Economy II (From 10-1-21)

Economy. “Even Walmart Deserves a Trial.” By Michael L. Krauss. [A judge wants to hold pharmacies liable for opioid prescriptions they were obligated to fill.] 10-2-21
Economy. “The Woke Left’s Primitive Economics.” [Zero-sum thinking was adaptive in a world of tribal conflict, but isn’t in a modern society.] 10-6-21
Economy. “Dangers of a Digital Dollar.” By Alexander William Salter. [If widely used, it would give the central bank unprecedented power over the financial system.] 10-6-21
Economy II. “As Central Banks Taper, Investors Should Take Cover.” By Dimitris Valatsas. [Previously, the European Central Bank and the Fed offset each other’s impact. No such Luck this time.] 10-7-21
Economy II. “Where Did All the Workers Go?” [Bidenomics has led to a labor shortage that is hurting the economy.] 10-9-21
Economy II. “The Inflation Tax Rises.” 10-14-21
Economy II. We Need a New Approach to Regulating Crypto.” By Brian Armstrong. [Clear rules would benefit the public, and Coinbase doesn’t seek to be the industry’s gatekeeper.] 10-15-21
Economy II. “Come to Miami for Sunshine, Low Taxes – and normal Life.” By Karol Markowicz. [Move Silicon Valley to Florida, an investor said. ‘How can I help?’ asked Mayor Francis X. Suarez.] 10-16-21
Economy II. “Big Labor and the Supply Shortage.” [Unions show their power amid inflation and demand for workers.] 10-18-21
Economy II. “’Build Back Beer’ would Sink the Labor Market.” By Casey B. Mulligan and Vance Ginn. [The plan would tax those who produce and subsidize those who don’t – a poor recipe for growth.] 10-19-21
Economy II. “The GameStop Sandal That Wasn’t.” [An SEC staff report finds no evidence of market manipulation.] 10-20-21Economy II. “Crypto Is Shedding Its Tether.” By Andy Kessler. [John Law issued bank notes willy-nilly. Are stablecoin issuers doing the same?] 10-25-21
Economy II. “Tesla Hits $1 Trillion.” [Why does the electric-car maker still need taxpayer subsidies?] 10-26-21
Economy II. “Democrats’ Tax Plan Would Sink Real Estate.” By Dan Palmer and David Williams. [We’ve seen it before. The 1986 reform led to the savings-and-loan crisis and the 1990-91 recession.] 10-26-21
Economy II. “Fed Tapering Won’ Beat Inflation.” By Alexander William Salter. [Supply issues are mostly to blame for rising prices. Deregulation is a crucial part of the remedy.] 10-29-21
Economy II. “Let Former Opioid Users Keep On Trucking.” By Corey S. Davis and Sarah E. Wakeman. [Ill-conceived federal rules contribute to supply-chain woes.] 11-1-21
Economy II. “Government Motors Is Back.” [GM is thrilled by the taxpayer subsidies for its electric vehicles.] 11-1-21
Economy II. “The U.S. and EU Shake Up Global Trade.” By Walter Russell Mead. [The G-20 was another yawner, but big news unfolded alongside the summit in Rome.] 11-2-21
Economy II. “A Biden Trade Win in Europe.” 11-2-21
Economy II. “Worker Shortage Could Bring Back Stagflation.” By Ron Johnson. [We can’t achieve strong economic growth without substantial expansion of the labor force.] 11-2-21
Economy II. “Get Ready For Dow One Million.” By James Glassman. [The industrial Average closed at 825.86 on Nov. 2, 1971. At this rate it’ll hit 1,573,865 in 50 years.] 11-3-21
Economy II. “Behind the October Jobs Bump.” [More people work when the feds stop paying them not to work.] 11-8-21
Economy II. “America Needs a Safety Net, Not a Hammock. By Ben Carson. [Congressional Democrats want to decouple welfare from work, undermining the American work ethic.] 11-6-21
Economy II. “Ron Wyden’s Plan to Gut Capital Markets.” By Hal Scott and Joh Gulliver. [His ‘billionaire’s tax’ would encourage private investment at the expense of the middle class.] 11-8-21
Economy II. “The GE Empire Breaks Up.” [The company that was once worth $600 billion will split itself in three.] 11-10-21
Economy II. “Inflation and Building Back Worse.” [Joe Manchin has ample reason to kill spending that is harming workers.] 11-11-21
