RealClearMarkets Articles

When a coalition of twelve state Attorneys General filed a lawsuit aimed at blocking the proposed merger between Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery, they insisted that their ultimate concern was that this might bring harm to the American consumer. They suggested that the merger would rob cable providers of the ability to play the two companies against one another to obtain lower prices and better terms. “Paramount’s proposed acquisition of Warner Bros. will end this competition, threatening viewers with higher prices, the decline of theatrical exhibition of films, and a...

Government spending is unquestionably the biggest tax on freedom and progress of all. While Elon Musk, Mark Zuckerberg, and Jeff Bezos will work at all manner of tax rates, they quite simply cannot innovate without capital. Neither can those who stand on their broad shoulders.  The more that the federal government spends, the more that precious resources are shamefully consumed on wars, make-work programs, and backwards looking stabs at economic growth (meaning economic contraction) that shrink the amount of capital matched with the brilliant minds trying to invent the future. Government...

In late July an FBI official disclosed that a North Korean operative had worked as a remote IT contractor inside a U.S. federal agency for months before anyone caught it. Days later the FBI, the State Department, and six allied governments issued a joint alert: North Korean IT workers are using stolen identities and forged documents to land remote jobs at Western companies, then routing their paychecks back to Pyongyang to help fund its weapons programs. The Treasury Department puts the take at nearly $800 million in 2024 alone. This is being covered as a counterintelligence...

Markets treated the federal government’s latest inflation report as good news. Consumer prices rose 0.1% in July, bringing annual inflation down to 3.4%. Core inflation, which excludes food and energy, sits at 2.5%. Commentators spoke of "breathing room" for the Federal Reserve. Breathing room, compared to what? Wages are growing at 3.2%, which means real earnings are shrinking. The Fed is supposed to target 2% inflation. The good news, apparently, is that inflation is only 70% above target. That’s hardly reason to be impressed. Inflation has now run above the Fed's stated goal...

Americans will increasingly be buying pantry staples like canned corn and green beans that say in small print on the back of the can, “Product of China” or another foreign country. These foreign canned foods are continuing to infiltrate American grocery stores and take market share away from U.S. food producers because tariffs meant to put America First are having the perverse result of significantly advantaging imported canned food.  The marketplace distortion comes from the current tariff structure....

On August 17, four Chinese grain and seed companies moved as if a shortage had already arrived. Qiule and Shennong jumped more than 10 percent apiece, and Jinjian Rice and Nongfa Seed hit their daily trading limits. The rally landed two days after JPMorgan told clients that global food inflation could climb from 2.8 percent in the first half of 2026 to 5 percent by the first half of 2027. "We are seeing some of those vulnerabilities at play today," said Sarah Kapnick, the bank's global head of climate advisory. One detail in that rally deserves more scrutiny than it...

Higher drug prices are bullish. Yes, you read that right. What's pricey signals a development achievement that will soon be enjoyed by all income classes at much lower price points.  How else can America’s world-leading pharmaceutical companies fund amazing leaps into new drugs absent creating advances for the biggest markets? By solving big problems for the biggest customer bases through lower-priced access to health and life-saving advances, pharmaceutic firms acquire the means to expand the frontier of cures. About this, no doubt many or all readers are aware of the great news...

Harvard, Yale, and Princeton are breeding grounds for the most prominent conservatives. Yes, you read that right. Or did you? It’s no doubt true that Ted Cruz, Mike Pompeo, and Robert Bork attended Harvard Law, while Ben Sasse attended Harvard undergrad. Tom Cotton got his BA and JD at Harvard. William F. Buckley, Ron De Santis and George W. Bush attended Yale undergrad, while Clarence Thomas, Samuel Alito, and Pat Robertson attended Yale Law. Steve Forbes attended Princeton undergrad, so did Cruz, so did Reagan chief of staff and Treasury secretary James Baker. The list is long, and...

Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent’s recent attempts to influence the Yen and Treasury markets - attempts to keep a lid on long term Treasury yields - haven’t exactly gone to plan, at least so far. Bond and FX trading desks appear to have taken the brief market movements he inspired as good entry points to go back to doing what they were doing before he decided to step in, namely selling Yen and Treasuries. Bessent was supposed to be the market savvy member of Trump’s economic team. He was so well qualified the MAGA crowd was able to overlook his past association with their...

