Maverick Philosopher

Footnotes to Plato from the foothills of the Superstition Mountains

Category: Economics

  • Bad Economic Reasoning about the National Debt

    Written in December, 2012. ………………………. When I study the writings of professional economists I often have to shake my shaggy philosopher's head.  Try this passage on for size: $16 trillion is the amount of Treasury debt outstanding at the moment. [It is around 36 trillion now.] The more relevant figure is the amount of debt the…

  • Nancy Pelosi in 1996: A Pre-Trumper on Tariffs

    You have probably seen this by now, but in case you haven't, here is Nancy Pelosi in 1996 talking sense! I didn't think she had it in her, given the inanities she has been spouting for the last quarter century. I don't see much if any difference between what she said then about  tariffs, trade…

  • Move Over IRS: Make Way for the External Revenue Service

    I kid you not.  Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump   For far too long, we have relied on taxing our Great People using the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). Through soft and pathetically weak Trade agreements, the American Economy has delivered growth and prosperity to the World, while taxing ourselves. It is time for that to change.…

  • Success is the Best Revenge

    Bill Ackman on Elon-liberated X: The business community is giddy with excitement about the @realDonaldTrump administration. I am hearing this from everyone, including from people who didn’t vote for Trump. Business confidence is a self-fulfilling prophecy. Business leaders are becoming more confident about the country and the economy. This means they will be making more investments…

  • RINOs Terrified by Tariffs

    Pat Buchanan writing in 2018 made the case for tariffs. But only the Orange Man can implement them. 

  • U. S. Treasuries Still a Safe Haven?

    Argument contra. Excerpt: Even though the U.S. government’s debt-fueled spending response began as a national emergency under former President Trump, excessive spending continued under the Biden-Harris administration. It continued long after the emergency faded and continues today. By continuing it, the Biden-Harris administration squandered the opportunity to refill the U.S. government’s credit reservoir to restore…

  • When we have gold we are in fear . . .

    . . . when we have none we are in danger.  (English proverb) A proverb whose pertinence is proven  by  recent  developments. Gold hit 2400 USD/oz. a day or two ago, but has backed off some.   Joe Biden and his shills lie their heads off about everything including the health of the economy, but, with respect to…

  • Economic Gaslighting

    The Left's economic gaslighting  is well-exposed and refuted by Jeffrey H. Anderson at City Journal: “The economic news in 2023 was almost miraculously good,” the New York Times’s Paul Krugman enthuses, as the American “economy continues to look like an amazing success story.” The title of a Financial Times article emphasizes the “strange lack of electoral reward for the success of…

  • Vito Caiati on the Tension between Corporate Capitalism and Conservatism

    Dr. Vito Caiati by e-mail (emphasis added): I am increasingly convinced that we on the Right are caught up in a set of contradictions of our own making, in that we wish to uphold, on the one hand, a particular political, social, and cultural inheritance and, on the other, an economic system, which in the…

  • Why Was Italy Hit So Hard?

    I have been puzzling over this.  Now I have an answer: The coronavirus that originated in Wuhan, China, has now swept through 126 countries, infected close to 170,000 people worldwide, and is responsible for more than 6,400 deaths as of March 15. China is leading the world in the number of confirmed cases and deaths.…

  • Is Greed the Engine of Capitalism?

    I must have written this in 2004. It makes good on yesterday's promise to say more about why greed is not the origin of capitalism. …………………………………………….. The C-Span Washington Journal of 31 May 2004 with Steve Scully at the helm was particularly excellent.  One of the guests was a sweet old lady by the name of…

  • More on Economic Inequality

    Just in from Anthony Benvin:   In What's Wrong with Economic Inequality? you write:    "The economy is not a zero-sum game. If I "mix my labour" (Locke) with the soil and grow tomatoes, I have caused new food to come into existence; I haven't taken from an existing stock . . . ."   You…

  • What’s Wrong with Economic Inequality?

    We are naturally unequal with respect to empirical attributes, both as individuals and as groups, and this inequality results in economic inequality. Is this inequality evil? Why should it be?  Is economic inequality as such morally wrong? I have a right to what I have acquired by my honest hard work, deferral of gratification, and…

  • Kimball on Kapitalismus

    The man's a classy polemicist: Capitalism is the greatest engine for the production of wealth that the ingenuity of man has ever devised. But after it achieves a certain level of prosperity, it regularly excretes characters like Ms. Ocasio-Cortez, beneficiaries of capitalism whose contempt for its strictures is equaled only by their ignorance of its tenets. …

  • The Left: Morally Obtuse and Economically Retarded

    As witness the Deep Thoughts of Chelsea Clinton: Has abortion made America more prosperous? Chelsea Clinton seems to think so. The former first daughter spoke recently at a “Rise up for Roe” event in New York City, one of a series of meetings organized by NARAL and Planned Parenthood to oppose the confirmation of Brett…