Economy II. “Rent Control Backfires Again in St. Paul.” [Voters put on a 3% cap. You’ll never guess what developers did next.] 11-11-21
Economy II. “Rivian, the Government Unicorn.” [The EV truck maker is worth $20.5 billion. It has sold 156 vehicles.] 11-13-21
Economy II. “The Inflation Revenue Dividend.” [State and local governments have never had so much dough.] 11-14-21
Economy II. “Opioids, Guns and ‘Public Nuisance’ Lawsuits.” By Jonathan Turley. [Why the Oklahoma Supreme Court was right to reject the state’s claim against a lawful product.] 11-15-21
Economy II. “Milton Friedman Laughs Last.” By Wm. McGurn. [The monetarist ‘isn’t running the show anymore,’ Biden said. Would that he were.] 11-16-21
Economy II. “A Housing Gift for Beverly Hills.” [Just what the economy doesn’t need: subsidies for $1 million mortgages.] 11-17-21
Economy II. “John Deere, Inflation Bellwether.” 11-19-21
Economy. II “How Did Activision Pass the ESG Test?” by Allysia Finley. [Asset managers seem willing to include any company paying lip service to progressive priorities.] 11-26-21
Economy II. “The Housing Gang Is Getting Back Together for Another Bust.” By Peter J. Wallison. [Fan and Fred will buy mortgages up to $1 million, repeating the mistakes that led to the 2008 crash.] 11-26-21
Economy II. “Stupid Inflation Tricks.” [Democrats keep coming up with new culprits to blame for rising prices.] 11-29-21
Economy II. “Global Free Trade Is in Crisis.” By Walter Russell mead. Western Leaders have failed to deal with economic dislocation and China’s cheating.] 11-30-21
Economy II. “Biden Joins the Lumber Tariff Wars.” [How not to fight inflation: raise home building costs.] 11-30-21
Economy II. “Build Back Better vs. Small Business.” [Wage mandates for green subsidies will squeeze nonunion shops. 12-4-21
Economy. “Inflation Isn’t ‘Transitory’ on My Farm.” By Blake Hurst. [My shipment of flowerpots is floating in the Pacific, and my fertilizer costs could triple this year.] 12-9-21
Economy II. “Joe Manchin’s Inflation Vindication.” [Prices rise 6.8% in a year, ample reason to shelve the BBB blowout.] 12-11-21
Economy II. “Old Wisdom for Today’s Markets.” By Andy Kessler. [My advice is to figure out in which direction the consensus is wrong.] 12-13-21
Economy II. “The Stagflation Is Coming.” By Phil Gramm and Mike solon. [Biden’s approach to the economy is already causing prices to rise. It will soon stifle growth as well.] 12-14-21
Economy II. “Biden Seems Set on Making ‘Transitory’ Inflation Last.’ By Gerard Baker. [He wants to fee demand while hoping workers get squeezed to avoid a 1970s-style wage-price spiral.] 12-14-21
Economy. “The Treasury Has a Bond Bargain For You.” By Burton G. Malkiel. [I-bonds, currently paying 7,12%, are a great hedge against inflation.] 12-16-21
Economy. “COLA Doesn’t Bring Much Refreshment.” By Bill Lane. [Automatic wage hikes can’t keep up with inflation. They can only fuel it further.] 12-17-21
Economy. “An Insider Explains the Supply-Chain Crisis.” (The Weekend Interview with Phil Levy by Tunku Varadarajan.) [Consumers flush with cash and pandemic restrictions combined to drive demand for goods through the roof. He doesn’t see a return to normal until at least 2023.] 12-18-21
Economy. “High Inflation Needs a Policy Solution.” By Mickey D. Levy. [It will persist until politicians stop stimulating the economy and the Fed starts raising rates.] 12-20-21
Economy. “As Inflation Rises, Antitrust ‘Reformers’ Target Lower Prices.” By Noah Joshua Phillips and Joshua B. Wright. [Biden wants to start enforcing a moribund law that took money out of consumers’ pockets.] 12-21-21
Economy. “Every CEO Should Follow Mark Zuckerberg’s Stock-Trading Example.” By M. Todd Henderson. [How to sell shares and avoid benefiting from insider information? In equal sums every day.] 12-28-21
Economy. “I Got a Lot Right in 2021, but Not on Biden.” By Karl Rove. [As for 2022, the GOP will retake Congress, and Covid will fade in political significance.] 12-30-21
