Free Republic

Robert G. Mugabe has ruled over this battered nation, his every wish endorsed by Parliament and enforced by the police and soldiers, for more than 27 years. It appears, however, that not even an unchallenged autocrat can repeal the laws of supply and demand. One month after Mr. Mugabe decreed just that, commanding merchants nationwide to counter 10,000-percent-a-year hyperinflation by slashing prices in half and more, Zimbabwe’s economy is at a halt. Bread, sugar and cornmeal, staples of every Zimbabwean’s diet, have vanished, seized by mobs who denuded stores like locusts in wheat fields. Meat is virtually nonexistent, even for...

Surprising Jump in Tax Revenues Curbs U.S. Deficit By EDMUND L. ANDREWS WASHINGTON, July 8 — An unexpectedly steep rise in tax revenues from corporations and the wealthy is driving down the budget deficit this year, even though spending has climbed sharply because of the war in Iraq and the cost of hurricane relief. On Tuesday, White House officials are expected to announce that the tax receipts will be about $250 billion above last year's levels and that the deficit will be about $100 billion less than what they projected six months ago. The rising tide in tax payments has...

High Tax on Food in Tennessee Sends Shoppers to Other States By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Published: December 27, 2005 CHATTANOOGA, Tenn., Dec. 26 (AP) - When Julie Abel goes grocery shopping each week, she drives more than 25 miles to Georgia to avoid paying the nation's highest average tax on food: 8.4 percent in Tennessee. "If you can save $5, it is worth driving down the road," Ms. Abel said after traveling from her home in rural Hamilton County, which collects 2.22 percent sales tax on food on top of the 6 percent the state collects. Georgia does not tax...

Many people are blaming the riots in France on the high unemployment rate among young Muslim men living in the ghettoes around Paris and elsewhere. Some are blaming both the unemployment and the ghettoization on discrimination by the French. Plausible as these explanations may sound, they ignore economics, among other things. Let us go back a few generations in the United States. We need not speculate about racial discrimination because it was openly spelled out in laws in the Southern states, where most blacks lived, and was not unknown in the North. Yet in the late 1940s, the unemployment rate...

In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, gas prices have soared at many locations. In Katrina's path of ruins, prices have risen almost a dollar overnight! Recently in Atalnta, one gas station was asking 5.36 for a gallon of regular unleaded! Premium was selling for more than 6 dollars a gallon!!! They did this, because GAS SHIPMENTS WERE DELAYED and a lot of people wanted gas. Had they sold a gallon for 2.70, they would have run out almost immediately. But because they raised the price, everyone who desperately needs gas will be able to buy a little. However, people...

UNDERSTANDING POLITICS AND ECONOMIES 101: DEMOCRATIC: You have two cows. Your neighbor has none. You feel guilty for being successful. Barbara Streisand sings for you. REPUBLICANISM: You have two cows. Your neighbor has none. So? SOCIALIST: You have two cows. The government takes one and gives it to your neighbor. You form a cooperative to tell him how to manage his cow. COMMUNIST: You have two cows. The government seizes both and provides you with milk. You wait in line for hours to get it. It is expensive and sour. CAPITALISM, AMERICAN STYLE: You have two cows. You sell one,...

In February 2005, we were paying less than $2.00 per gallon for gasoline. Today, the gasoline prices are escalating at a faster rate than oil prices. We have gasoline stations taking surveys of each other and boosting their prices to match their competitors. On this date, oil prices have plummeted to a price below $50 per barrel. This price has not been seen since February 2005. Why is it that our gasoline prices have not followed this trend? During the Nixon era, the President placed a freeze on gasoline prices. These prices were much lower than what we are experiencing...

Concord -- The City Council has approved a plan by DeNova Homes to build a 15-unit town home complex on less than 1 acre along Detroit Avenue. The project, which includes two affordable units, is one of the first since the city passed its inclusionary housing ordinance, which requires developers to set aside a percentage of low-cost units for those who can't afford to pay market prices. The project will consist of five two-story buildings with 900-square-foot two-bedroom units. Rent will probably be about $1,300 a month, with the two affordable units going for about $900 a month, said DeNova...

The theory of comparative advantage is perhaps the most important concept in international trade theory. It is also one of the most commonly misunderstood principles. There is a popular story told amongst economists that once when an economics skeptic asked Paul Samuelson (a Nobel laureate in economics) to provide a meaningful and non-trivial result from the economics discipline, Samuelson quickly responded with, "comparative advantage." The sources of the misunderstandings are easy to identify. First, the principle of comparative advantage is clearly counter-intuitive. Many results from the formal model are contrary to simple logic. Secondly, the theory is easy to confuse...

Today seems to be first-rate economist day on The New York Times op-ed page. You've got Paul Krugman writing about the dangers of runaway deficits. You've got Joe Stiglitz writing about the failures of NAFTA. And you've got Chuck Schumer and Paul Craig Roberts rethinking the theoretical underpinnings of free trade. Oh, wait. Chuck Schumer and Paul Craig Roberts aren't actually first-rate economists. And boy does it show in their piece. Schumer and Roberts point out that one of the assumptions underlying the theoretical case for free trade is that "factors of production" (like capital and labor) aren't easily transported...

As an economist working at a mid-size food processing corporation in the South, I want to offer a suggestion to Freepers that may help Bush's tax cut plan intended to revive the economy to succeed. Our firm does a lot of business with European Union (EU) nations such as Germany, France, Belgium, Holland, etc. But next month, we are giving pink slips to 17 workers, because orders from EU nations have reduced sharply. America is the leading exporting nation in the world. The European Union is America's largest trading partner. America exports more to the EU nations, than it does...