The rediscovery of Keynes is one of the official storylines of the financial crisis and global recession. The problem is that Keynes was, in my judgment, a charlatan, a clever man obsessed with his own cleverness who never paid serious, thoughtful attention to economics (or any subject). You have to learn a little about Keynes [...]

The House Republican Conference has just released the following graph on the unemployment effects of Barack Obama’s “stimulus” package:
Also, please see the following, award-winning Independent Institute book:
Out of Work: Unemployment and Government in Twentieth-Century America, Updated Edition
By Richard K. Vedder and Lowell E. Gallaway, Foreword by Martin Bronfenbrenner
(New York University Press)

Independent Institute Senior Fellow Robert Higgs is interviewed here by Judge Andrew Napolitano on Fox News’ program, “Freedom Watch,” regarding the utter folly of the gigantic federal spending programs first started under George W. Bush and now enormously expanded by Barack Obama and the U.S. Congress. Prolonging the recovery amidst enormous economic confusion and new [...]

On Sunday, leading Obama officials criticized Wall Street, complaining about high bonuses, blaming business for high unemployment and seemingly protesting that financial institutions have both taken on too much risk and yet have not lent out enough money. The administration is not accepting much blame on its own for the unemployment and economic slump. Meanwhile, [...]

The Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) is a year old now.  On September 19, 2008, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson announced the need for a $700 billion program to purchase toxic assets held by banks to prevent a financial meltdown, and after some modification TARP was rapidly approved by Congress on October 3.  Looking back after [...]

Dear Anonymous Donor:
Thank you for your contribution of a 2008 1,000,000,000,000 Zimbabwean dollar (ZWD) note, received by mail today. We note that the Zimbabwean government redenominated the ZWD again on February 2, 2009, at a rate of 1,000,000,000,000 old ZWD to 1 new ZWD, and as I write this your donation is currently valued at [...]

Judging from the previews, Michael Moore’s latest, “Capitalism: A Love Story,” ought better be titled as above. Someone, quick, give him a copy of Adam Smith’s A Wealth of Nations and explain to him that the best way to stop corporations from taking advantage of government largesse distributed at the expense of the politically impotent [...]

The Federal Reserve Bank (Fed) has proposed a plan to regulate the pay of bank employees by allowing the Fed to reject compensation schemes it views would encourage excessively risky behavior. Regardless of whether one thinks bankers’ compensation should be regulated, the Fed should not be doing this.
The Fed’s major responsibility is controlling the [...]

I’ve seen lots written in the past year on the Federal Reserve Bank’s (Fed’s) expansion of the monetary base, but almost nothing written about changes in the Fed’s policy to target its funds and support toward specific institutions.  Prior to Bernanke’s reign as Chairman, the Fed acted in a way that was neutral toward specific [...]

In an editorial published in the Wall Street Journal on 9/11, former Reagan and George H. W. Bush public official Peter Ferrara writes that “the fallacies of Keynesian economics were exposed decades ago by Friedrich Hayek and Milton Friedman. Keynesian thinking was then discredited in practice in the 1970s, when the Keynesians could [...]