Economy. “When It comes to Inflation, I’m Still on Team Transitory.” By Alan S. Blinder. [Fed Chairman Powell may have retired the term, but bottlenecks and shortages should be over soon.] 12-30-21
Economy II. “Joe Biden’s Inflationary Trade Policy.” By William N. Walker and Stanton D. Anderson. [The White House claims tits policies are ‘worker-centric,’ but only a handful of workers benefit.] 1-5-22
Economy. “Inflation and the “Experience Economy.’” By B. Joseph Pine II. [Government statistics don’t account for how much consumers value memories and time well spent.] 1-6-22
Economy. “The Market Is Too Serene About Inflation.” By Thomas J. Sargent and William L. Silber. [As in the early 1980’s, new realities test the idea that interest rates reflect ‘rational expectations.’] 1-12-22
Economy. “What Inflation Costs Workers.” [The Biden-Powell price increases reduced real wages by 2.4% in 2021.] 1-13-22
Economy. “The Democrats’ Inflation Blame Game.” By Phil Gramm and Mike Scion. [Everyone and everything is responsible except the government spending that’s actually fueling it.] 1-13-22
Economy. “Four Reasons to Keep Worrying About Inflation.” By Jason Furman. [Labor markets are tight, demand remains elevated, and the effects of Covid are highly uncertain.] 1-14-22
Economy. “Congress Treats Bitcoin Like Bricks of Cash.” By Abraham Sutherland. [A new federal law mandates reporting transactions of more than $10,000. Why?] 1-18-22
Economy. “A politicized Fed Endangers the Economy.” By Jeb Hensarling. [The central bank can’t deliver price stability if it’s distracted by climate change and social justice.] 1-18-22
Economy. “How to Mess Up a 5G Rollout.” 1-19–22
Economy. “Hoarding Is a Bad Idea During Times of Uncertainty.” By Phillip S. Coles. [Hay was in short supply, so we stocked up at high prices. It was a costly mistake – and still is.] 1-21-22
Economy. “Regulation Will Be Good For Crypto. [Competition lawyers and economists should be part of the federal government’s policy deliberations.] 1-21-22
Economy. “The Underside of the ‘Great Resignation.’” (The Weekend Interview with Nicholas Eberstadt by Mene Ukueruwa.) [The trend toward idleness has been years in the making, says the author of ’Men Without Work.’ That’s an ill omen for the economy and the culture.] 1-22-22
Economy. “Cryptocurrency Doesn’t Amount to Much.” By Steve H. Hanke and Matt Sekerke. [Blockchain merely mirrors rudimentary parts of the regulated financial system.] 1-25-22
Economy. “The Economy That Might Have Been.” [Growth would be healthier if Biden had done nothing in 2021.] 1-28-22
Economy. “David Weil vs. Small Business.” [“…Mr. Weil’s history has managed the rare feat of uniting major corporations and small contractors against him…”] 1-28-22
Economy. “The Trump Boom Lifted Black Americans.” By Jason L. Riley. [Before the pandemic, the economy grew in ways that mostly benefited low-income and middle-class households.] 1-29-22
Economy. “Inflation Drives Worker Pay Down, Not Up.” By Judge Glock. [The ‘wage-price spiral’ is a myth. It’s much easier to raise prices than wages.] 2-1-22
Economy. “If the U.S. Doesn’t Set the Digital Trade Agenda, China Will.” By Robert B. Zoellick. [A chance for Biden to defy protectionists on the left, rally allies, create jobs and promote economic growth.] 2-2-22
Economy. “A Risky Time for Venture Funds.” By Hunter Lewis. [Potential conflicts of interest, ties with China, and excessive leverage are among the challenges.] 2-3-22
Economy. “The Case for Splitting Amazon in Two.” By Joe Lonsdale. [Cloud computing subsidizes Prime, harming consumers in the long run.] 2-8-22
Economy. “The Folly of ‘Modern Supply-Side’ Economics.” By Phil Gramm and Mike Solon. [Janet Yellen tries to sell even more spending as a growth and anti-inflation policy. It’s the opposite of what’s needed now.] 2-8-22
