Mark W. Hendrickson
Mon, April 29, 2013
Happy Birthday James Monroe
Recently, I had the pleasure of reading one of Harlow Giles Unger's thorough biographies of key figures in the era of America's founding. In reading "The Last Founding Father: James Monroe and a ...
Tue, April 02, 2013
Republicans Need to Grow Up on Taxes
Editor's note: A version of this article first appeared at Forbes.com.
Republicans are flailing about these days, trying to rebrand themselves before the next election cycle. A certain ...
Sun, March 17, 2013
Medicare: Did You Really Pay for That?
Editor's note: A version of this article first appeared at Forbes.com.
Last summer, Barack Obama riled a lot of [4]entrepreneurs when he got carried
away at a ...
Mon, March 04, 2013
Pentagon Budget as Political Football
Editor's note: A version of this article first appeared at Forbes.com.
The Pentagon's budget occupies center stage in the sequestration drama. Defense spending comprises approximately 18 ...
Fri, February 22, 2013
The Spendaholics' Offensive
Editor's note: A version of this article first appeared at Forbes.com.
A primary meme of the Democratic Party in 2013 is that the federal government
doesn't ...
Tue, February 12, 2013
Erasing Reagan: The Illiberal War on Truth
Editor's note: A version of this article first appeared at Forbes.com.
The prospect of four more years of Barack Obama in the White House has caused several conservative voices (among ...
Wed, January 09, 2013
Economic Outlook for 2013
Editor's note: A version of this article first appeared at Forbes.com.
I recently indulged in some wistful, year-end nostalgia, but now that 2013 is underway, let's turn our attention to ...
Wed, January 02, 2013
A Nostaligic Look at New Year's in the 1950s
Editor's note: A version of this article first appeared at Forbes.com.
New Year's observances blend recollections of the past, celebrations in the present, and anticipation of the future. ...
Fri, December 21, 2012
Christmas Thoughts 2012
The gentle spirit of Christmas brings a sense of fresh promise and renewal every year. The remembrances and commemorations of the birth of an innocent baby have a softening effect. Christmas provides ...
Tue, December 11, 2012
Compromise or Gridlock?
Editor's note: A version of this article first appeared at Forbes.com.
As soon as the elections were over, a wave of commentaries extolling the virtues of compromise appeared in the ...
Thu, November 29, 2012
Long Live the Twinkie !
Editor's note: A version of this article first appeared at Forbes.com.
Can the Twinkie and other famous Hostess brands be saved? I hope so, and I'll offer my own two cents' on one ...
Sat, November 24, 2012
Blasted Twinkie Killers
Editor's note: A version of this article first appeared at Forbes.com.
Drat! I'm bummed–saddened by the news that the Hostess company, home of the
Fri, November 09, 2012
An Open Letter to Mitt Romney
Editor's note: A version of this piece first appeared at USAToday.com.
Dear Mitt,
I have awakened on November 7 to learn that your bid for the presidency was unsuccessful. In ...
Mon, October 08, 2012
Politically Incorrect Billionaire
Editor's note: A version of this article first appeared at Forbes.com.
Two news items about "the rich" recently popped up online within a couple of hours of each other.
Story ...
Fri, August 10, 2012
Obama's Popularity with Younger Voters
Editor's note: A version of this article first appeared at Forbes.com.
According to a recent USA Today/Gallup poll, Americans under the age of 30 favor
Fri, June 29, 2012
Euro is a Frankenstein Currency
Editor's note: A version of this article first appeared at Forbes.com.
What do Dr. Victor Frankenstein and the architects of the euro currency have in common? Answer: They both ...
Tue, May 22, 2012
Me and Mitt: A Personal Glimpse
Editor's note: A longer version of this article first appeared at Forbes.com.
What interesting timing. I had recently planned a column on my observations
about ...
Fri, May 11, 2012
Reflections on the French Election
Editor's note: A version of this article first appeared at Forbes.com.
The election of Socialist Party candidate Francois Hollande to the presidency of France epitomizes the sorry state ...
