-
Mar 23, 2023
Remember in the ‘70s and ‘80s when grandstanding politicians attacked Soviet businesses bent on meeting the needs of American customers in order to spy on them? Neither...
-
Mar 22, 2023
On May 2, 1895, the state legislature in New York enacted a law that said “No employee shall be required or permitted to work in a biscuit, bread or cake bakery or...
-
Mar 21, 2023
Seemingly everyone in the commentariat has an opinion on what most hadn't heard or thought of 10 days ago (Silicon Valley Bank), and from there it’s as though everyone has a...
-
Mar 20, 2023
Money is never easy, nor is it dumb as the present analysis suggests.
-
Mar 18, 2023
Hindsight is obviously 20/20, which is why it’s kind of interesting how much this truth is seemingly lost on the pundit class with regard to Silicon Valley Bank (SVB)....
-
Mar 17, 2023
John Paulsen made his name and immense fortune with a well-timed purchase of securities that would soar if mortgages declined. His billions hopefully remind readers that huge...
-
Mar 16, 2023
“If Silicon Valley were a normal place, this past weekend might be remembered as the moment its libertarian instincts gave way to a profound appreciation for the healing power...
-
Mar 15, 2023
Quick question: how many of you readers were “demanding” the internet in 1995? Or a GPS function on your mobile phone in 2005?
The speculation here is that in 1995 no one...
-
Mar 14, 2023
Fires are always burning. Always. Even the naively referenced “great moderation” (1985-2007) was defined by a number of major market corrections and crashes (24% on...
-
Mar 13, 2023
As central bankers vainly search for a purpose, real economic activity will happily continue without regard to their economic illiteracy.
-
Mar 11, 2023
Oneonta, a town of 7,000 in Alabama, can lay claim to a TikTok account that has 117,000 followers. The driver of the town’s popularity on the wildly popular social media site...
-
Mar 10, 2023
There are wildly divergent views of Kennedy family patriarch Joseph P. Kennedy, but few would seriously contend that he didn’t know business. He knew it well, as a family...
-
Mar 9, 2023
As seemingly everyone who’s been following the political tragedy that was and is the coronavirus well knows, the Department of Energy now confirms with a low level of...
-
Mar 8, 2023
In his weekly Wall Street Journal column from last week, the great Daniel Henninger commented that “For 10 years money was virtually free.” Henninger was talking about...
-
Mar 7, 2023
Iran’s rial is in decline. As of last week it had fallen to 1/600,000th of a dollar. If we’re being realistic, it’s no longer even a currency. Figure that money...
-
Mar 6, 2023
Resources go where they're treated well, and without regard to governmental decrees.
-
Mar 3, 2023
How things have changed. Think payments. As Jimmy Soni notes in his excellent 2022 book The Founders (a history of PayPal), “In the late 1990s, only 10 percent of all...
-
Mar 2, 2023
It was reported in the New York Times the week before last that the U.S. hedge funds at the top of the proverbial heap had reaped gains for their owners of over $22 billion in 2022....
-
Mar 1, 2023
What is a “supply chain”? It’s not a tangible chain, and as such it’s not visible. In reality, a supply chain is a wildly sophisticated intellectual...
-
Feb 28, 2023
Several years ago I was invited to attend a Hoover Institution retreat out in Palo Alto. At the gathering, Hoover scholars presented to a variety of economics writers, Left and...
-
Feb 27, 2023
As the price of quarterbacks rises in the NFL, other positions are seeing their value declining in a relative sense.
-
Feb 24, 2023
“To think I might have died without having read it.” Those were the words of the late, great William F. Buckley. He was referring to Moby Dick. Having read it after...
-
Feb 23, 2023
“Put on your mask, Dude.” That was said to me in an office building amid peak lockdown. “Where’s your mask?” was a question angrily posed to me by a...
-
Feb 22, 2023
In a Wall Street Journal piece explaining her decision to resign from the FTC, outgoing Commissioner Christine Wilson cited many reasons associated with Chairman Lina Khan, including...
-
Feb 21, 2023
If you’re ever searching for the personification of sanctimonious, find yourself a “balanced budget” proponent. These individuals will tell you in haughty,...
-
Feb 20, 2023
The Fed can't do what the experts think it can.