Economy. “See No Labor, Hear No Labor.” By Daniel Altman. [Hourly workers fall off the government’s radar as they shift from traditional payrolls to flexible apps.] 2-9-22
Economy. “Ron Johnson’s Oshkosh Heresy.” [The GOP Senator won’t interfere with a business decision. Good for him.] 2-10-22
Economy. “Inflation Haunts the Biden Economy.” [An historic policy failure calls for a sharp turn at the Fred and White House.] 2-11-22
Economy. “Who Built That Spaceship.” By Andy Kessler. [Sixty years after John Glenn orbited Earth, the private sector leads in space travel.] 2-14-22
Economy. “Calling Out ‘Emperor’ Larry Fink.” [Charlie Munger says what many CEOs think but decline to say.] 2-18-22
Economy. “How Government Spending Fuels Inflation.” (The Weekend Interview with John B. Cochrane by Tunku Varadarajan.) [When debt grows so much that people don’t believe the Treasury will pay it, they sell their bonds and buy other things, sending prices through the roof.] 2-19-22
Economy. “The Red State Model for a Post-Pandemic Economy.” By Steven Malanga. [Republican governors are drawing a contrast with the Biden agenda of high taxation and regulation.] 2-19-22
Economy. “The Inflation Mess and a Financial Refuge.” By Joshua Bauh and Kevin Warsh. [Biden and the Fed need a sharp policy change, and meantime Treasury can raise the cap on I-bonds.] 2-22-22
Economy. “Debt and Inflation Threaten U.S. Security.” By Jeb Hensarling. [Servicing costs could soon reach $1 trillion a year, which would crowd out spending on defense.] 2-23-22
Economy. “Inflation, Deficits and Paul Volcker.” By Thomas Sargent and William Silber. [The Fed chairman who tamed runaway prices understood Congress’s role in unleashing them.] 3-4-22
Economy. “Bad News About the Good Inflation News.” By Jason Furman. [“…If anything, it is likely to be an additional source of upward inflation pressure.] 3-7-22
Economy. “It’s Joe Biden’s Inflation.” [He blames Putin, but his policies and the federal Reserve are at fault.] 3-11-22
Economy. “Is the Dollar in Danger.” By Andy Kessler. [China and Russia may be working to take away America’s ‘exorbitant privilege.’] 3-14-22
Economy. “Jerome Powell, Inflation Fighter?” [Even 11 rate hikes in two years would leave real interest rates negative.] 3-17-22
Economy. “War Always Muddles Markets.” By Andy Kessler. [Ukraine could end soon or turn into World War III. That weighs on stocks.] 3-21-22
Economy. “A Chinese Nickel Market Mystery.” [Did the London Metal Exchange cancel trades to help a Chinese firm?] 3-23-22
Economy. “Washington vs. Imaginary Business Felons.” By Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. [Juries aren’t impressed with federal attempts to criminalize plane crashes and chicken prices.] 4-2-22
Economy. “Here Come the Price Controls.” By Andy Kessler. [Instead of solving inflation, the left makes a scapegoat of ‘pandemic profiteers.’] 4-4-22
Economy. “How Will Inflation End?” by Wm. A. Galston. [Larry Summers forecasts a major recession and high unemployment.] 4-6-22
Economy. “Gasoline Price Amnesia.” [Only last October Democrats demanded less U.S. oil production.] 4-6-22
Economy. “Inequality and the Piketty Accounting Error.” By Phillip W. Magnes and Vincent Geloso. [The stock-market crash, not high FDR-era taxes, caused the ‘great leveling’ of the middle 20^th century.] 4-12-22
Economy. “This Isn’t Putin’s Inflation.” 4-13-22
Economy. “Even in a Hot Economy, Wages Aren’t Keeping Up With Inflation.” By Jason Furman. [Tight labor markets aren’t as good for workers as D.C. economists imagine. High demand raises prices, too.] 4-13-22
Economy. “Welcome to Indiana, a Right-To-work State.” By Todd Nesbit and Michael LaFaive. “Since the law was enacted in 2012, the state has gained jobs from nearby Ohio.] 4-15-22
Economy. “Inflation and the Fog of War.” By Reuven Brenner. [Measures of changing prices lose meaning amid economic convulsions like those of the Covid years] 4-15-22