Thu, May 10, 2012
Yo Yo Economics
Editor's note: A version of this article first appeared at Forbes.com.
President Obama recently referred to free-market economics as "you're-on-your-own economics." It's a catchy ...
Mon, March 19, 2012
Election Year Politics of Energy
Realizing that his popularity may decline as the price of gasoline rises, President Obama is barnstorming the country, emphatically insisting that drilling for more oil isn't the cure for high gas ...
Fri, March 09, 2012
People Say the Darndest Things
Those of you past a certain age may remember the old Art Linkletter show "Kids Say the Darndest [sic] Things." The one I still remember was when Linkletter asked a little boy if he looked like ...
Fri, February 24, 2012
A Whiff of Privatization
Three decades ago, Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher implemented a policy called "privatization" to rejuvenate the moribund economy of the United Kingdom.
Like the United States today, the ...
Thu, January 26, 2012
The Tax Rate Scandal
When Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney casually estimated that his
effective tax rate is around 15 percent, progressives immediately pounced on
the issue. To this ideological ...
Thu, January 12, 2012
Sports, Concussions Contemporary American Culture
If you follow professional sports, and especially if you are a football or
hockey fan, you undoubtedly are aware of the rash of concussions that have
rendered players unfit to play. Now ...
Thu, December 22, 2011
The Five Best Christmas Movies
Let's have a happy debate: What are the five best Christmas movies of all time? Obviously, tastes differ and change over time. Here are my five favorites, the ones I am willing to watch every ...
Mon, December 19, 2011
Barry and the Babe
Barry Bonds' Dec. 16 sentencing for obstruction of justice is an anticlimactic addendum to a sterling, though marred, baseball career.
Without a doubt, Bonds was a great hitter who ...
Fri, December 02, 2011
When Clarence Thomas Came for a Visit
On Tuesday, November 15, Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas visited Grove City College. I had a choice to make–whether to meet him or attend to the tons of work I had to finish before ...
Wed, November 16, 2011
Green Boondoggles
A barrage of news headlines on the [2]Solyndra scandal continue to remind us
that President Obama made green jobs one of his administration's priorities.
Those headlines also reveal this ...
Fri, November 11, 2011
Veterans: What Is Seen and Not Seen
In economics, the first lesson I teach my pupils is the lesson of things that are seen and things that are not seen. Actions have some effects that are readily apparent and others are ...
Mon, October 31, 2011
Looking Ahead to 2012, 2013, 2014
Whoever takes the oath of office as President of the United States in January of 2013 will inherit an economy facing multiple challenges:
Undoubtedly, still-escalating federal spending ...
Wed, October 12, 2011
We've Been ZIRPed
It isn't easy to earn interest income these days. Interest rates on government T-bills, banks' savings accounts, and certificates of deposit are microscopic. You can blame our government and central ...
Wed, September 28, 2011
The Boys of October
"The one constant through all the years, Ray, has been baseball."
–Terence Mann (played by James Earl Jones), Field of Dreams
For over 100 years, baseball has been a ...
Wed, September 21, 2011
Greece on the Brink
The Greek government is in a gigantic financial hole and is teetering on the brink of defaulting on its debt. It has been able to limp along since last year only with bailouts from outside of Greece. ...
Tue, September 13, 2011
Greece, Germany and the Fate of the Euro
It has been over a year since I have written about the fragile condition of the European Union's financial system. The financial crisis of a possible Greek default has been papered over since then, ...
Fri, August 19, 2011
Gold's Meteoric Rise
The price of gold has gone on a tear this summer, from slightly under $1500 per ounce to well over $1800 per ounce, and it looks like it wants to go higher. What gives?
Well, if you ...
Fri, August 12, 2011
Deal or No Big Deal?
As the August 2 deadline for a debt-ceiling deal drew near, many expected a big deal that would significantly change the direction of federal fiscal policy. After weeks of tumultuous negotiations, ...
Fri, July 29, 2011
USA on the Brink
Some have called August 2 "Financial D-Day." That is the date, according to
Treasury Secretary Geithner, by which either Congress raises the debt ceiling
or some government ...
