Free Republic

The income gap and income inequality is a hot button topic in the United States that has taken center stage in political debates and college classrooms in recent years. Economic Nobel Laureates Joseph Stiglitz and Paul Krugman have argued in The New York Times that income inequality is a major issue that requires political action to remedy. President Obama even hails income inequality as “the defining challenge of our time.” So what real problems does the income gap propose for American citizens and the country’s future, why is it such a major issue, and what can be done about it, if anything at...

Coca-Cola's "Share a Coke" campaign is the latest effort by multinational companies to de-emphasize their global reach. By replacing the logo on its cans with colloquialisms and common names in markets it serves, one of the world's most recognizable brands is hoping to look and feel a bit more "local."Coke's marketing strategy is just one example of companies responding to growing public sentiment that buying local is synonymous with doing good. Indeed, more than 150 groups representing more than 30,000 U.S. businesses are promoting ‘buy local' campaigns with slogans like "Don't Buy from Strangers, Buy from Neighbors." Of course, suspicion...

From Socialism, by Ludwig von Mises (1951, Originally written in German, 1932) Part V, Deconstructionism, Chapter I, The Motive Powers of Desconstructionism, Section 1, The nature of deconstructionism. To the socialist, the coming of Socialism means a transition from an irrational to a rational economy. Under Socialism, planned management of economic life takes the place of anarchy of production; society, which is conceived as the incarnation of reason, takes the place of the conflicting aims of unreasonable and self-interested individuals. A just distribution replaces an unjust distribution of goods. Want and misery vanish and there is wealth for all-- so...

This year the tide changed in the economy. Growth seems finally to be returning. The tide also changed in economic ideas. The brief resurgence of traditional Keynesian ideas is washing away from the world of economic policy. No government is remotely likely to spend trillions of dollars or euros in the name of “stimulus,” financed by blowout borrowing. The euro is intact: Even the Greeks and Italians, after six years of advice that their problems can be solved with one more devaluation and inflation, are sticking with the euro and addressing—however slowly—structural “supply” problems instead. U.K. Chancellor of the Exchequer...

Sternly warning the West it cannot defang the metaphorical Russian bear, a confident-looking President Vladimir Putin promised Thursday to shore up the plummeting ruble and revive the economy within two years. While he issued a litany of sharp rebukes against the West, Putin struck a conciliatory note on Ukraine, saying that the rebellious east should remain part of the country, backing a quick exchange of war prisoners and praising his Ukrainian counterpart. The mixture of blistering anti-Western rhetoric and constructive signals appeared to indicate that Putin is eager to negotiate a face-saving solution to the Ukrainian crisis, but has no...

We need more babies! Seriously, this is a problem Commentary by Jake Novak We just learned that the U.S. birthrate fell for the sixth straight year in 2013 to an all-time low. Pardon me for sounding a bit alarmist, but this is really bad news for our economy, our society, and all of civilization. Let's start with the economy. I know a lot of us have been brainwashed into thinking that our natural and manufactured resources are shrinking. We're often told that we have a choice of either radically reducing our consumption or our population or we'll eventually run out...

San Jose's new minimum wage took effect on March 13, 2013, although employers had the previous three months to prepare for the increase. That year, the unemployment rate for young adults in the San Jose metro area jumped sharply by six percentage points -- from 14 percent in 2012 to 20 percent in 2013... Meanwhile, the overall unemployment rate in the same area fell by nearly two percentage points, suggesting that young adults suffered while others did quite well. ... an EPI survey of 163 restaurants in San Jose, 45 percent of which cut employee hours and 42 percent of...

The world is awash in oil, I’m hearing. The problem is, it’s fairly expensive oil. Take for example Canada. The country that has managed to increase its production of oil by a million barrels a day over the last decade. But almost all of that increase has come from oil sands. If you consider only conventional crude oil, Canadian production today would be a third of a million barrels a day lower than at its peak in 1973. Even without counting environmental costs, that stuff’s not cheap. It was profitable when West Texas Intermediate was over $90. But last week...

Everyone seems to have an opinion about the tragic events in Ferguson, Missouri. But, as Daniel Patrick Moynihan used to say, “You’re entitled to your own opinion, but you’re not entitled to your own facts.” Soon after the shooting death of Michael Brown, this 285-pound young man was depicted as a “gentle giant.” But, after a video was leaked, showing him bullying the owner of a store from which he had stolen some merchandise, Attorney General Eric Holder expressed displeasure that the video was leaked. In other words, to Holder the truth was offensive, but the........

As many as 13,000 people in Britain are being held in conditions of slavery, four times the number previously thought, it has been revealed. In what is said to be the first scientific estimate of the scale of modern slavery in the UK, the Home Office has said the number of victims last year was between 10,000 and 13,000. They include women forced into prostitution, domestic staff and workers in fields, factories and fishing boats.

