A gold standard would do wonders for economic growth, but would almost certainly not limit the growth of our federal government. The view that it would insults markets at least three times, but certainly many more. Implicit in the notion that a gold-defined dollar would bring about fiscal discipline is the odd view suggesting […]
A Gold Standard Is Great, But It Doesn’t Force Fiscal Discipline Read More »
“The world is being swamped with Chinese goods, and the United States, Europe and Japan are right to worry about it.” Those are the opening words of a recent Washington Post editorial about Chinese production. The bet here is that the writers of the editorial could be persuaded to rethink their pessimism. Production is always bullish, by definition.
Contra the Washington Post, Exports Are a Bullish Sign of Imports Read More »
Andy Kessler writes in his latest Wall Street Journal column that the U.S. “is strong precisely because we don’t all think the same way. New ideas come from new ways of thinking.” Kessler puts it so well. We individuals generally see the present and future very differently, and it’s this very division praised by Kessler that powers
Freedom Is the Only Way to Beat Authoritarianism Read More »
If you look at the market prices of consumer goods you’ll much more often than not be blinded to inflation’s truth. To which more than a few readers will reply that prices are precisely the way to divine inflation. Figure that the Consumer Price Index (CPI) is “the price of a weighted average market
Market Prices Are A Very Unreliable Way To Detect Inflation Read More »
Banks are in the business of paying interest on deposits so that they can lend out the funds deposited with them at a higher rate of interest. Some will respond that the latter is a statement of the obvious, but sometimes the obvious requires stating. In particular it requires stating as banks are accused
Banks Aren’t Interested In Politics, But Politicians Are Interested In Banks Read More »
“Our company is thirty days from going out of business.” Every so often it’s useful to reference the previous quote. It’s real, and to this day can be found posted in the headquarters of Nvidia, presently one of the most valuable corporations in the world. To those who don’t know, the quote is a
James Grant’s Perpetual Misery Blinds Him to Market Reality Read More »
The Department of Justice (DOJ) is presently demanding that Google sell Chrome, the world’s most popular internet browser. Oh wow, not again… Traveling back in time, as late as 2002 Microsoft’s Internet Explorer (IE) could claim 94 percent of the web browser market. Which was the problem, albeit not for consumers, but for Microsoft. Just as
Google’s Reward for Being the Best? DOJ Harassment Read More »
In a recent article published in the Wall Street Journal, it was reported that credit-card giant Visa offered Costco a rather princely, anti-competitive deal in 2014. At least that’s the impression conveyed by the aforementioned article. Please read on. At the time of Visa’s bid, American Express was the only credit card Costco customers could use if
Visa Isn’t Anti-Competitive, It’s Everywhere You Want It To Be Read More »
The protectionist attacks on TikTok continue, this time care of thirteen state attorneys general and the District of Columbia. The New York Times reports that the multi-state lawsuit against TikTok is rooted in the accusation that it’s “creating an intentionally addictive app” that is allegedly harming teenagers and children. The very accusations raise obvious questions. Seriously,
Businesses Exist to Dominate the Markets They’re In Read More »
“We don’t take American Express.” Those five words kept coming to mind last week while reading about the Department of Justice’s (DOJ) antitrust case again Visa. To which some will reply that the DOJ’s lawsuit isn’t about competition in the credit card space, rather it’s about Visa’s alleged abuse of its supposedly “dominant” position in the
The Cure For Visa’s Market Dominance Is Visa’s Market Dominance Read More »
