked the U.S. Commerce Department to tear up a pricing agreement with Mexican producers that they say has become "a charade."
Reggie Brown, executive vice president of the Florida Tomato Exchange, told Reuter
The political left wing has long tried to cast doubt on the fairness, and even the efficacy, of free market capitalism by branding it as a “trickle down” system. This epithet is meant to show how the middle and lower classes are dependent on scraps of wealth that happen to fall from the buffet table of the rich. This characterization of an unfair and inefficient system has helped them demonize policies that lower taxes (if they also extend to the wealthy) and reduce regulation on bu... (more)
I was just reading about how the median wage is lower today than it was a decade ago. Ouch. The cause, says this article, is inflation.
Inflation? That's interesting. Hardly anyone talks about that anymore. I can't remember the last time I read a mainstream article that so much as mentioned it as a problem. There is public consciousness about rising prices in specific sectors like education and health care. But is there really a general problem with inflation?
After the DJIA loses 251 points, Moody's finally released its rating cuts for 15 banks. According to Zero Hedge four firms were cut by a notch, 10 firms were downgraded two notches, and only one firm was cut three notches, with Morgan Stanley surviving with a two level drop rather than the th... (more)