Mon, July 18, 2011
Solutions for the 'Tax Gap'
In 2010, there was a "tax gap"–i.e., the difference between federal taxes owed and those actually paid–of $410—$500 billion.
Some of the gap stems from the ...
Tue, July 12, 2011
The Limits to Bernanke's Power
As chairman of our country's central bank, the Federal Reserve Board, Ben Bernanke is expected to put the economy on a sound footing and foster strong economic growth. Unfortunately, Bernanke faces ...
Wed, June 29, 2011
Jefferson Vs. Hamilton: The Continuing Contest
This Fourth of July marks 235 years since the Declaration of Independence was published. In this immortal document, the Spirit of '76 was given its fullest, most eloquent expression. The Declaration ...
Mon, June 27, 2011
My Congressman's Tough Job
Being a congressman can be a great job. It can be attractive for someone who relishes the ersatz virtue of playing Santa Claus with other people's money, who finds a year-round routine of ...
Fri, June 17, 2011
Thanks, Pop!
Father's Day is a poignant occasion for me, as for many. I never knew my biological father, who died in an accident. Mom and I lived near Detroit with her oldest sister and her husband, who were ...
Thu, June 09, 2011
Swindling America's Youth
We older Americans have saddled our youth with a mind-boggling public debt–over $20 trillion already spent ($14.3 trillion of "official" national debt plus various off-budget ...
Wed, June 01, 2011
High Stakes Showdown Over Medicare
The trustees of the Medicare system recently reported that the program will go broke in the year 2024–five years sooner than was projected just last year.
The millions of Americans ...
Tue, May 24, 2011
The Global Energy Superpower
Saudi Arabia has long been the dominant producer of petroleum on the planet. Nature endowed the Arabian Peninsula with gigantic deposits of this vital source of energy. Many of us have lamented the ...
Mon, May 09, 2011
Inflation, Food, Fuel the Fed
As Americans increasingly feel the pinch of higher prices for food and fuel, the Federal Reserve's QE2 policy of creating more money has been called into question. Asked if the Fed bore some ...
Mon, May 02, 2011
Millionaires in America
Recently, CNN's Money.com posted an article bearing the title, "U.S.
Millionaires Population Expanded by 8 Percent in 2010." According to the
article, there are now approximately 8.4 ...
Tue, April 19, 2011
Christian Conservatives and Randians
According to a 1991 Book of the Month Club / Library of Congress survey that asked what book had most influenced their lives, the two top picks by respondents were the Bible and Ayn Rand's Atlas ...
Fri, April 15, 2011
How Radical is the Ryan Plan?
Question for those of you concerned about the size of federal debts and deficits: Would you endorse a plan which would add another five or six trillion dollars to the federal debt over the ...
Fri, March 25, 2011
Imperfect Justice in Snyder v. Phelps
On March 2, the Supreme Court issued a decision in the case Snyder v. Phelps that illustrates the difficulty of balancing competing claims to rights and justice in our judicial system.
Mon, March 14, 2011
Budget Tightening in PA and Across the Nation
Pennsylvania's new governor, Tom Corbett, has submitted his first annual budget to the state legislature. It includes proposals for spending cuts and no new taxes. In some ways, the budget is a model ...
Fri, March 04, 2011
Who Objects to Free Speech?
Free speech has always been one of our most cherished rights. It has come under attack repeatedly by those who find it to be an inconvenient and unwanted obstacle to the attainment of their political ...
Mon, February 28, 2011
Debt Ceiling Dance
Once again it's time to talk about raising the statutory limit on the U.S. government's debt–the so-called "debt ceiling." Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has estimated that Uncle Sam will ...
Tue, February 22, 2011
Wisconsin Unions vs. Governor Walker
Editor's note: A version of this article was first published by the Christian Science Monitor.
It is hard to overstate what is at stake in the dramatic showdown between Wisconsin's ...
Tue, February 08, 2011
Honoring Reagan's Memory in the Most Honorable Way
It is fitting that we are pausing to remember President Ronald Wilson Reagan on
the centennial anniversary of his birth this February, a month that also
includes Presidents' Day. There ...
