The Debt Distraction
Senate bill would add at least $3.3 trillion to the national debt, according to the Congressional Budget Office. That was the headline in the New York Times as the Senate debated Donald…
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Essays
Writing by John Tamny and Parkview contributors, from the latest commentary to the collected archive.
1372 essays · Newest first
John Maynard Keynes Resides Inside Right-of-Center SALT Critics
West Virginia must be rich, right? All that federal money that flows there year after year. Hopefully readers see the obvious flaw, or contradiction. Government spending saps economic growth, by its…
Finding Abundant Optimism In the Zohran Mamdani Mistake
If Zohran Mamdani could “ruin” New York City, then it wouldn’t be worth saving. And New York City doesn’t require saving, except to the willfully blind. What you’re about to read isn’t a defense of…
While Correctly Decrying ‘Big Beautiful’ Spin, Deficit Hawks Should Look In the Mirror
“You can spin your political base, but you cannot spin the economy or the bond market. Those two are unforgiving – and eventually voters might be too.” Those are the words of Manhattan Institute…
If Fed Cuts Fuel Inflation, Then Powell Has Nothing To Fear
Credit is produced. Repeat the previous truth over and over again. And then internalize the obvious, that we borrow money for what it can exchanged for. That we borrow dollars to get things ridicules…
Love or Hate Immigrants, They Do Not Drive Down Wages
Immigration to the U.S. is by its name a wage positive. It’s tautological. Higher wages are what instigate immigration, so to pretend as some do that the arrival of immigrants pushes down wages…
Don't Believe the Self-Serving Nonsense From the Media About UVA
I recommend Big Balls to take over the presidency of the University of Virginia now that Jim Ryan has effectively been defrocked. Please don’t believe the self-serving nonsense the…
Book Review: Ian Leslie’s “John & Paul: A Love Story In Songs”
“You know, people think that because I’m Mike Nichols, I don’t need praise. I need a lot. Nobody gets that.” The previous quote comes from Mark Harris’s excellent 2020 biography (review here) of –…
We Haven’t Scratched the Surface of Weight-Loss Drug Advances
Orforglipron is an oral drug from Eli Lilly that’s in trial stage. The New York Times reports that in a trial of over 500 patients, those “who took the highest dose lost an average of around 16…
Social Security’s Faux ‘Insolvency’ Is a Limited Government Feature
Let’s start with the obvious, now and in the future Social Security payments aren’t remotely imperiled. It’s said here over and over again, but rates saying once again, that the surest sign that…
“Balanced Budgets”: One of the Most Fraudulent Notions In Economics
“Balanced budgets” have nothing to do with limited government. Neither does a budget surplus. As with most notions crafted by economists and the budgetary scolds they’ve long enabled, the notion of…
Fred Smith Was Too Smart for Joseph Schumpeter, and Donald Trump
The C grade Fred Smith received from a Yale professor about his vision for an overnight delivery service is much less remarkable than is assumed. Naturally Smith got a C. Rest assured that most…
The Mullahs Apparently Decided U.S. Presidents Are Pushovers
Supreme Leader: Fellas , no need to worry about anything. I know what I’m doing. Have I ever steered you wrong? Didn’t I manipulate the West—and that hick peanut…
No, Yet Again, Federal Reserve Did Not Cause the Depression
The Federal Reserve did not cause the Great Depression. To pretend that it did is to believe that central planners dictate access to capital from the proverbial Commanding Heights, and that the…
The Iran Discussion Would Be Lots Improved By a Little Tolstoy
Central planning fails, always and everywhere. Leo Tolstoy wasn’t the first to see this, but he provided readers with one of the best articulations of the previous truth in War and Peace. In it,…
High Pay at Buc-ee’s Rejects the Left and Right’s Economics
Buc-ee’s, the creator of the world’s greatest gas/charging stations and accompanying convenience stores that are beyond football field length, doesn’t need a law to compensate its employees well.…
The Myths About “Trump Voters” and Their Preferences
Donald Trump’s policies aren’t what won him a majority of voters in the most recent election, or a majority of electoral votes in 2016. More realistically, it was Donald Trump who won the presidency…
With Temu Attacks, We See Politicians Were Sadly Never Stopping at TikTok
Temu is a low-cost online marketplace that has had the temerity to achieve popularity with American buyers while also being Chinese. In response to Temu’s achievements in the world’s most competitive…
There Should Be a "No Crying" Rule In All Areas Of Leadership
I’m not a big fan of the 19th Amendment. Don’t get me wrong—I value women as much as men—I just think when it comes to rational decision-maki… oops,…
Bitcoin Will Never Circulate As Money, But Amazon and Walmart Will
Do you take Amazon or Walmart dollars? In the question it’s easy to see the problem with bitcoin, and other well-known speculations. People aren’t prone to storing their wealth meant for essentials…
Spending Cuts Won’t Shrink Government, and May Well Expand It
It’s easy to forget that individual saving in no way shrinks consumption. Short of placing money saved into a coffee can, to save is to shift consumptive ability to someone else. What’s true about…
France’s CAC 40: Nail In the ‘Fed-As-Market-Opium’ Narrative
France’s best-known stock index, the CAC 40, is up 18 percent over the last twenty-five years. The S&P 500 is up 24 percent over the last two months. These numbers rate comment. For one, they vivify…
Adam Smith Would Have Appreciated Brian Wilson
Most – including the writer of this opinion piece – listen to music in the way they watch football. They don’t hear the important, truly cerebral things in music in much the same way that they don’t…
Book Review: Shadi Hamid’s ‘The Problem of Democracy’
Cato Institute co-founder Ed Crane has always been of the view that “democracy” must be extraordinarily limited. It should be a device for removing highly objectionable people from national offices…