Free Republic

The Rio Grande Foundation’s mission can be boiled down to one core principle: the advancement of economic freedom. In its most straightforward definition, economic freedom refers to the ability of individuals and businesses to make voluntary financial decisions and engage in free-market exchanges without undue government interference. Such interference can come in many forms—taxes, subsidies, wage mandates, excessive regulations, and other barriers that restrict free enterprise and personal choice. The concept isn’t new. For decades, the Canada-based Fraser Institute has been a global leader in measuring and analyzing economic freedom through its flagship reports, Economic Freedom of the World and...

-snip- "There are things that wouldn't be pleasant in a financial sense. I can do things financially that would be very bad for Russia. I don't want to do that because I want to get peace," Trump told reporters in the Oval Office. "In a financial sense, yes, we could do things that would be very bad for Russia, that would be devastating for Russia. But I don't want to do that because I want to see peace. And we’re getting close to maybe getting something done. We got Ukraine done. And, as you know, Ukraine might have been the...

My last post on Tuesday has inspired a spirited debate in the comments about how federal spending should properly be accounted for in GDP. What is the right answer? After reading the comments, it occurs to me that there are several more points to make. For those criticizing or disagreeing with my post — led by prolific commenter Richard Greene — the main theme has been that many large categories of federal spending make an obvious positive contribution to the economy. Examples given include the Defense Department, teachers/education, and national parks. Surely excluding those kinds of things entirely from GDP...

Given the recent inflation surge, it is time to consider indexing capital gains for inflation. This would do more than any provision in the 2017 tax cut to create an incentive for investing in America. If the objective of the pending tax cut is to stimulate economic growth, there is a strong argument for indexing the capital-gains tax. If this election had any single defining economic issue, it was repairing the damage done by the Biden inflation.

In November 2023, the warning came, as clear as an omen. A political upstart was seeking office and, if elected, his policies were likely to cause “devastation” in his own country and “severely reduce policy space in the long run.” The threat was a chainsaw-wielding disciple of Austrian economics from Argentina who embraced laissez-faire economics. The predictions of doom came not from Old Testament prophets, but 108 economists who signed a public letter saying his anachronistic ideas had long ago been discredited. “As economists from around the world who are supportive of broad-based economic development in Argentina, we are especially...

I posted this in chat. I am unable to determine which states require not only taking but testing in economics coursework in order to graduate and obtain a high school diploma. The closest I can get annual survey of the states CES reports. And it's scary how you require economics.

Before the presidential election, many Democrats were puzzled by the seeming disconnect between “economic reality” as reflected in various government statistics and the public’s perceptions of the economy on the ground. Many in Washington bristled at the public’s failure to register how strong the economy really was. They charged that right-wing echo chambers were conning voters into believing entirely preposterous narratives about America’s decline. What they rarely considered was whether something else might be responsible for the disconnect — whether, for instance, government statistics were fundamentally flawed. What if the numbers supporting the case for broad-based prosperity were themselves misrepresentations?...

Former New York Times columnist and pseudo-economics savant Paul Krugman clearly isn’t taking retirement too well, as he’s taken to going on rants against his former employer and President Donald Trump, who lives rent-free in his brain. In a January 24 interview with the Columbia Journalism Review, Krugman expressed his “rage” at his editors, which apparently began to balk at the extremism that plagued his columns (shocker). “I’ve always been very, very lightly edited on the column,” Krugman whined. “And that stopped being the case [in 2024]. The editing became extremely intrusive. It was very much toning down of my...

A host of new laws went into effect in California Wednesday, including a statewide minimum wage boost to $16.50 an hour. While that’s the new floor for hourly pay, many Bay Area cities have set their own mandatory wage rates that are above the state minimum — and workers in some of those cities will see their own bump in pay come Jan. 1. This means that a raise could now be just a town away. According to the Bay Area Labor Center, some 25 local cities raised their minimum wages this year. Interestingly, a number of those cities sit...

The economics major is in dire straits. Across the nation, econ curricula aren’t instilling an appreciation for, or even a familiarity with, the economic way of thinking. Theory classes limit the power of economic analysis by reducing markets to sterile exercises in “perfect competition,” or else subordinating social science to social control by obsessing over “market failures.” Empirical classes equip students with sophisticated statistical tools but at the cost of reducing applied economics to data-mongering. The unfortunate result is that econ majors are almost always half-educated and quarter-lettered. They can memorize models and run regressions. They will confidently make pronouncements...

