RealClearMarkets Articles

The Trump Administration’s efforts of late to make life more affordable in the United States--a common complaint of voters these days--have primarily focused on housing costs and consumer debt. While these two do contribute to consumer costs--especially in dense urban areas--politicians have few tools at their disposal to ameliorate their effects.  However, one of the quieter forces driving up prices as of late is receiving far less attention: the cost of transporting goods across the country. The costs of shipping delays resulting from increasing highway traffic and...

If something is legal, but no one does it because they are afraid of regulators and being sued into oblivion, is it actually legal? The answer is yes, and today in a new proposed rule the Department of Labor emphatically made that point regarding alternative assets’ role in America’s retirement system. More than 90 million Americans have retirement accounts with practically no exposure to private markets. While such exposure is perfectly legal, the prior Administration stuck its thumb on the regulatory scale to threaten those that would dare try – and for those who believe...

In the wake of the Department of Justice’s antitrust settlement with LiveNation, Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) has introduced a bill that would allow state attorneys general to relitigate federal antitrust decisions. Changing the rules when you dislike the outcome of a judicial proceeding undermines the rule of law and makes for bad antitrust policy, which must rely on predictable standards for businesses to grow.  One of the great bequests of Western Civilization to the modern world is the concept of the rule of law, one with roots in classical antiquity but...

Cigarettes were referred to as “coffin nails” as early as 1906. That’s what George Will writes at the Washington Post. Will adds that the U.S. Surgeon General didn’t designate smoking as a possible instigator of lung cancer until 1964. It turns out Americans didn’t need blinding glimpses of the obvious from Surgeon Generals, or blanket government settlements with tobacco companies, to come to their own conclusions about cigarettes. On matters of health and wellbeing, government is less necessary and much later than a potted plant. It’s something to think...

Defenders of the 50% global tariffs on steel imposed last year have framed them as a bulwark—an essential line of defense for American industry against unfair foreign competition. It’s a compelling narrative: protect domestic steel, protect national security, and preserve good-paying jobs. But new data tell a different story—one that should alarm policymakers. Consider what has happened over just the past year. Steel exports to the United States from Asian countries have surged. According to data from the Steel Import and Monitoring Analysis System of the U.S....

Today’s jobs report is another reminder that the American labor market is a lot stronger than the professional pessimists want to admit. In March, the economy added 178,000 jobs, crushing consensus expectations that had been clustered around roughly 60,000 to 65,000. Even better, private payrolls did the heavy lifting, and the unemployment rate edged down to 4.3 percent.  That is not the picture of an economy in retreat. It is the picture of an economy that still has productive muscle, even after months of media warnings about tariffs, inflation, and looming recession....

As Tax Day approaches, Americans are looking for every legal way to keep more of what they earn. Healthcare is the expense most likely to derail any budget.  Congress doesn't restrict IRA or 401(k) eligibility based on where you work. It doesn't limit 529 education accounts based on where your children attend school. Yet federal law limits who can contribute to Health Savings Accounts (HSAs), leaving more than 140 million Americans without access to a proven tool for managing healthcare costs. That exclusion has real consequences. Americans now spend more than $5 trillion...

An insufficiency of share supply was holding down Goldman Sachs shares not long after it went public in 1999. That’s why Goldman’s partners were given a chance to sell more of their shares in a secondary offering. A lack of “float” in GS shares made it difficult for the biggest institutional investors to own a piece of the company. To buy GS shares they needed the capability to sell them, but with the float so slight, exits would be challenging. The lack of supply was paradoxically holding down investment in GS, and with it, the share price. The Goldman anecdote is yet...

For free-market conservatives, Teddy Roosevelt is less a hero than a temptation – a larger-than-life figure whose legacy invites admiration even as it points toward the very expansion of government conservatives resist. That tension is now being exploited by a new generation on the right, eager to wrap progressive antitrust policies in Rooseveltian nostalgia. For the remaining tribe of free-market, smaller-government conservatives, the legacy of Teddy Roosevelt elicits conflicting impulses. As the first progressive president, TR inaugurated the era of the nation’s chief executive...