Economy. “For FedEx’s Founder, the Sky Is Still the Limit.” (The Weekend Interview with Fred Smith. By Tunku Varadarajan. [He reflects on logistics, economics and lessons from building the largest transportation system ever put on the planet.] 4-16-22
Economy. “Cut Tariffs to Help Inflation and Ukraine.” [A modest easing of border taxes could lower inflation by 1.3 points.] 4-18-22
Economy. “The Trials of the Powell Dollar.” [Greenback strength can fight inflation if Biden and Congress let it.] 4-19-22
Economy. “A Home Is Your Castle Against Rising Inflation.” By Laurence Kotlikoff. [Mortgage rates are up to 5%, and some fear a valuation bubble. Even so, it’s a good time to buy.] 4-19-22
Economy. “Biden’s Errors Worsen Inflation. “ By Mitt Romney. [He needs to ditch his woke advisers and make growth the overriding priority.] 4-20-22
Economy. “There’s More to Wealth Than Work.” By Walter E. Block. [Retirees’ re-entering the labor market isn’t good for the economy.] 4-21-22
Economy. “How to Kill Infrastructure on the Sly.” [The White House revises NEPA rules that will scuttle new projects.] 4-21-22
Economy. “What Janet Yellen Gets Right About the World Economic Order.” By Thomas J. Duesterberg. [The U.S. should develop new trade agreements on terms that work better for American workers.’] 4-21-22
Economy. “Will the Mighty Dollar Prevent a Soft Landing From Inflation?” by Joseph C. Sternberg. [Managing U.S. demand is only part of the Fed’s challenge. Currency swings are the other problem.] 4-22-22
Economy. “The World Is in Crisis, and That’s Good for the Economy.” By Shirley Yu. [The new cold war, like the original, will drive a new wave of technological innovation and growth.] 4-23-22
Economy. “Workers Are at a Marketplace Advantage, but It Won’t Last.” By Michael R. Strain. [As the labor force expands and consumer demand cools, the balance will shift toward employers.] 4-28-22
Economy. “Rumors of Stagflation.” [The economy shrinks in the first quarter, which should kill a tax increase.] 4-29-22
Economy. “If We Get A Recession Soon, It’ll be a Mild One.” By Alan S. Blinder. [In the 1970s, ‘stagflation’ caught policy makers by surprise. Their successors have learned the lesson.] 4-29-22
Economy. “America Needs a Return to First Principles.” (The Weekend Interview with John F. Cogan and Kevin Warsh by Tunku Varadarajan.) [How to revive U.S. vitality and confidence? A pair of economists offer a way to think about what made the country prosperous. Pay attention to the ‘3 I’s’.] 4-30-22
Economy. “Indexing Unemployment Benefits Will Get Kentucky Back to Work.” By Bryan Sunderland. [A new law, enacted over the governor’s veto, will reduce joblessness and avert tax increases.] 4-30-22
Economy. “Debt Can Be a Killer.” By Andy Kessler. [Elon Musk is leveraging his Twitter shares to buy even more shares.] 5-2-22
Economy. “Buffett on Wall Street ‘Gambling.’” [He nails a symptom but not the underlying malady.] 5-2-22
Economy. “The Bitter Fruit of Inflation: Dow 29,500.” By Arthur Laffer and Stephen Moore. [The debacle of the 1970’s reveals how disastrous surging prices can be for the economy and markets.] 5-2-22
Economy. “A Market reality Check.” [Prices are volatile as investors try to judge the risks of tighter money.] 5-6-22
Economy. “The Inflationary Jobs Report.” [Employers added workers, but labor participation fell.] 5-7-22
Economy. “Republicans for Border Taxes.” [Eighteen GOP Senators vote against a waiver process for tariffs.] 5-7-22Economy. “Ukraine Crisis Reveals the Folly of Organic Farming.” By Bjorn Lomborg. [As food prices skyrocket, the world needs to admit it can’t live without modern, efficient agriculture .] 5-7-22
Economy. “A High-Speed Electric Vehicle Crash.” [Rivian shares take a header as free money and subsidies ebb.] 5-10-22
Economy. “Lina Khan’s Microsoft Temptation.” By Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. [Team Biden would be smart not to follow in Donald Trump’s antitrust footsteps.] 5-11-22