Tue, February 01, 2011
Economics of the State of the Union
The news from Egypt has thrust President Obama's State of the Union off the front pages. While that news is critical, so is further analysis of the State of the Union, especially from an economic ...
Thu, January 27, 2011
The New-Old Barack Obama
The 2012 presidential campaign has begun. Not being a political junkie, it gives me no pleasure to report this phenomenon. And no further proof of this assertion is needed than Barack Obama's ...
Wed, January 19, 2011
Hu's in Town: Time to Talk Money
China's President Hu Jintao is visiting the United States this week. This means we can count on two things: 1) a proliferation of Hu/who jokes (think: Abbott and Costello, "Who's on first?"); and 2) ...
Thu, January 13, 2011
On Reading Aloud in Congress
Opening the 112th Congress by having a succession of representatives read the Constitution aloud on the floor of the House was a worthwhile exercise, despite heated criticism to the contrary.
...
Wed, December 22, 2010
The Tea Party's Uphill Challenge
The Tea Party movement and its millions of supporters have high hopes that the recent elections will rein in runaway government. While I endorse this objective, accomplishing it will be far more ...
Thu, December 09, 2010
Honroring Bill of Rights Day
December 15 is Bill of Rights Day. This year is the 219th anniversary of the adoption of the first 10 amendments to the United States Constitution–the Bill of Rights.
Few ...
Wed, November 24, 2010
A Thanksgiving Lesson
Every fall in my Econ 101 course, during the last class period before we part for Thanksgiving, I share a lesson from early American history. It is particularly timely, because it deals with ...
Fri, November 19, 2010
Dead Man Walking
Editor's Note: A version of this article first appeared in American Thinker.
To Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, deflation is regarded as Public Enemy Number One.
Thu, November 11, 2010
Thank You for Your Service
We Americans tend to look forward to the various holidays on the calendar. Sometimes we pause to ponder the meaning of these commemorative days; often we do not. Perhaps in your own experience you ...
Thu, November 04, 2010
Tough Times Ahead
Now that the elections are over, attention is turning to the economy.
The stock market rose steadily from the end of August up to the elections. Since the stock market tends to be ...
Thu, October 28, 2010
Dangerous Election Year Demagoguery on Trade
As is customary in the days leading up to an election, the campaign rhetoric is getting heated. Here in western Pennsylvania, Democrats have gained points in the polls by adopting an ...
Wed, October 20, 2010
Breakdown
You've probably seen the headlines about major banks suspending foreclosure proceedings to reclaim houses from borrowers who have defaulted on their mortgages. This has the potential to be hugely ...
Fri, August 20, 2010
Understanding Austerity
Editor's Note: A longer version of this article first appeared in American Thinker.
A couple of years ago, the terms "too big to fail" and "bailout" were the ...
Mon, August 09, 2010
Global Warming: The Big Picture
"Climategate: A Veteran Meteorologist Exposes the Global Warming Scam" By Brian Sussman | WND Books (April 22, 2010) | 240 pp. | List Price: $25.95
Mon, August 09, 2010
Rethinking The Corporate Income Tax
It is hard to find anything positive to say about the corporate income (i.e., profits) tax. Economists across the ideological spectrum agree that the corporate profits tax is woefully inefficient: ...
Mon, August 02, 2010
Geithner Vs. Bush Tax Cuts
I'm now convinced that the Obama administration is placing its political agenda above policies that would contribute to the economic recovery that millions of Americans so desperately need. That ...
Fri, July 23, 2010
Lessons from History: How Obamanomics May Play Out
The grand lesson of the 20th century is that Big Government retards economic progress.
The evidence of this lesson goes beyond the socialist countries and their ...
Thu, July 15, 2010
Three Neglected Ecoomic Lessons from American History
In most, if not all, states, pupils must pass a course in American history to receive a high-school diploma. Unfortunately, when it comes to our country's economic history, most students are poorly ...
Wed, July 07, 2010
Libertarianism vs. American Sovereignty
Recently, Bill O'Reilly interviewed John Stossel about the dangerous situation along Arizona's porous border with Mexico. Stossel is probably my favorite reporter. I admire the way he demolishes ...