While the public’s attention is fixed on an external energy shock they cannot control, they are overlooking a far more damaging, self-inflicted wound to their standard of living. The real threat to the American wallet is a domestic policy failure, but it’s not an affordability crisis. The reason is simple: if firms want to stay in business, they must have a sufficiently large pool of customers who can afford to purchase their products or services. If firms’ offerings were truly unaffordable, the market would cease to exist. The perceived crisis is actually a competition...

The February trade report is another strong signal that the American economy is being rewired in exactly the right direction. Yes, the headline deficit ticked up to $57.3 billion from January’s revised $54.7 billion. But anyone who stops there is missing the real story.   The deeper signal in this report is not weakness. It is productive transformation. America is exporting at record levels, importing the tools of future production, and relying less on the consumer-goods flood that for decades hollowed out our industrial base.  Start with the best news. Total exports rose to a...

Critics argue that predicting markets allows wagerers to profit from tragedy. However, when the parent company of the New York Stock Exchange invests $600 million in this emerging space, it’s no longer a novelty; it’s a financial reality. The media and lawmakers have focused on the possible drawbacks of prediction markets, overshadowing the benefits. The information generated on these platforms can help improve decision-making and, in some cases, save lives. Regulators should avoid bans and excessive red tape. With proper oversight in place, prediction markets can effectively...

Retirement is so last century. It’s the stuff of Bruce Springsteen songs about gallant Americans picking themselves up each morning to do work they can’t stand, but that they do with fantastical visions of a merciful endpoint.  New York Times columnist Jessica Grose is arguably channeling a dated vision of retirement. Consider her recent piece titled “The Fantasy of a Comfy Retirement Has Always Been a Mirage.” Oh wow, how depressing. How untrue? Explicit in Grose’s title is that a comfy retirement has always been a mirage. Really? According to a recent...

In his record-breaking State of the Union speech, President Trump renewed his attack on institutional investors who buy private homes and blamed them for the housing shortage. This is one of the few areas where MAGA populists agree with the left. Congressional Democrats have introduced legislation to limit institutional investors' ability to claim tax deductions for housing purchases. The idea that institutional investors’ purchases of single-family homes are depriving middle and working class Americans of access to affordable housing is a good talking...

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton has teamed up with liberal New York AG Letitia James to reject a settlement negotiated by the Trump administration over Live Nation’s alleged antitrust violations. While President Trump’s settlement was widely recognized for preserving a lighter-touch regulatory framework, Paxton appears eager to return to the aggressive antitrust enforcement of the Biden years — a period marked by the across-the-board targeting of American businesses arbitrarily deemed "too big." From an economic standpoint, Paxton’s new alliance should be...

The March ISM manufacturing report says something important and unmistakable: American manufacturing is expanding again.  The headline PMI rose to 52.7 in March, beating expectations and marking the third straight month above the 50 line that separates expansion from contraction. That is not noise. That is not a rounding error. That is a signal that the factory sector is moving in the right direction.  And the internals make the point even clearer.  New orders came in at 53.5. Production rose to 55.1. Supplier deliveries jumped to 58.9. Read together, those numbers tell a...

No individual, corporation, or government ever gets to choose how much money to borrow. Only in academic and pundit circles is such a fanciful notion accepted as realistic.  A recent op-ed penned for a think tank purported with alarm that “Congress Knows It Has a Spending Problem, But Won’t Fix It.” And at Fox News last week, Ted Jenkin published an opinion piece in which he predicted a $50 trillion national debt by 2030 alongside the expected rhetorical flourish about how “America has a serious promises problem and is writing checks that it won’t be...

You know what’s the most important news item going on this week?The war in Iran? No.The TSA mess at airports? No.March Madness? No. The most important news of the week is old news—2,000-year-old news. It’s HOLY WEEK. Ok, I know what many of you are thinking: “Oh God, Smith’s going to give a sermon again.” Relax. I’m not some tight-ass moralistic crusader! Listen up. I often think of nekid women. Actually, I think of them as clothed, and then they magically become unclothed under the influence of my boyish charm. I admit to having bouts of...

Politicians constantly find their way into your pocket book — and not just to take their cut, but to tinker with how our cards and accounts function. From new, product-specific sales taxes to insurance mandates, the government just can’t kick the urge to meddle with our means of procuring goods and services. Their latest target is credit card swipe fees. In recent years, these fees have reached a record high — totalling $246 billion in 2024. Consumers have noticed this at the cash register, as their grocery bills and routine shopping costs come with an extra...