Economy. “President Costanza Takes on Inflation.” [Biden lays out his plan on prices, but he should do the opposite.] 5-11-22
Economy. “Biden Casts Himself as the Inflation Hero.” By Karl Rove.[He blamed everyone from Putin to the Fed for high prices, but voters won’t buy it.] 5-12-22
Economy. “Inflation Stays in the Heights.” [The policy mix of blowout spending and easy money is punishing workers.] 5-12-22
Economy. “Warnings From the Crypto Crash.” [As the liquidity tide rolls out, stable coins won’t be the last casualties.] 5-13-22
Economy. “When Will the Selling Stop?” by Andy Kessler. [Crypto and stocks are headed down, and some won’t survive the drop.] 5-16-22
Economy. “America Needs More Houses.” By Suzanne P. Clark and Brian Deese. [The shortage is caused by a combination of zoning and financing rules and supply-chain constraints.] 5-16-22
Economy. “Swooning Markets Will Crush Government Budgets.” By Red Jahncke. [Tax revenue from capital gains is about to dry up. Are federal and state officials ready for it?] 5-17-22
Economy. “Bill Clinton’s Recipe for Economic Growth.” By Wm A. Galston. [Though some claim he bowed to pro-market ideology, the results can hardly be beat.] 5-18-22
Economy. “When Product Lines Take a Sharp Turn.” By Gregg Opelka. [The company that became Sunbeam started out making horsehair clippers.] 5-19-22
Economy. “The Next Emerging-Market Crisis?” [Developing economies face a perilous return to monetary normal.] 5-19-22
Economy. “The Electric-Vehicle Unicorn Crash.” By Allysia Finley. [Cheap credit and political subsidies led startups to let their ambitions get ahead of market realities.] 5-20-22
Economy. “The Welcome Pushback Against Politicized Investment Managers.” By C. Boyden Gray and Jonathan Berry. [States, and maybe soon Congress, are resisting the ESG demands of index funds run by Blackrock.] 5-20-22
Economy. “Tariffs Throw Shade on the Solar Industry.” By T.J. Rodgers. [Intended to punish Chinese panel makers, the import taxes are rushing U.S. companies and consumers.] 5-25-22
Economy. “Biden’s Train-Wreck Economy.” By Daneil Henninger. [The White House now says the U.S. economy is ‘in transition.’ They got that part right.] 5-26-22
Economy. “Can America’s Cities Make a Comeback?” (The Weekend Interview with Edward Glaeser by Tunku Varadarajan.) [America’s leading economist of urban life says a return to the workplace is crucial, especially for the young.] 5-28-22
Economy. “Why Electricity Blackouts Are Coming to Michigan.” By Jason Hayes. [The shutdown of a nuclear power plant makes the state vulnerable to cloudy, windless days.] 5-28-22
Economy. “America’s Summer of Rolling Blackouts.” [Green energy policies are making the grid increasingly unstable.] 5-28-22
Economy. “My Plan for Fighting Inflation.” By Joseph R. Biden Jr. [I won’t meddle with the Fed, but I will tackle high prices while guiding the economy’s transition to stable and steady growth.] 5-31-22
Economy. “Biden Has No Plan to Fight Inflation.” By Karl Rove. [American’s aren’t buying the idea that we can spend our way out of this mess.] 6-2-22
Economy. “When Progressives Fail, Inflation Edition.” [Why the public has lost confidence in claims to authority.] 6-2-22
Economy. “Inflation Isn’t Transitory, but It Isn’t Permanent Either.” By Alan S. Blinder. [While the Fed has interest-rate work to do, food and energy prices will level off and supply chains will heal.] 6-2-22
Economy. “Why ‘Do Something’ Won’t Work.” By Daniel Henninger. [The U.S. system is mired in sludge after decades of trying to solve problems.] 6-2-22
Economy. “The ESG Movement Is a Ripe Target for Trustbusters.” By Wan Fieler. [Its proponents are colluding to reduce competition and restrict the supply of oil and gas.] 6-3-22
Economy. “The Great Pandemic Wealth Migration.” [The latest IRS data shows the exit from high-tax states is accelerating.] 6-4-22
Economy. “Communities Should Have a Say in Whether They Want Drones.” By Jay Stanley. [Uniform federal rules designed for the jet age may threaten the privacy of your neighborhood.] 6-4-22