-
Feb 18, 2023
After the Chinese spy balloon was shot out of the sky over South Carolina recently, videos of it went viral. Millions of views viral. On TikTok….
It was difficult to not...
-
Feb 17, 2023
Back in the 1980s a music business anecdote that made the rounds was that arena rock band Van Halen had rather detailed requirements listed for each tour stop. This included a demand...
-
Feb 16, 2023
“Asking for money is hard.” Those are the words of Will Guidara in his excellent new book, Unreasonable Hospitality.
Guidara was referencing the funds he and chef Daniel...
-
Feb 15, 2023
“You f——d’ it up.” That’s what the late Harold Ramis, co-author of Animal House, said to the film’s director, John Landis. After seeing...
-
Feb 14, 2023
Let’s get the obvious out of the way: Social Security and Medicare were and are impressively foolish ideas. That Americans desire comfortable retirement that includes...
-
Feb 13, 2023
Sports instruct about life, and economics.
-
Feb 11, 2023
Last week U.S. cargo airline Atlas Air took delivery of the last newly manufactured Boeing 747. This week, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell told a conference comprised of the...
-
Feb 9, 2023
Progress should be defined not by what we know, but by what we don’t need to know — or learn — anymore.
-
Feb 8, 2023
As most of us are aware, Tom Brady retired from the NFL last week “for good.” The announcement was brief given Brady’s own admission that he’d already used up...
-
Feb 7, 2023
“Is there such a thing as a private company in China? I’m not sure there is.” Those are the words of GOP Rep. Mike Gallagher, who is heading up a new House...
-
Feb 6, 2023
A broad propensity to save is the surest sign of a lack of inflation.
-
Feb 3, 2023
When the invasion of Ukraine began last February, Russian people eager to avoid entrapment in a war that vandalized reason turned to dollars. Get it? Not only do dollars liquefy a...
-
Feb 2, 2023
“WeChat is the most popular communications platform in the world for Chinese speakers.” Those are the words of Johns Hopkins professor Seth Kaplan. This is important...
-
Feb 1, 2023
On March 23, 2021, the Predatory Loan Prevention Act became law in the state of Illinois. Billed as a way to protect needy borrowers from allegedly rapacious lenders, the law capped...
-
Jan 31, 2023
Success in politics requires an impressive lack of self-awareness. Think about it. What political types must say on a daily basis, and what they must nod along to routinely...
-
Jan 30, 2023
Central planning didn’t just fail in the 20th century, it did so murderously.
-
Jan 28, 2023
“No need to worry, no need to fret. The thing for you may not have been invented yet.” – The Berenstain Bears.
The Berenstain Bears is a much-beloved...
-
Jan 27, 2023
The quip “More money, more problems” is presumably as old as money is. Though money per comedian Eddie Murphy can afford those who have it the fancy car to drive around...
-
Jan 26, 2023
Time will tell on the matter of Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX. The view expressed in my new book The Money Confusion is that with any new commercial sector, there’s always lots of...
-
Jan 25, 2023
New York Times columnist Bret Stephens is 49. It’s good news that he’s relatively young simply because it means readers will get to enjoy his unique insights and...
-
Jan 24, 2023
“Embarrassing,” “nihilistic,” “dysfunctional.” Those are just a few of the many pejoratives directed at congressional Republicans in recent weeks amid a rather...
-
Jan 23, 2023
Repeat it over and over again that rising prices more often than not are NOT inflation.
-
Jan 19, 2023
With threats of a U.S. ban growing, China-based TikTok is going out of its way to placate U.S. lawmakers. That TikTok has been reduced to this is sad commentary about politics in the...
-
Jan 18, 2023
No one borrows money. It’s odd that something so obvious needs to be said over and over again, but no one borrows money. When we borrow we seek near-term access to resources....
-
Jan 17, 2023
Steve Hanke and John Greenwood are professors at Johns Hopkins University. The highly prestigious school is based in Baltimore, and its location is mentioned simply because...
-
Jan 16, 2023
The sizable debt itself is the signal that we don't have a debt crisis.
-
Jan 12, 2023
“He who understands it, earns it; he who doesn’t, pays for it.” The previous words are said to be those of Albert Einstein commenting on the genius of...
