RealClearMarkets Articles

A new poll shows that the overwhelming majority of Americans think federal taxes are too high.  A record 70% of voters now think that the taxes they pay are too high, the highest level since the question was first asked two decades ago.Large numbers of Republicans, Democrats, and Independents are fed up with high taxes for one simple reason—-taxes are in fact too high.  Total federal revenues have doubled since 2012.  Individual income taxes are up more than 100%.  Corporate taxes are up nearly as much.The Republican tax cuts, which every Democrat in the House and...

Jeff Bezos got the national debt wrong during last week’s CNBC interview. He has to know why. Amazon was founded in 1994, but it didn’t issue debt until 1999. Why did Bezos and Amazon rely for so long on equity finance over debt? It’s expensive to exchange precious shares for cash when there’s debt financing available at market rates of interest. Readers know the answer to the debt question: since Amazon’s future earnings weren’t a sure thing, and since its survival was far from a sure thing by Bezos’s own admission, there was not an interest rate...

My first experience with executive leadership coaching began with a simple assignment: prepare a pitch requesting millions of dollars in funding, deliver it, and then receive feedback, not on the content, but on how I presented it. I walked into that room with the kind of confidence you can only have when you don’t yet realize how much you don’t know. I gave the pitch. I felt strong, confident, and polished. Honestly, I was proud of myself. Then the coach looked at me and said, “Close your mouth. You look stupid.” That sentence landed like a slap. My first instinct was...

On May 27, ExxonMobil shareholders will vote on a simple proposal: align the company’s legal home with where it has actually operated for decades—Texas. The opposition, led by the New York City Comptroller and backed by ISS, claims this will weaken shareholder rights. It won’t. And the fact that this argument is being made tells you more about modern shareholder activism than it does about Texas law. The Real Story Behind the Opposition The New York City Comptroller’s office has a history here. The prior Comptroller used pension fund shares not primarily to maximize...

I’ve had a revelation,I don’t think it is a hallucination.It has to do with digitalization.I now have a fascination,With tokenization. Dear Reader, I’ve been in Palm Beach for the past five months. When the notorious (and very colorful) bank robber Willie Sutton was asked why he robbed banks, he replied, “Because that’s where the money is.” There’s a lot of money in Palm Beach, but even more importantly, at least for me, there are a lot of interesting, highly innovative people here. As is always the case, combine healthy amounts of capital with smart,...

For most of American history, the retirement plan was simple: work hard, save carefully, and live off the income those savings generated. It wasn't flashy, but it worked. A CD, a bond, a savings account — nothing complicated. Just steady, predictable money that let you sleep at night. You didn't need to take big risks. You didn't need a financial advisor running complicated strategies. You just needed to show up, do the right things for thirty or forty years, and the system would take care of the rest. That playbook still gets handed out. It just doesn't work the way it used to. The...

The markets are never a snapshot of the present. They’re a look ahead. It’s worth keeping in mind as commentators try to make sense of rising Treasury yields. Take the Washington Post editorial board’s analysis of the recent jump. They write that, “Yields for long-term U.S. Treasury bonds shot up to almost 5.2 percent on Tuesday, reaching their highest levels in almost 19 years. That’s a warning sign about the wobbly state of the economy and yet another reminder of the unsustainability of federal spending.” No, not really. First, consider their...

SpaceX has now published the S1-prospectus for the IPO planned in June: 277 densely printed pages plus 100 pages of appendices. An IPO prospectus serves a fundamentally ambivalent purpose. On the one hand, it is designed to minimize legal liability by disclosing risks in exhaustive detail and warning investors about everything that could go wrong. On the other hand, it is also a marketing instrument intended to persuade investors that, despite all these risks, the company represents an attractive opportunity. To say it upfront: the prospectus is very good when it describes SpaceX’s...

The New York Times is in open civil war over a Nicholas Kristof column its own reporters say wouldn't have cleared the news desk, particularly his fantastical allegation that Palestinian prisoners were the victims of rape by Israeli-trained dogs. That alone is a major media development. But the Times publishes in a city where 57% of every NYPD-recorded hate crime in 2025 targeted Jewish residents — about 10% of the city — under a mayor whose record toward them is among the most antagonistic in living memory. This is not only a media story, but it’s also a public safety...