Tue, June 29, 2010
Economic Information Worth Knowing
It's easy to be overwhelmed by the bewildering array of economic data, statistics, charts, and graphs floating around. Often, we economists can't see the forest for the trees. It's hard to figure out ...
Fri, June 25, 2010
Exchange Rate Mythology
If you read the financial press or listen to what politicians say, you have probably heard many times how important it is for the Chinese renminbi (yuan) to strengthen against the dollar. Indeed, it ...
Wed, June 23, 2010
Columbia Presidential Election: Not 'Too Close to Call'
The just-completed Colombian presidential election took place in two stages.
The first round took place on May 30. There were multiple candidates. Since
nobody received an outright ...
Mon, June 14, 2010
Reservations About a Balanced Budget Amendment
Calling for a balanced budget amendment has been a staple campaign issue for conservative Republicans for years. Undeniably, our nation is beset by fearful fiscal woes. However, a balanced budget ...
Thu, June 03, 2010
America Needs Union Competition
I agree with President Obama that we need more labor unions. However, I disagree with his approach.
Full disclosure: I have been a dues-payer to both the United ...
Wed, May 26, 2010
Reflections on the Deepwater Horizon Disaster
The explosion that sank British Petroleum's Deepwater Horizon oil-drilling vessel/platform in the Gulf of Mexico in April was an unmitigated disaster. The accident killed 11 workers and has caused ...
Mon, May 24, 2010
Tragedy in Amish Country
I first met Levi almost 20 years ago. He was about 12. We had just purchased our land from his parents, Jake and Nancy. Being old-order Amish, Jake and Nancy needed a ride to the attorney's office, ...
Mon, May 17, 2010
The Great Greek Bail-Out
The sovereign debt crisis–centered on Greece for the moment, but bound to spread to other heavily indebted national governments–has taken an ominous turn.
The European Central ...
Wed, May 12, 2010
Good Cop, Bad Cop
Economic error knows no partisan bounds. Republican Herbert Hoover and Democrat Franklin Roosevelt both adopted foolish, harmful policies during the Great Depression. Republican George W. Bush's ...
Tue, May 04, 2010
Financial Intrigue in Greece: Should We Care?
The intertwined worlds of government and finance are swirling with drama not
seen since the fall of Lehman Brothers in 2008. The epicenter of the current
crisis is Greece. The Aegean ...
Thu, April 29, 2010
Financial Reform: The Problem of Leverage
Trying to keep up with all the changes in U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd's (D-Conn.) financial reform bill has been a daunting task. Two weeks ago, it was described in the press as "the 1100-page bill." Last ...
Tue, April 13, 2010
The VAT-Man Cometh?
Editor's note: This is one of many articles from The Center for Vision Values dealing with the topic of our April 15-16 conference on "The Progressives." Click here for information.
Thu, April 08, 2010
The Social Justice Fallacy
Editor's note: This is one of many articles from The Center for Vision Values dealing with the topic of our April 15-16 conference on "The Progressives."
Many Christians over many ...
Fri, March 05, 2010
The Governing Elite vs. The Rest of Us
The truly revolutionary American idea of government as the servant of the people may be fading away. Many of today's so-called "civil servants" are a protected, privileged class. While ...
Fri, February 12, 2010
Econoclasts: A Book Review
"Econoclasts: The Rebels Who Sparked the Supply-Side Revolution and Restored American Prosperity" By Brian Domitrovic | ISI Books (August 2009) | 368 pp. | List Price: $27.95
Tue, January 19, 2010
A Moment of Illumination
We've all had those sudden epiphanies where the proverbial light bulb clicks on and understanding comes into clear focus. I had one of those moments over the Christmas holiday season. In this case, ...
Thu, January 14, 2010
Obama's Anti-Jobs Policy
High and/or rising unemployment is always a political liability for a president, and so Barack Obama has taken the offensive in trying to persuade the American people that his team can get Americans ...
