I pose this question seriously, not as a physiologist, but as an economic historian. I am provoked to raise the question by an advertisement that Amazon sent me recently, calling my attention a book titled Can Capitalism Survive? Creative Destruction and the Future of the Global Economy. Seeing this sales pitch, my immediate reaction…
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Regime uncertainty has gained increasing recognition as the current economic troubles have persisted with little or no improvement since the economy reached a cyclical trough early in 2009. As described in my 1997 paper, regime uncertainty pertains to “the likelihood that investors� private property rights in their capital and the income it yields will…
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Independent Institute Senior Fellow William F. Shughart II‘s new article, “We must cut taxes, curb spending and crimp regulations,” is being syndicated by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services to newspapers across the United States and Canada, including the Sacramento Bee, Lexington Herald-Leader, Standard Times (Bedford, MA), Bellingham Herald, Albany Times-Union, Guelph Mercury, Kitchener Record, etc. “The…
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Far from being an investment program, Social Security is a pay-as-you-go operation where new revenues are spent immediately and future entitlements are funded exclusively through the promise to tax workers in the future, many of whom haven�t even been born yet. It is taxation without representation in the most cynical sense. The program is…
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For many, economic logic and application to a wise management of finances is a chore considered best left to the �professionals�. After all, crunching numbers given the vast array of rules and regulations can be taxing (pardon the pun). However, debt finance is a particular economic subject that can be easily understood and just…
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In my recent article in Investor’s Business Daily, I discuss the enormous harm from and hypocrisy of federal economic policies as they inhibit private entrepreneurship. The current era has been dubbed the “Information Age,� and well it is. Never before has so much information been available so broadly and on such a level of…
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Ever since the bursting of the real estate bubble became evident at the end of 2007, Washington has been on a spending spree to avert events that, in its collective judgment, threatened the stability and solvency of the U.S. financial system and economy as a whole. Although the U.S. economy has experienced recurrent cycles…
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