When Frank Capra’s “It’s a Wonderful Life” was being filmed in 1945, just as the Second World War was closing and a few years before the Cold War was heating up, the FBI investigated it for its supposed anti-capitalist themes. A memo said:“With regard to the picture It’s a Wonderful Life, [redacted] stated in substance that the film represented rather obvious attempts to discredit bankers by casting Lionel Barrymore as a ‘scrooge-type’ so that he would be the most hated man in the picture. This, according to these sources, is a common trick used by Communists. [In] addition, [redacted] stated...

China’s Producer Price Index, measuring factory-gate prices, fell in November year-on-year for the 26th straight month. The gross domestic product deflator, a broader gauge of prices across the nation, has been in negative territory for six straight calendar quarters, the longest period this century. The Consumer Price Index last month showed a 0.2% rise over the same period last year, well below the country’s 3% target. China is gripped by deflation, an economy-killer. Lower prices are putting businesses out of business. And when people expect prices to drop, they hold off purchases, further aggravating the slowdown.

Elon Musk added nearly $7 billion to his net worth Wednesday as Tesla’s shares rallied to a new intraday high amid a broader surge for tech stocks, as analysts have held optimism for the automaker in the weeks since the election.

It finally happened. The New York Times’s ego-maniacal and perpetually wrong economics columnist is finally divorcing himself from his propaganda-mill column after nearly 25 years. The Times Opinion Editor Kathleen Kingsbury drafted the company eulogy for Krugman’s career there, and the over the top praise for his faulty economic crystal ball was nothing short of comical. “The authoritative voice. The lively writing. The direct style. The clear hand guiding readers through a thicket of policy, data and trade-offs,” read Kingsbury’s slobbering statement. “Paul is an important figure in the recent history of Times Opinion. Time and again, he took on...

China has banned the export of several strategically important minerals to the U.S., in response to the latest round of American restrictions Chinese chip-making industry. On Tuesday, the Chinese Commerce Ministry announced that it has banned the export of gallium, germanium, antimony and "superhard materials" to the U.S. The ban on the dual-use materials—those with civilian and military applications—comes alongside the implementation of "stricter end-user and end-use" reviews on graphite exports to the U.S. The announcement follows Washington's decision to strengthen export restrictions on semiconductor manufacturing equipment and software tools, and to expand the list of Chinese companies subject to...

I sat down with historian, sociologist, and author Dr. Rainer Zitelmann to learn about the misunderstood economic philosophy of Adolf Hitler and the true meaning of national socialism. Drawing from his book “Hitler’s National Socialism,” Rainer explains how Hitler’s economic policies blended the planned economy of Stalin’s Soviet Union with social Darwinist beliefs, attempting to harness the benefits of competition toward the single-minded objectives of the state. We explore the key differences between national socialism, fascism, and communism, and why many people today fail to grasp the lessons of 20th-century totalitarian regimes. While the battle between capitalism and socialism continues,...

Prominent investor Scott Bessent met with Donald Trump on Friday as he and fellow investor John Paulson emerge as leading candidates for the key role of U.S. Treasury Secretary, according to two people close to the president-elect.Bessent and Paulson are among several names that have been reported in the media as potential candidates for the role in recent days. A final decision rests with Trump, and Reuters was unable to learn whether others had been ruled out or were still in contention.

A German newspaper published an explicit single world headline after Donald Trump emerged as the victor in the 2024 presidential election. Die Zeit, which is the country's biggest weekly paper, posted a reaction piece this morning headlined : 'F***'. The piece outlined factors that could result in scenarios for his political opponents, and was penned by Nele Pollatschek for the outlet, which has been published in the city of Hamburg since it was founded in 1946. In the article, seen by The Latin Times, she wrote: 'Last time, Trump's advisors stopped him from doing too much nonsense. 'Except that he...

Half of Gen Z voters — and 1 in 4 U.S. voters overall — have lied to people close to them about who they're voting for, according to the latest Axios Vibes survey by The Harris Poll. Why it matters: Voters 18-27 who came of age during the hyper-polarized Trump era appear to be among the most sensitive to perceived pressure and judgment from friends or loved ones. "There's a new privacy emerging here, where it's far more convenient to either lie or not talk about it," said John Gerzema, CEO of The Harris Poll, which is not affiliated with...

Retail expert Gerald Storch says the 2024 election will weigh on an already weak holiday shopping season.. Former Target Vice Chairman Gerald Storch painted a sobering picture of consumer sentiment while speaking to FOX Business on Thursday, anticipating a subdued holiday shopping season weighed down by economic and political uncertainties. "It's very clear that consumers are running out of money. They're increasingly stressed by inflation and the exhaustion of their pandemic-era savings. When you take a look over the last several years, what you see month after month, everyone talks about, the consumer's still spending. They might be, but they're...