Wed, December 23, 2009
Combating Recessions:
The search for the right macroeconomic policy
What should governments do to combat recessions? In the United States, before the Great Depression of the 1930s, the answer was "very little."
Of course, the federal government was much smaller ...
Thu, December 17, 2009
Jefferson's Warnings About Money and Banks
In 1962, President John F. Kennedy hosted a dinner for 49 Nobel laureates. The occasion provided the opportunity for JFK to display his keen wit in the memorable quote, "I think this is the most ...
Sun, December 13, 2009
The Theory of Moral Sentiments:
Adam Smith's Timely and Timeless Classic
2009 marks the 250th anniversary of the publication of Adam Smiths masterful
treatise on ethics, The Theory of Moral Sentiments. Smith, primarily known today for his hugely influential 1776 work ...
Mon, December 07, 2009
Government Intervention and High Prices
What kind of prices do you prefer to pay when you go shopping–high or low? Unless you're trying to show off for someone by spending a bundle, I'd bet that you prefer low prices. I've never met ...
Mon, November 16, 2009
The Coming of Caesar
We have a problem. This could be "the big one"–bigger than coping with the Ahmadinejads, Kims, and Chavezes of the world and bigger than our current economic woes. Our republic, our society, ...
Thu, November 12, 2009
Psyching Out the Stock Market
There's something about stocks that turns us upside down. For example, normally when something goes on sale, we tend to buy more of it; yet, when stock prices fall, many investors want to buy ...
Wed, November 04, 2009
Sex, Life and Death
Two summers ago, while passing through an airport, I caught a TV news
story: double homicide in Ohio. The victims were a young woman and the nine-month-old fetus she was carrying. The murderer ...
Wed, October 28, 2009
Cap and Trade Update
On Sept. 30, Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and John Kerry (D-MA) unveiled their proposal for cap-and-trade (C&T) legislation. The Senate bill calls for a 20 percent reduction of U.S. CO2 emissions by ...
Mon, October 19, 2009
Gold, Geopolitics, and the Carry Trade
The price of gold has recently spurted to a new all-time high in terms of U.S. dollars. I'm neither an expert nor a market timer, but let me offer a few perspectives on this event.
Mon, October 12, 2009
Honduras and the United States
As this is being written, Manuel Zelaya, the ousted and exiled ex-president of Honduras, is holed up in the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital, having been smuggled there on Sept. ...
Mon, September 28, 2009
The G-20 Meeting is Over (Thanks Goodness!)
Count me among the cynics when it comes to G-7, G-8, and now G-20 meetings. They seem to involve little more than photo ops and platforms for politicians to bore us with platitudinous ...
Mon, September 21, 2009
Truth and Politics
Many of us are cynical about promises made by politicians. "Campaign promises are made to be broken" is a venerable truism of American politics. There are "truth-in-advertising" laws against ...
Wed, September 09, 2009
Monetary Madness
China, Russia, et al. are talking about shifting their monetary reserves out of U.S. dollars. Gold has hit $1000 per ounce, even though wholesale and retail prices exhibit a deflationary bias. The ...
Tue, August 18, 2009
A Trillion Here, A Trillion There
About 50 years ago, Sen. Everett Dirksen (R-IL) uttered his famous quip, "A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking about real money."
Tue, August 04, 2009
The Next Great Depression, Updated
"There is nothing inevitable about another depression. We have a simple choice: We can repeat the errors of the past or we can avoid them."
Those were my words, Feb. 8, 2008. It's time ...
Fri, July 17, 2009
Remembering July 20, 1969
For those of you above a certain age, do you remember where you were on July 20, 1969? I certainly do. Just as many of us will never forget where we were when we learned about 9/11 or heard President ...
Thu, July 16, 2009
The Nuts and Bolts of Cap and Trade
The purpose of cap and trade (C&T) legislation is to reduce Americans' consumption of fossil fuels–coal, oil, and natural gas–and to speed up the transition to alternate forms of energy, ...
Thu, July 09, 2009
Upheaval in Honduras: A Defining Moment for the Obama Presidency
Quick, what's the capital of Honduras? Probably fewer than 10 percent of Americans could answer that question prior to the recent news that Honduran President Mel Zelaya was sent packing to Costa ...
