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POPSTwo Common Objections to Capitalism The system of voluntary exchange and experimentation based on secure private-property rights — what we loosely call "capitalism" — expands rather than restricts our material and nonmaterial opportunities. Substituting elite power for voluntary exchange invites all sorts of epistemological problems and moral disasters. For these reasons, capitalism deserves to be defended.
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POPSThe Forgotten Depression of 1920 The experience of 1920–21 reinforces the contention of genuine free-market economists that government intervention is a hindrance to economic recovery. It is not in spite of the absence of fiscal and monetary stimulus that the economy recovered from the 1920–21 depression. It is because those things were avoided that recovery came. The next time we are solemnly warned to recall the lessons of history lest our economy deteriorate still further, we ought to refer to this episode – and observe how hastily our interrogators try to change the subject.
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POPSThe Solution to Healthcare is Your Bathroom
Under no circumstances can we let people know the aforementioned policies artificially limited the supply of labor and goods, which precipitated the astronomical rise in prices. We can easily place blame on the toilet manufactures, the installers, or the training institutes even though their every move has been dictated by a complex code of laws that was supposed to keep everything under control in the first place. After blame has been sufficiently passed, then it is up to Congress to hammer out a 2,000-page piece of legislation that further controls the toilet industry and ultimately makes it more expensive and inconvenient. It will be penned in English, but the bill will not make sense. Congress will raise taxes, borrow money, and pass strict laws, but amazingly prices will go up and availability will go down. By then, people will all have forgotten about healthcare and will demand even more government to control the spiraling costs of toilets. Problem solved.[/quote
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POPSMoney For Nothing Incredibly, the lesson Obama draws from history is that past administrations didn't spend enough..."The real problem was that Roosevelt slowed down on public spending in the first two years," the president said, according to one congressman who was in the room. "If he'd just kept on spending that money, we'd have gotten out of the Depression quicker."
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POPSKeynesian Foolishness I don't care how prominent, credentialed, or "accomplished" an economist is. If he says that burying cash in the ground can be a boon to society, then he should be immediately dismissed from public and academic discourse.
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POPSSoak the Rich, Lose the Rich One last point: States aren't simply competing with each other. As Texas Gov. Rick Perry recently told us, "Our state is competing with Germany, France, Japan and China for business. We'd better have a pro-growth tax system or those American jobs will be out-sourced." Gov. Perry and Texas have the jobs and prosperity model exactly right. Texas created more new jobs in 2008 than all other 49 states combined. And Texas is the only state other than Georgia and North Dakota that is cutting taxes this year.
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POPSPresidential Blame Game So how could the man who created "the most gigantic program of economic defense and counterattack ever evolved in the history of the Republic" during the first few years of the Great Depression also have been a hands-off laissez-faire advocate? Easy. He wasn't. The thing is, each one of them could've said it during their respective terms and it would've fit.
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POPSTax Questions Here's another tax question: Which worker receives the higher pay: a worker on a road construction project moving dirt with a shovel or a worker moving dirt atop a giant earthmover? If you said the guy on the earthmover, go to the head of the class. But why? It's not because he's unionized or that employers just love earthmover operators. It's because having more capital (tools) makes him more productive and therefore earn higher wages. It's not rocket science to conclude that whatever lowers the cost of capital formation enables workers to have more capital to work with and enjoy higher wages. Policies that raise the cost of capital formation such as capital gains taxes, low depreciation allowances and high corporate income taxes, and thereby reducing capital formation, serves neither the interests of workers, investors nor consumers.
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POPSConsidering Socialism This is usually where some like to insert a link to dictionary.com for the one sentence definition of socialism. While they are there they should also include the meaning of ownership. BTW, sometimes I get a smile from arrogant intellectuals not having a clue when to use an apostrophe. But what do I know...I'm just a dumb American.
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POPSThe Legacy of Keynes In the Keynesian framework, the largest chunk of spending is on account of consumer outlays. Therefore consumer outlays are regarded as the motor of the economy — consumption sets in motion real economic growth. But is consumption the motor of the economy? We suggest that one must make a distinction between productive and nonproductive consumption. While productive consumption is an agent of economic growth, nonproductive consumption leads to economic impoverishment.