Economy. “DeSantis Harpoons the Tampa Bay Rays.” [Vetoing sports subsidies is good policy, but emulating woke cancelers is a mistake.] 6-7-22
Economy. “The Market Can Curtail Woke Fund managers.” By Vivak Ramaswamy and Riley Moore. [Sponsors of the Index Act have identified a real problem. Their solution won’t be effective.] 6-10-22
Economy. “A solution to the Wheat Shortage: Genetically Modified Crops.” By Terry Wanzek. [The world has gotten over the ‘Frankenfood’ panic, but the industry hasn’t overcome its GMO fears.] 6-11-22
Economy. “’Peak Inflation; Keeps Peaking.” [Progressive economic policies are crushing low-wage workers.] 6-11-22
Economy. “Who Pays for Crypto’s Collapse? By Andy Kessler. [The more than $500 billion in non-bitcoin investor losses will attract lawsuits.] 6-13-22
Economy. “Sick Stablecoins Can’t Infect Financial Markets.” By Niall Ferguson and Manny Rincon-Cruz. [Terra’s collapse worries Janet Yellen. But as with tulip mania, a handful of investors took the losses.] 6-13-22
Economy. Inflation. “Inflation and the Trump Factor.” By Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. [Jan. 6 is one reason to doubt the Fed really will pull the trigger on a recession.] 6-15-22
Economy. “Is $6 a Gallon Gasoline Next?” [The assault on fossil fuels has shrunk U.S. refining capacity.] 6-16-22
Economy. “Slouching Toward Inflation Reality.” [The Fed is front-loading higher rate increases, but will that be enough?] 6-16-22
Economy. “Red Interest Hikes May End Up Having Unintended Consequences.” By Judy Shelton. [The economy doesn’t need artificially high or low rates. It needs meaningful price signals – real rates.] 6-16-22
Economy. “We Need t Remember What Reagan Knew About Economics.” By Richard Vigilante. [John Rutledge explained it all in a 1981 Journal op-ed foretelling the long boom that was about to begin.] 6-17-22
Economy. “Don’t Believe the Obits for Bitcoin.” By Max Raskin. [Cryptocurrencies have faced constant volatility. It doesn’t matter for the ideologically committed.] 6-23-22
Economy. “Biden Is Practically Engineering a Recession.” By Davi B. Henderson and Casey B. Mulligan. [His regulatory and tax agendas seem designed to negate the good things the economy has going for it.] 6-23-22
Economy. “United Airlines Inflation Warning.” 6-27-22
Economy. Inflation. “Biden Isn’t to Blame for Inflation.” By Alan S. Blinder. [Rather look to the Federal Reserve’s timidity and, yes, the war in Ukraine.] (Blinder was an adviser to Al Gore and John Kerry during their respective presidential campaigns in 2000 and 2004) 6-29-22
Economy. “More Supply-chain Disruptions are Coming.” By Petr Tirschwell. [West Coast ports are negotiating a new labor contract, and it’s likely to cause major slowdowns.] 6-30-22
Economy. “Rising Interest Rates Will Crush the Federal Budget.” By Red Jahncke. [The interest costs of Treasury debt are about to soar while revenue from capital gains will plunge.] 6-30-22
Economy. “Growth, Not Austerity, Is The Answer to Inflation.” By Arthur Laffer and Stephen Moore. [Summers was right about the danger of excessive spending. But now he wants high unemployment.] 7-1-22
Economy. “Rude Awakening Ahead for Young Employees.” By Daniel E. Greenleaf. [A recession will hand the bargaining power to their bosses.] 7-5-22
Economy. “Bidenomics 101.” [The President doesn’t seem to know anything about markets.] 7-5-22
Economy. “Chick-fil-A Beats the Boycott. [The restaurant chain remains the most popular in America.] 7-6-22
Economy. “Imports Would Give America a Boost.” By Fred P. Hochberg. [Start by rolling back Trump’s tariffs on Chinese goods.] 7-8-22
Economy. “St. Paul’s Rent-Control Backfire.” [Building permits fall, and so will the supply of affordable housing.] 7-12-22
Economy. “Communist Cells in Western Firms.?” By Dennis Kwok and Sam Goodman. [Xi Jinping has pressed for measures giving party apparatchiks more power over foreign companies.] 7-12-22