Thu, July 02, 2009
No Laughing Matter
Who won the Cold War? That's a no-brainer. The United States prevailed while the Soviet Union collapsed, and the People's Republic of China dumped Marxism; capitalism (free markets and private ...
Tue, June 16, 2009
Detroit: A Glimpse into America's Future
Wouldn't it be wonderful if, like Ebenezer Scrooge, we could have a preview of the future so that we could change our course if necessary? This can happen in real life. Such a dispensation was ...
Mon, June 15, 2009
Team Obama's Auto Coup
In assessing Team Obama's semi-nationalization of the auto industry, a slight alteration of the famous verse by Elizabeth Barrett Browning encapsulates my reaction: "How do I [not] love thee? Let me ...
Mon, June 08, 2009
Opening Pandora's Box: Classifying CO2 as a 'Pollutant'
A few days before "Earth Day" (which happens to be the same day as Lenin's Birthday), America's ideological greens and reds received a present they have been desiring for many moons: The ...
Thu, May 28, 2009
The U.S. Constitution:
Living, Breathing Document or Dead Letter?
In the concluding paragraph of my article about President-elect Obama's constitutional philosophy, I opined: "Our Constitution has been terminal for a long time." President Obama's nomination of ...
Tue, May 26, 2009
A Closer Look at the IPCC
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is widely regarded in the media as the ultimate authority on climate change. Created by two divisions of the United Nations, and recipient of the ...
Fri, May 15, 2009
Economic Strangulation
The "greens" must be thrilled with the new Obama/Pelosi/Reid (OPR) troika in charge of the federal government. Three times already, the troika has blocked the development of domestic oil ...
Wed, May 06, 2009
Obama's Two Achilles' Heels
In my recent article "Checkmate," I made the case that President Obama's grand strategy has outfoxed the opposition, dooming us all to a massive increase in the scope and power of Uncle Sam. Is the ...
Thu, April 30, 2009
Checkmate?
Some people I know react with incredulity when they hear television commentators remark on President Barack Obama's brilliance. "How can he say that?" they expostulate. "He doesn't understand basic ...
Mon, April 27, 2009
FDR: Then and Today
Economic historian Burton Folsom's "New Deal or Raw Deal?" is a truly important book. Thoroughly researched, well organized and fluently written, this reader-friendly study of President Franklin ...
Fri, April 03, 2009
Two Americas?
One of the favorite refrains of the class-warfare left has long been to lament what it perceives as a division in America between economic haves and have-nots. From the standpoint of egalitarian, ...
Tue, March 31, 2009
In Praise of Capitalist Exploitation
For well over a century, socialists, progressives, and even many Christians have railed against the capitalist exploitation of workers. They denounce capitalists–whether the Carnegies and ...
Mon, March 30, 2009
More Bailouts, More Fed
In the last week, the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve each announced a major policy initiative for the stated purpose of reversing our economic woes. Don't hold your breath.
Thu, March 19, 2009
Anger at AIG
A raw nerve was struck this week. Reports that employees of the insurance giant AIG–the recipient of four federal bailouts totaling more than $170 billion–were now receiving $165 million ...
Fri, March 13, 2009
The Ghost of John Maynard Keynes
The Ghost of John Maynard Keynes
By Dr. Mark W. Hendrickson
The British economist John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946) turns out to have been something of a ...
Fri, March 06, 2009
Into the Fiscal Abyss
The U.S. Treasury recently released its "2008 Financial Report of the United States Government." In case you had any doubts, our government's finances are in a terrible mess. According to ...
Mon, March 02, 2009
Three Books for the Current Crisis
When my friend Paul Kengor, the executive director of The Center for Vision Values here at Grove City College, asked me what three books I would recommend to students if they wanted to broaden their ...
Thu, February 19, 2009
Tough Times for Wise Virgins
The biblical parable of the 10 virgins (Matthew 25:1-12) is particularly relevant today. As you may recall, the five wise virgins behaved responsibly and prudently, making sure they had enough lamp ...