When the revolution comes, everything will be free! Mika Brzezinski gave us today some good insight into the liberal mind when it comes to economics. The Morning Joe host was reacting today to news that for Thanksgiving, Verizon will be giving travelers free wifi in flight and at several airports around the country. Mocked Mika: "thank you so much for something you shouldn't be charging us for anyway." View the video here.

Are businesses are moving too quickly to robots? Is any job safe? Patrick Thibodeau at Computer World discusses the idea things are moving "too fast" with a review of Nicholas Carr's new book, The Glass Cage, Automation and Us. Please consider Automation Could Take Your Skills -- and Your Job by Patrick Thibodeau. The Glass Cage examines the possibility that businesses are moving too quickly to automate white collar jobs, sophisticated tasks and mental work, and are increasingly reliant on automated decision-making and predictive analytics. It warns of the potential de-skilling of the workforce, including software developers, as larger shares...

"[If] the monetary authorities are intent on depreciating the currency, then I think that in the fullness of time they will succeed all too well. …The important thing about QE [quantitative easing] is this idea, this radical precedent is now on the books — the virus as it were is in the monetary bloodstream. ...all of this is…in the books as precedent, and the monetarists and Keynesians are rather preening about the evident success of these interventions, and we can be sure I think that they will not forebear to do more still next time. There will come a time...

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro says he will increase the minimum wage by 15% starting in December. The raise, the third this year, comes amid an annual inflation rate of 63.4%. Mr Maduro said the measure and other benefits meant workers would be better off despite the inflation, which he blamed on an "economic war" the opposition were waging against him. Mr Maduro says Venezuela's economic problems are created by a greedy elite which lives off the profits of smuggling and selling goods at inflated prices.

Those who are already wealthy have little to gain from economic interference. Others are reassured that by simply looking out for themselves they can work towards the greater good..... .... Indeed, there’s plenty of evidence that the invisible hand simply doesn’t exist. Take, for instance, two of the most important markets Americans participate in: healthcare and education. When shopping for either of these services, it’s very difficult for a shopper to actually know the quality or effectiveness of the product he is buying. For the “invisible hand” to work, customers have to actually know what they need so that they...

November 02, 2014 MISES Marcia Christoff-Kurapovna writes: The story of the destruction of the German mark during the hyper-inflation of Weimar Germany from 1919 to its horrific peak in November 1923 is usually dismissed as a bizarre anomaly in the economic history of the twentieth century. But no episode better illustrates the dire consequences of unsound money or makes a more devastating, real-life case against fiat-currency: where there is no restraint, monetary death will follow. "It matters little that the causes of the Weimar inflation are in many ways unrepeatable; that political conditions are different, or that it is almost...

1) No one will really understand politics until they understand that politicians are not trying to solve our problems. They are trying to solve their own problems — of which getting elected and re-elected are number one and number two. Whatever is number three is far behind. — Thomas Sowell2) We tolerate, even promote, many things we once regarded as evil, wrong, or immoral. And then we seek “explanations” for an act that seems beyond comprehension. Remove societal restraints on some evils and one can expect the demons to be freed to conduct other evil acts. —Cal Thomas3) What would...

A recently debate on Facebook required that I Voxsplain how a free society allocates resources to a group of feeling, sensing liberals who don't have the slightest idea of economics. In fact, when it comes to Economics, they resort to "magical thinking." I've often thought that it is easy to describe a Democrat: simply picture a Republican, then take away reason and accountability. (Hat tip to Mark Andrus, As Good As it Gets) So, I think it's rather funny that you guys want to lecture me on science, but you don't spend a minute thinking about the humble science of...

Everyone has it wrong. Americans are frightened to death of the medical implications of Ebola- as well they should be. I’ve never in my lifetime seen a disease that has infected and killed so many healthcare professionals.Unfortunately I might have also been the first American to experience damage from Ebola to my “personal economy” 2 weeks ago. As a branding expert, I speak at business conventions and conferences all over the world. I had already been booked for weeks as the keynote speaker for an event in Dallas in early November. Then came the announcement that Thomas Duncan was being...

So as to give some perspective, I'm going to ask readers for their guesses about human behavior before explaining my embarrassment by some of my fellow economists. Suppose the prices of ladies jewelry rose by 100 percent. What would you predict would happen to sales? What about a 25 or 50 percent price increase? I'm going to guess that the average person would predict that sales would fall. Would you make the same prediction about auto sales if cars' prices rose by 100 percent or 25 or 50 percent? Suppose that you're the CEO of General Motors and your sales...