-
Jan 11, 2023
My great friend Bob Reingold always overpaid his employees. Reingold once told me that a good boss always approaches employees about raises as opposed to being...
-
Jan 10, 2023
“Many of them are stupid and highly emotional, especially the men. Most have no historical depth. If they have little respect for institutions, it’s because they have no...
-
Jan 9, 2023
The Fed only has a role in the inflation discussion insofar as inflation itself is wholly redefined.
-
Jan 6, 2023
Business columnist Gene Marks is angry. He feels that venture capital firm Sequoia Capital did the other 99.99999% of us harm by investing in FTX. In his words, “super-smart...
-
Jan 5, 2023
Young Americans need “a stiffening of the vertebrae,” according to prominent businessman Elbert Hubbard. Hubbard laments their “foolish inattention” and...
-
Jan 4, 2023
Call it a statement of the obvious, but prices organize the market economy. As they go up and down, the movements exist as information for producers and providers of what we want...
-
Jan 3, 2023
China allegedly faces dark days ahead. Why, you may ask? Because of freedom from coronavirus mandates.
Who fears too much freedom in China? American reporters and...
-
Jan 2, 2023
We need Republicans to get back to first principles about what inflation truly is.
Mar 23, 2023Remember in the ‘70s and ‘80s when grandstanding politicians attacked Soviet businesses bent on meeting the needs of American customers in order to spy on them? Neither...
Mar 22, 2023On May 2, 1895, the state legislature in New York enacted a law that said “No employee shall be required or permitted to work in a biscuit, bread or cake bakery or...
Mar 21, 2023Seemingly everyone in the commentariat has an opinion on what most hadn't heard or thought of 10 days ago (Silicon Valley Bank), and from there it’s as though everyone has a...
Mar 20, 2023Money is never easy, nor is it dumb as the present analysis suggests.
Mar 17, 2023John Paulsen made his name and immense fortune with a well-timed purchase of securities that would soar if mortgages declined. His billions hopefully remind readers that huge...
Mar 16, 2023“If Silicon Valley were a normal place, this past weekend might be remembered as the moment its libertarian instincts gave way to a profound appreciation for the healing power...
Mar 15, 2023Quick question: how many of you readers were “demanding” the internet in 1995? Or a GPS function on your mobile phone in 2005? The speculation here is that in 1995 no one...
Mar 14, 2023Fires are always burning. Always. Even the naively referenced “great moderation” (1985-2007) was defined by a number of major market corrections and crashes (24% on...
Mar 13, 2023As central bankers vainly search for a purpose, real economic activity will happily continue without regard to their economic illiteracy.
Mar 10, 2023There are wildly divergent views of Kennedy family patriarch Joseph P. Kennedy, but few would seriously contend that he didn’t know business. He knew it well, as a family...
Mar 9, 2023As seemingly everyone who’s been following the political tragedy that was and is the coronavirus well knows, the Department of Energy now confirms with a low level of...
Mar 8, 2023In his weekly Wall Street Journal column from last week, the great Daniel Henninger commented that “For 10 years money was virtually free.” Henninger was talking about...
Mar 7, 2023Iran’s rial is in decline. As of last week it had fallen to 1/600,000th of a dollar. If we’re being realistic, it’s no longer even a currency. Figure that money...
Mar 6, 2023Resources go where they're treated well, and without regard to governmental decrees.
Mar 3, 2023How things have changed. Think payments. As Jimmy Soni notes in his excellent 2022 book The Founders (a history of PayPal), “In the late 1990s, only 10 percent of all...
Mar 2, 2023It was reported in the New York Times the week before last that the U.S. hedge funds at the top of the proverbial heap had reaped gains for their owners of over $22 billion in 2022....
Mar 1, 2023What is a “supply chain”? It’s not a tangible chain, and as such it’s not visible. In reality, a supply chain is a wildly sophisticated intellectual...
Feb 28, 2023Several years ago I was invited to attend a Hoover Institution retreat out in Palo Alto. At the gathering, Hoover scholars presented to a variety of economics writers, Left and...
Feb 24, 2023“To think I might have died without having read it.” Those were the words of the late, great William F. Buckley. He was referring to Moby Dick. Having read it after...
