free markets

Free-Market Economists on the Defensive at AEA Meeting in Chicago

January 11, 2012

“The big cannon should be fiscal policy [more deficit spending].” — Peter Diamond, Nobel Prize Economist and New Fed Member Every year I attend (and sometimes speak) at the American Economic Association (AEA) meetings, where the top economists meet and present papers on current issues. In the past, I’ve confronted Fed chairman Ben Bernanke, government [...]

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A Tax by Any Other Name

July 31, 2000

Personal Snapshots FORECASTS & STRATEGIES July 2000 A Tax by Any Other Name by Mark Skousen “Do they realize that every measure leading to capital decumulation jeopardizes their prosperity?” – Ludwig von Mises A tax by any other name…. Whether you call it an estate tax, an inheritance tax or a death tax, it’s all [...]

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The Gap Between Rich and Poor Is…Narrowing!

April 30, 2000

Personal Snapshots FORECASTS & STRATEGIES April 2000 by Mark Skousen “The poor remain poor and the command of income by those in the top income brackets is increasing egregiously.” — John Kenneth Galbraith “The poor have not gotten poorer. The average family below the poverty line today is doing as well or better than middle-class [...]

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Yes, The Rich Are Different — They’re Better

March 5, 2000

Personal Snapshots Forecasts & Strategies March 2000 by Mark Skousen “The rich are different from you and me.” — F. Scott Fitzgerald “Yes, they have more money.” — Ernest Hemingway In 1996 when I jogged with President Clinton (see My Jog with Bill Clinton), I complained about his constant attacks on the wealthy. During the [...]

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Greed is Good — NOT!

February 5, 2000

Personal Snapshots Forecasts & Strategies February 2000 by Mark Skousen “Unbridled avarice is not in the least the equivalent of capitalism, still less its ‘spirit.’” — Max Weber Recently I heard free-market economist Walter Williams speak at a local college about capitalism. He quoted approvingly from Gordon Gekko, the fictional character of the film Wall [...]

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The For-Profit Antipoverty Agency

November 15, 1999

Ideas Matter F0RBES November 15, 1999 The For-Profit Antipoverty Agency by Mark Skousen This summer’s spectacle of World Bank officials lobbying Congress for more foreign aid money was an embarrassment, or should have been. In the past half-century the bank has poured a staggering $450 billion in loans, grants and other aid into the Third [...]

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A Private-Sector Solution to Poverty

November 5, 1999

Economics on Trial NOVEMBER 1999 by Mark Skousen “The able bodied poor don’t want or need charity. . . . All they need is financial capital.” -MUHAMMAD YUNUS For years free-market economists have protested the waste and abuse of foreign aid programs, International Monetary Fund loans, and World Bank projects.(1) P.T. Bauer has been in [...]

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GUESS WHO?

September 5, 1999

Forecasts & Strategies Personal Snapshots by Mark Skousen Which famous economist endorses the deficit-spending actions the federal government took during the Great Depression, prefers John Maynard Keynes over Austrian School economist Ludwig von Mises, recommends printing more money as a short-term solution to Japan’s problems, and is strongly opposed to the gold standard? Paul Samuelson? [...]

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The Battle for Diamond Head: A Case of Market Failure?

April 30, 1999

Economics on Trial THE FREEMAN APRIL 1999 The Battle for Diamond Head: A Case of Market Failure? by Mark Skousen “Hawaii’s great and beloved landmark … is too precious an asset to be sacrificed.” –Honolulu Advertiser editorial ( 1967) Last month I addressed the theory of entrepreneurial error in conjunction with the year 2000 computer [...]

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TEXTBOOKS TAKE FREE-MARKET TACK But Many Welfare-State Myths Still Are Taught

October 22, 1998

NATIONAL ISSUE — Investor’s Business Daily TEXTBOOKS TAKE FREE-MARKET TACK But Many Welfare-State Myths Still Are Taught Date: 10/22/98 Author: Michael Chapman Many students today learn a lot about free-market economics. Problem is, John Maynard Keynes, the godfather of the welfare state, is doing the teaching. Still, in recent years, textbooks have improved. Free-market economists [...]

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