Inflation
Business & Economics
A swift re-tort: How to fight lawsuit abuse
America’s economy remains in terrible shape and federal lawmakers are trying to kick-start a recovery by spending money. A better strategy would be to reform the country’s inefficient tort system, which is failing to promptly compensate true victims. Instead, meritless lawsuits clog courtrooms while outsized monetary awards cripple businesses and ...
Business & Economics
An inevitable blast
Economist Robert P Murphy at the blog Free Advice must have heard me screeching with Total Mogambo Disrespect (TMD) about Congress and Barack Obama deficit-spending almost US$2 trillion this year, and he says, “If fiscal policy is a disaster, monetary policy is even worse.” I interrupt and say, “You said ...
Business & Economics
Canada’s advantage
As Canada’s experience in the 1990s showed, the path to economic growth lies in shrinking government, not growing it This past weekend, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty encouraged the G20 countries to rapidly implement their stimulus packages, highlighting that his government provided a greater stimulus budget than the G20 countries agreed ...
Business & Economics
Tort Law Tally
San Francisco – The Pacific Research Institute (PRI), a free-market think tank based in California, released Tort Law Tally, a new report identifying which state tort reforms reduce tort losses and tort insurance premiums the most. The analysis identifies 18 reforms to state civil-justice systems that significantly reduce tort losses ...
Business & Economics
Tort Laws that Save Americans the Most Money
Attorney-Retention Sunshine and Daubert Rule are Most Effective Tort Reforms San Francisco – The Pacific Research Institute (PRI), a free-market think tank based in California, today released Tort Law Tally, a new report identifying which state tort reforms reduce tort losses and tort insurance premiums the most. The analysis identifies ...
Business & Economics
The Nuttiness of Negative Interest Rates
In his April 18 New York Times op-ed, Harvard professor (and Bush adviser) Greg Mankiw calls on the Federal Reserve to promise future inflation, in order to fix the economy. Mankiw’s article beautifully illustrates what is wrong with today’s economics profession: it consists of very sharp guys (and gals) who ...
Commentary
Court Rules Tax-Credit Scholarship Program Constitutional
On April 21, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a tax-credit scholarship program remains constitutional under the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution. The ruling marks the latest failure by opponents of parental choice in education to halt the program and spells good news for California. Choice opponents ...
Business & Economics
Will New Fed “Tools” Avert Hyperinflation?
04/22/09 Nashville, Tennessee People often accuse me of making “irresponsible” forecasts of massive price inflation. Even though they know that history is replete with examples of central banks ruining their currencies, these critics are sure that “it can’t happen here.” So in the present article I’d like to make the ...
Business & Economics
The Real Lessons of the Great Depression
Since late 2007, more and more commentators have drawn parallels between our current financial crisis and the Great Depression. Nobel laureates and presidential advisorsDownload PDF confidently proclaim that it was Herbert Hoover’s laissez-faire penny pinching that exacerbated the Depression, and that the American economy was saved only when FDR boldly ...
Business & Economics
California’s ‘Spending Limit’ Is A Sham
The outlook for the California economy is dreadful, driven by a deeply perverse tax and regulatory environment, combined with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s highly successful five-year effort to avoid hard choices. And so the state budget, the utter profligacy of which for years has been papered over with accounting tricks and ...
A swift re-tort: How to fight lawsuit abuse
America’s economy remains in terrible shape and federal lawmakers are trying to kick-start a recovery by spending money. A better strategy would be to reform the country’s inefficient tort system, which is failing to promptly compensate true victims. Instead, meritless lawsuits clog courtrooms while outsized monetary awards cripple businesses and ...
An inevitable blast
Economist Robert P Murphy at the blog Free Advice must have heard me screeching with Total Mogambo Disrespect (TMD) about Congress and Barack Obama deficit-spending almost US$2 trillion this year, and he says, “If fiscal policy is a disaster, monetary policy is even worse.” I interrupt and say, “You said ...
Canada’s advantage
As Canada’s experience in the 1990s showed, the path to economic growth lies in shrinking government, not growing it This past weekend, Finance Minister Jim Flaherty encouraged the G20 countries to rapidly implement their stimulus packages, highlighting that his government provided a greater stimulus budget than the G20 countries agreed ...
Tort Law Tally
San Francisco – The Pacific Research Institute (PRI), a free-market think tank based in California, released Tort Law Tally, a new report identifying which state tort reforms reduce tort losses and tort insurance premiums the most. The analysis identifies 18 reforms to state civil-justice systems that significantly reduce tort losses ...
Tort Laws that Save Americans the Most Money
Attorney-Retention Sunshine and Daubert Rule are Most Effective Tort Reforms San Francisco – The Pacific Research Institute (PRI), a free-market think tank based in California, today released Tort Law Tally, a new report identifying which state tort reforms reduce tort losses and tort insurance premiums the most. The analysis identifies ...
The Nuttiness of Negative Interest Rates
In his April 18 New York Times op-ed, Harvard professor (and Bush adviser) Greg Mankiw calls on the Federal Reserve to promise future inflation, in order to fix the economy. Mankiw’s article beautifully illustrates what is wrong with today’s economics profession: it consists of very sharp guys (and gals) who ...
Court Rules Tax-Credit Scholarship Program Constitutional
On April 21, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that a tax-credit scholarship program remains constitutional under the Establishment Clause of the U.S. Constitution. The ruling marks the latest failure by opponents of parental choice in education to halt the program and spells good news for California. Choice opponents ...
Will New Fed “Tools” Avert Hyperinflation?
04/22/09 Nashville, Tennessee People often accuse me of making “irresponsible” forecasts of massive price inflation. Even though they know that history is replete with examples of central banks ruining their currencies, these critics are sure that “it can’t happen here.” So in the present article I’d like to make the ...
The Real Lessons of the Great Depression
Since late 2007, more and more commentators have drawn parallels between our current financial crisis and the Great Depression. Nobel laureates and presidential advisorsDownload PDF confidently proclaim that it was Herbert Hoover’s laissez-faire penny pinching that exacerbated the Depression, and that the American economy was saved only when FDR boldly ...
California’s ‘Spending Limit’ Is A Sham
The outlook for the California economy is dreadful, driven by a deeply perverse tax and regulatory environment, combined with Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s highly successful five-year effort to avoid hard choices. And so the state budget, the utter profligacy of which for years has been papered over with accounting tricks and ...