Feb 23, 2023“Put on your mask, Dude.” That was said to me in an office building amid peak lockdown. “Where’s your mask?” was a question angrily posed to me by a...
Feb 22, 2023In a Wall Street Journal piece explaining her decision to resign from the FTC, outgoing Commissioner Christine Wilson cited many reasons associated with Chairman Lina Khan, including...
Feb 20, 2023The Fed can't do what the experts think it can.
Feb 18, 2023After the Chinese spy balloon was shot out of the sky over South Carolina recently, videos of it went viral. Millions of views viral. On TikTok…. It was difficult to not...
Feb 15, 2023“You f——d’ it up.” That’s what the late Harold Ramis, co-author of Animal House, said to the film’s director, John Landis. After seeing...
Feb 14, 2023Let’s get the obvious out of the way: Social Security and Medicare were and are impressively foolish ideas. That Americans desire comfortable retirement that includes...
Feb 13, 2023Sports instruct about life, and economics.
Feb 11, 2023Last week U.S. cargo airline Atlas Air took delivery of the last newly manufactured Boeing 747. This week, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell told a conference comprised of the...
Feb 8, 2023As most of us are aware, Tom Brady retired from the NFL last week “for good.” The announcement was brief given Brady’s own admission that he’d already used up...
Feb 7, 2023“Is there such a thing as a private company in China? I’m not sure there is.” Those are the words of GOP Rep. Mike Gallagher, who is heading up a new House...
Feb 3, 2023When the invasion of Ukraine began last February, Russian people eager to avoid entrapment in a war that vandalized reason turned to dollars. Get it? Not only do dollars liquefy a...
Feb 2, 2023“WeChat is the most popular communications platform in the world for Chinese speakers.” Those are the words of Johns Hopkins professor Seth Kaplan. This is important...
Jan 31, 2023Success in politics requires an impressive lack of self-awareness. Think about it. What political types must say on a daily basis, and what they must nod along to routinely...
Jan 30, 2023Central planning didn’t just fail in the 20th century, it did so murderously.
Jan 28, 2023“No need to worry, no need to fret. The thing for you may not have been invented yet.” – The Berenstain Bears. The Berenstain Bears is a much-beloved...
Jan 27, 2023The quip “More money, more problems” is presumably as old as money is. Though money per comedian Eddie Murphy can afford those who have it the fancy car to drive around...
Jan 26, 2023Time will tell on the matter of Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX. The view expressed in my new book The Money Confusion is that with any new commercial sector, there’s always lots of...
Jan 25, 2023New York Times columnist Bret Stephens is 49. It’s good news that he’s relatively young simply because it means readers will get to enjoy his unique insights and...
Jan 24, 2023“Embarrassing,” “nihilistic,” “dysfunctional.” Those are just a few of the many pejoratives directed at congressional Republicans in recent weeks amid a rather...
Jan 19, 2023With threats of a U.S. ban growing, China-based TikTok is going out of its way to placate U.S. lawmakers. That TikTok has been reduced to this is sad commentary about politics in the...
Jan 17, 2023Steve Hanke and John Greenwood are professors at Johns Hopkins University. The highly prestigious school is based in Baltimore, and its location is mentioned simply because...
Jan 10, 2023“Many of them are stupid and highly emotional, especially the men. Most have no historical depth. If they have little respect for institutions, it’s because they have no...
Jan 9, 2023The Fed only has a role in the inflation discussion insofar as inflation itself is wholly redefined.
Jan 6, 2023Business columnist Gene Marks is angry. He feels that venture capital firm Sequoia Capital did the other 99.99999% of us harm by investing in FTX. In his words, “super-smart...
Jan 5, 2023Young Americans need “a stiffening of the vertebrae,” according to prominent businessman Elbert Hubbard. Hubbard laments their “foolish inattention” and...
Jan 4, 2023Call it a statement of the obvious, but prices organize the market economy. As they go up and down, the movements exist as information for producers and providers of what we want...
Jan 3, 2023China allegedly faces dark days ahead. Why, you may ask? Because of freedom from coronavirus mandates. Who fears too much freedom in China? American reporters and...
Jan 2, 2023We need Republicans to get back to first principles about what inflation truly is.