By Raymond C. Niles We are experiencing an extraordinary example of the political-economic principle that “controls breed controls.” For example, whenever a government imposes large-scale price controls that results in widespread shortages across an economy, it faces an inevitable subsequent choice: repeal the controls, or impose comprehensive rationing across the economy. … [Read more...] about Controls Breeding More Controls
Government
This Is Not a Recession — This Is a Government-Imposed Shutdown of the Private Sector
By Hunter Hastings Economists and Wall Street analysts are using the word recession to describe the looming plunge in output in the US economy. We’ll just make the point early that economists, exhibiting the typical emptiness of their failed science, can’t even agree on the definition of recession. Undeterred by lacking a definition, the geniuses at Goldman Sachs and … [Read more...] about This Is Not a Recession — This Is a Government-Imposed Shutdown of the Private Sector
Panic Has Led to Government “Cures” That Are Worse than the Disease, History Shows
By Jon Miltimore Anyone who’s seen the John Hughes movie Ferris Bueller’s Day Off probably remembers the scene where Ferris’s economics teacher (Ben Stein) explains the Smoot-Hawley Tariff Act to a roomful of bored, sleeping students. The scene is brilliant for many reasons, perhaps most so because it perfectly demonstrated how some of the most boring things in history are … [Read more...] about Panic Has Led to Government “Cures” That Are Worse than the Disease, History Shows
Why Governments Hate Secession
By Ryan McMaken When the Soviet Union began its collapse in 1989, the world witnessed decentralization and secession on a scale not seen in Europe since the nineteenth century. Over the next several years, puppet regimes and states-in-name-only broke away from Soviet domination and formed sovereign states. Some states which had completely ceased to exist—such as the … [Read more...] about Why Governments Hate Secession
The Adverse Impact of Government Bureaucracy on Private Employment
By Daniel J. Mitchell When I did this video about public-sector compensation almost 10 years ago, I focused on why it is unfair that bureaucrats get much higher levels of compensation than people working the private sector. Today, let’s consider the economic consequences of excessive bureaucracy. And what will make this column particularly interesting is that I’ll … [Read more...] about The Adverse Impact of Government Bureaucracy on Private Employment