What personality traits distinguish successful entrepreneurs? This question has occupied academic research on entrepreneurship for decades, with scholars examining the relationship between personality traits and entrepreneurial success. When we want to understand or recognize something, we often do so by making comparisons. About 200 years after the birth of Christ, the Greco-Roman historian and philosopher Plutarch wrote a collection of parallel biographies of famous figures from Greek and Roman history. By comparing their characters, decisions, and lives, he sought to reveal similarities...

I’ve spent most of this year in Palm Beach, where it is not unusual to meet new people and hear them boast of their accomplishments, riches and social contacts. I don’t mind so much. Many of them are very nice people, and it’s just part of the local culture. Besides, I find people’s life experiences interesting and always enjoy meeting new people. However, I think it is much more entertaining to talk about all the dumbass things we have done, and I have a whole sack full, all of which cannot possibly be listed in this 1,227-word article. Where to even start? When I was...

Governments have no resources. For further evidence of what's true, contemplate a recent post by Adam Michel at the Cato Institute.  Michel’s Cato at Liberty headline was “Who Will Pay for Democratic Socialism’s $200 Trillion Cost?” The speculation here is that he would agree the headline gave the wrong impression. It can be found in all the excitement the title elicited from conservative media. Fox News, Newsmax, and The Ben Shapiro Show  (among others) went into rapture over a takedown of the surely bankrupt nature of the Democratic Socialists of...

Under SEC Rule 506(d), a private fund cannot raise a dime from investors if its principals include a felon convicted of securities fraud or barred by a regulator within the lookback period. We call these people bad actors, and Washington built a disclosure regime to keep them out of your retirement account. Somehow the nonprofit sector, which asks for your money on the strength of a tax-exempt label, never got the memo. That may be changing. CBS News reported this week that the Trump administration is weighing a rule requiring nonprofits to disclose on their Form 990, the...

Who knew Kylie Jenner had such a mind for business? The question asked is not meant as an insult. Quite the opposite. Jenner is a reminder of why “these kids today” eventually evolve into prosperous adults. Having interacted with technology in ways their elders never did, they see it differently. Applied to Jenner, adults saw the social media on which she interacted to the tune of millions of followers as – yes – the stuff of “these kids today.” To Jenner, those millions of followers were her marketing strategy. As Forbes eventually reported alongside the...

Much to the dismay of U.S. businesses, the Digital Markets Act (DMA), the European Union's landmark digital platform-regulation framework, has not stayed confined to Europe. Voluminous DMA regulations stemming from the European Commission already impose substantial costs and impact the day-to-day EU operations of Apple, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, and Microsoft, threatening the companies with potential fines of 10 percent of annual global revenue. If enforced, any such fine would send shocks through the U.S. stock market and potentially the broader economy. From Latin America to East Asia,...

 The Net Zero movement in business and finance is in full retreat if not outright capitulation.  The Net Zero Banking coalition, for example, has ceased being a membership-based group after a mass exodus of members.  The prospect of a cartel imposing deindustrialization to fight climate change is seemingly vanishing.  Except perhaps not.  I do not believe that proponents of climate catastrophism have experienced a conversion.  The public dialogue has changed dramatically, in line with the backlash against ESG and DEI, and President Trump has called...

The Trump administration has improved upon the famous adage that capitalists will sell communists the rope by which the latter would hang the former. Now the capitalists seem to be just giving the rope away. The supposedly free-market-oriented commissioners at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission just announced an extension of last year’s policy giving corporate managements a Get-Out-Of-Jail-Free card on shareholder proposals. That policy effectively locks in anti-business gains made over the past couple of decades by left-wing activist shareholders. For decades,...

“Travel advisers play a more critical role at the top end of the market.” Those are the words of Cornell professor of services management Christopher K. Anderson to the Wall Street Journal. That more people require travel advisers than ever, and in more gilded fashion than ever, is a statement of the obvious. Before the internet, travel agents were reduced to spending enormous amounts of time on the phone with airlines booking tickets. Yes, how very primitive. Would it that American realtors would not just grasp the previous truth, but also view it as the best reason to demand...

Vice President JD Vance appeared on Michael Knowles’s Daily Wire podcast to discuss his new book, Communion. The two also discussed the Veep’s views on economic policy. Vance said that President Trump has reshaped the Republican Party and the conservative movement by replacing the old free-market consensus with one favoring government interventions in the economy, such as tariffs, to benefit working families. The Vice President failed to mention the role tariffs play in the affordability crisis that continues to bedevil the very middle- and working-class Americans the...