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POPSBlaming Laissez Faire Laissez-faire capitalism has a definite meaning, which is totally ignored, contradicted, and downright defiled...Laissez-faire capitalism is a politico-economic system based on private ownership of the means of production and in which the powers of the state are limited to the protection of the individual's rights against the initiation of physical force.
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POPSSuspicion of Capitalism What ideas and ideals are needed for freedom to flourish? History offers no better answer than the American story. Two centuries ago, the Founding Fathers blazed the path to a capitalist future by creating a nation based on the individual's right to life, liberty, property and the selfish pursuit of his own personal happiness. For the first time, a nation's social system embodied approval of profit-seeking, the lifeblood of capitalism. America's founding principles, all but forgotten today, facilitated the explosive economic globalization of the 19th century and remain our only hope for freedom in the 21st century.
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POPSEconomics in One Clip One reason that Bastiat's example has power is that it applies not just in one area of policy but all areas. If it isn't true that breaking windows creates wealth, it is not true that government spending and inflating is a boon to the economy. It only ends up draining wealth from the private sector, which is the only source of wealth creation.
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POPSLeftist Economic Nonsense It was astonishing to hear Maxine Waters openly discuss nationalizing the oil industry. She was talking to the heads of America’s oil companies, and she was a little worked up, so it was also possible to say that it was just one person, speaking impulsively in a moment of anger, and easily dismissed. What left most conservatives and libertarians staring in slack jawed wonder was when Maurice Hinchey (D-NY) stood before the press and advocated nationalizing the oil refineries. While most have known about the socialist beliefs of the left, what surprised them was the matter of fact manner in which they were suggesting socialist controls over the oil industry. Finally, the socialist trifecta was complete with Obama supporter Malai Lazu, of the non-profit group Oil Change International calling for “price controls” on Neal Cavuto’s “Your World.” As she simply put it, “When Congress can set prices, Congress can set prices.”
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POPSWhy We Love Our Lawns Falk tested his theory by showing various groups worldwide photos of different landscapes, including their own. All groups said they'd prefer to live in savanna-like surroundings, even jungle-dwellers and city folk who'd never seen a savanna or a lawn.
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POPSMore on Obamanomics Obama's economic plan also calls for mandating a "living wage." He plans to saddle retailers with a $10 minimum wage indexed to inflation, along with a mandate to provide seven days of paid sick leave to workers. Obama assumes business owners will just eat the added costs.
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POPSBaltimore's Capital Punishment Policies Back in the good old days, Baltimore had a smaller percentage of residents living in poverty (22.7%) than the nation as a whole (27.8%), and a greater percentage of families (23.1%) earning a middle-class income of at least $44,600 in today's dollars than the rest of the country (19.1%). Today, the city has a population that is almost 50% smaller, and about 40% of families with children live at or near the federal poverty line. Among the country's 100 most populous cities, Baltimore ranks a shameful 87th on median household income. There are now at least 30,000 housing units in Baltimore that are abandoned and waiting to be demolished, while even old, upper-crust neighborhoods now have a seedy look. Property taxes are so high – as well as the strong likelihood they will soar even higher in the future – that even maintenance, no less capital improvements, are a losing proposition.
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POPSReason to Panic? The supply of oil is also related to the amount it sells for. It's not getting easier to find new reserves, but at $130 a barrel, a lot of companies are going to be looking really, really hard. They will also be reevaluating fields that couldn't be profitably tapped at $60 a barrel. The federal Energy Information Administration projects that U.S. production will rise 24 percent in the next decade. I actually have to somewhat disagree with that second statement that it's not getting easier to find new reserves. I'd offer that it actually is getting easier...satellite imaging, resonance mapping, new theories for oil location, and a whole host of technologies being applied, not to mention the cumulative experience of generations of drillers, all increase the likelihood of finding new reserves. Of course getting through bureaucracies isn't getting easier. So essentially it's a valid statement anyways
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POPSCapitalism - The Only Possible Choice There is scarcely anything so absurd as the fundamental principle of Marx's materialist interpretation of history: "The hand mill made feudal society; the steam mill, capitalist society." It was precisely capitalist society that was needed to create the necessary conditions for the original conception of the steam mill to be developed and put into effect. It was capitalism that created the technology, and not the other way round. Liberalism - In the Classical Tradition Ludwig von Mises, 1927
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