Wed, February 11, 2009
Team Obama: Ready to Rock 'n Roll
Ready for some political and economic rock and roll? It's happening. In 2008, Americans were rocked by the beginnings of a deflationary credit collapse and Uncle Sam's extraordinary ...
Tue, February 03, 2009
Love That Economic Pain
What would you think if you heard a prominent physician being interviewed and the topic of discussion was the breakout of a serious epidemic, and then the physician started enthusing about how great ...
Tue, January 20, 2009
Assessing the Presidency of George W. Bush
George W. Bush had the misfortune to become president when two long-term trends that predated his presidency reached historical tipping points: First, decades of militant Islamic ferment culminated ...
Thu, January 15, 2009
'Only Government Can . . . . ?'
Parsing Obama's speech on the economy
Last Thursday, President-elect Barack Obama delivered a major speech on the economy. I didn't know if it had that legendary tingling effect on its listeners, but reading the text in black and white, ...
Mon, December 29, 2008
Lessons from the Oil Market
The longer I study economic phenomena, the more I learn two truths. The first truth is how little I know. This is very humbling. There is just too much information out there for any one human being ...
Thu, December 18, 2008
The Problem with Monotheism
When an author argues that there is no God, that's his personal business–something between him and the Creator. But when an author, in addition to denying God, asserts that monotheism is a net ...
Tue, December 09, 2008
Dancing with Fred or Frankenstein:
Free Markets, Socialism, and the Bailout
Washington's $700 billion bailout plan is making a lot of people unhappy. The Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), as the implementation of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 has come ...
Wed, November 26, 2008
The Big Three: Assigning Blame An Alternative to a Bail-out
I've already explained the problematical economics and ethics of a federal bailout for the Big Three (see "A Bailout for Detroit"). The demise of the pillar of metro Detroit's economy saddens ...
Wed, November 26, 2008
Thanksgiving Thoughts 2008:
The challenge of affluence
Throughout recorded history, most human beings have been poor. Poverty has been the norm and affluence the exception. Given a choice, most of us would rather be affluent than poor, but in this year ...
Mon, November 17, 2008
The End Game
If you wanted to turn the United States of America into a socialist country, what strategy would you adopt? Joseph Stalin, the world's top communist from 1924 to 1953, is reputed to have advocated ...
Fri, November 14, 2008
The Threat Within
Human nature has a blind spot. We often detect external flaws faster than internal ones–seeing the speck in our neighbor's eye sooner than the beam in our own, to use the biblical metaphor.
Thu, November 06, 2008
Obama, FDR, the Constitution, and Rights
Earlier this year, in "The Next Great Depression," I noted several parallels between the political economy of the early 1930s and today. Another intriguing parallel between then and now is the ...
Thu, October 23, 2008
Hatred and Politics
Politics in America is a contact sport. Passions flare and the rhetoric can get heated and nasty. Political parties stoke these fires, playing on people's fears as a key fund-raising tactic.
...
Wed, October 15, 2008
The Dominant Campaign Question
What issue(s) dominated the presidential campaign two months ago–foreign policy, taxes, health care? That seems like ancient history now. The one question that everyone wants Barack Obama and ...
Wed, October 01, 2008
Thoughts on the Bailout
The biggest bailout plan (so far) will continue to be revised in an attempt to win approval of a congressional majority. The goal of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 is to put the ...
Thu, September 25, 2008
Blaming the Free Market
It's finger-pointing time, folks. Whose fault is the ongoing financial crack-up that has hurt, angered, and frightened so many people? There is plenty of blame to go around, and the American people ...
Tue, September 23, 2008
Economic Nonsense
It saddens me when I see a member of my profession go over to "the dark side," that is, to politics. Politics replaces voluntary action with compulsion, private contract with coercion. Government ...
Tue, September 16, 2008
Another One Bites the Dust
September 15, 2008. Lehman Brothers, the giant Wall Street firm, declares bankruptcy. Merrill Lynch, the most famous stock brokerage company in the country, avoids the risk of eventually suffering a ...