Ronald Reagan’s father lost his job on Christmas Eve. It’s a reminder of how different things used to be. Since life was so much more uncertain over 100 years ago for the average American, it’s no surprise that life was equally, if not more uncertain for those who employed the average American. Is it any wonder that fathers were so stern when Reagan was a child? A century ago a lost job was just that. Not only was there shame and embarrassment, there was also abject fear for the laid off. How to provide when the day you’re let go is also the day that the pay...

The political scientist Harold Lasswell wrote the best-titled book about modern politics. “Politics” he said, is about “Who Gets, What, When, and How.” Lasswell’s instincts were right. Anyone who has worked in politics knows that it begins, and ends, with money. In government, there’s never enough money for everyone. Leadership involves making difficult decisions to deny taxpayers’ cash to some people and programs, when necessary, in the national interest. President Donald Trump acknowledges this fact. In 2016, he lamented the country being...

One of the most important Executive Orders signed by President Trump on his first day in office was Restoring Freedom of Speech and Ending Federal Censorship. As the title suggests, the order forbids any U.S. Government employee from taking any actions that violate the First Amendment rights of any American citizen. The Executive Order is intended to protect against future encroachments on the right to free speech like those that occurred under the Biden Administration. During the Biden years, government officials routinely pressured social media companies to silence Americans for questioning...

I remember the first time I logged into my retirement account as a young professional. It felt like a milestone: proof that I had entered the world of adulthood, of long-term thinking, of ownership. I work in the nonprofit sector, so technically it’s a 403(b), not a 401(k). The distinction is academic; the promise is the same: contribute consistently, invest wisely, and over time, build financial independence. The longer I’ve contributed, the more I’ve realized something uncomfortable: my retirement plan isn’t built for the world I actually live in. Like many in my...

The vibrant U.S. capital markets are the envy of the world. U.S. stock exchanges alone hit $69 trillion in early 2026. But stocks are not the only game in town. In addition to public companies, alternative investments like private equity and venture capital are also booming as capital markets bring together investors and entrepreneurs in the most efficient manner: U.S. private funds are managing over $28 trillion in assets, and, for example, North American start-up funding soared 46 percent in 2025, which was largely driven by the AI boom. Despite their tremendous success, capital markets...

No one thought that the owner of a small Atlanta-based billboard company’s purchase of a small UHF television station would change history. But that billboard owner, Robert Edward “Ted” Turner, transformed that small station into the foundation of a media empire. Turner himself became, in the words of Eric Bischoff, who ran Turner’s World Championship Wrestling (WCW), “the Elon Musk of his time.” Turner, who recently passed away at the age of 87, had a career that provided several lessons for would-be entrepreneurs, as well as one important lesson for...

Do you remember the legislation that put incredibly affordable supercomputers in our pockets, or the federal decree that made Artificial Intelligence (AI) access as costless as an internet connection? That's the point. Great advances in commerce are never an effect of legislation, and they’re certainly not a consequence of politicians scanning the marketplace, finding expensively priced goods, and then promising programs to make cheap what was formerly dear. Instead, and as we see with both smartphones and the myriad AIs that we can freely enjoy on smartphones, the best products and...

Artificial intelligence is becoming a bigger part of everyday life. We see it in banking, healthcare, customer service, and now even taxes. The IRS has already started using more technology to review tax returns, identify fraud, and improve enforcement efforts. The question is whether this will help taxpayers or create even more problems. There are definitely some benefits to the IRS using AI. For years, the IRS has struggled with outdated systems, staffing shortages, long wait times, and delays in processing returns and notices. Many taxpayers and tax professionals have experienced the...

The most interest-rate-sensitive sector of the American economy is flashing a cautiously bullish signal. That is precisely why the last thing the market needs now is a Fed rate hike.  In April, new residential construction data showed a market that is not booming, but it is trying to heal. Housing permits rose a strong 5.8 percent to an annual rate of 1.442 million units, well above market expectations. Housing starts slipped 2.8 percent on the month, but still came in above expectations at a 1.465 million annual rate and are up 4.6 percent over the past year.  The important story...

Roger Cohen hates and detests Javier Milei, and all that he stands for. The New York Timesman acknowledges that the President of Argentina has “cut inflation to 32 percent from over 200 percent annually; and produced a budget surplus in a country where, in 110 of the last 123 years, there was a deficit.” He concedes that “Milei inherited a 54 percent poverty rate” and that “the official poverty rate has been almost halved to 28.2 percent,” although he casts aspersions on the accuracy of that latter statistic. This man is practically a miracle worker. Yet,...