Economy. “The Incredible Falling Euro.” [The slide to dollar parity signals higher costs and economic risks ahead.] 7-13-22
Economy. “The Inflation Tax on Workers.” [Average real weekly earnings are down 4.4% in the last 12 months.] 7-14-22
Economy. “Welcome to the Full-Employment Recession.” By James Piereson. [What seems like a paradox makes sense when you look at long-term changes in the Amirian labor force.] 7-15-22
Economy. “Elon Musk’s Narrow Twitter Escape.” By Holman w. Jenkins, Jr. [His real businesses are likely to need his cash and attention in the months ahead.] 7-16-22
Economy. “The High Cost of Free Money.” By Alysia Finley. [Researchers gave cash to low-income people. It led them to spend more and work less.] 7-19-22
Economy. “The Art of Business.” (Bookshelf by Dominic Green.) “Forms of Persuasion.” By Alex J. Taylor. [Corporate modernism’ – what Warhol called ‘business art’ – was artistic patronage born of midcentury American commercial dominance.] 7-19-22
Economy. “Congress Goes All in for Chip Subsidies.” [Competing with China is the new excuse for corporate welfare.] 7-19-22
Economy. “When the Chips Are Down, Congress Should Support the Industry.” By Jim Farley and Pat Gelsinger. [Semiconductor grants would help consumers and strengthen the economy and U.S. national security.] 7-20-22
Economy. “The Upside-Down Logic of Electric SUVs.” By Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. [The auto industry gambles its finances on big EVs for the rich and second-rate cars for everybody else.] 7-23-22
Economy. “The Economic Mess We’re In.” [Warren and Summers are half-right for the wrong reasons.] 7-26-22
Economy. “Why Inflation Is on the Way Down.” By Donald L. Luskin. [Ask Milton Friedman. When growth of the money supply slows, so does the increase in prices.] 7-26-22
Economy. “As Night follows Day, Stagflation Day follows the 2020-21 Stimulus.” By Gerard Baker. [It’ll be a dark one with interest hikes and sluggish GDP figures aligning as if to produce a solar eclipse.] 7-26-22
Economy. “Semiconductor Subsidy Strings Attached.” [Biden makes clear he’ll be telling CEOs how to invest the federal money.] 7-27-22
Economy. “A Recession by Any Other Name.” by Phillip w. Magness. [A downturn is a political problem, so the White House is playing semantics by redefining the term.] 7-28-22
Economy. “Stop Panicking About the U.S. Economy.” By Dennis Kneale. [Among the reasons for optimism: lots of jobs, anti-inflationary pressures and a decline in oil prices.] 7-28-22
Economy. “The Biden Stagflation Arrives.” [Bad policies have produced slow growth and soaring prices.] 7-29-22
Economy. “The 20-Year Experiment Holding the U.S. Back.” By John Berlau and Josh Rutzick. [The Sarbanes-Oxley Act has only hurt entrepreneurs and investors.] 7-29-22
Economy. “The Dollar Emergency Is Worse Than You Think.” By Joseph C. Sternberg. [Exchange-rate chaos is becoming an economic headwind and creating a crisis for capitalism.] 7-29-22
Economy. “The Lonely Office Is Bad for America.” By Peggy Noonan. [Employees may like remote work, but it tends to break down both organizational and national culture.] 7-30-22
Economy. “Antitrust Attacks on Private Equity Hurt Consumers.” By Makan Deirahim. [Regulators ignore research showing their investments promote competition and increase productivity.] 8-1-22
Economy. “Try Not to Think of a recession.” By Merrie Spaeth. [Biden administration denials are bound to deliver the opposite of the intended message.] 8-3-22
Economy. “Lessons From the Great Inflation of 1973 – 81.” By Phil Gramm and Mike Solon. [Then as now, what drove higher prices was excess demand owing to runaway government spending.] 8-3-22
Economy. “Democrats Try to Undo the Best Part of Trump’s Legacy.” By Jason L. Riley. [Voters rejected his bad behavior. His economic policies were largely successful pre-pandemic.] 8-3-22
Economy. “Republicans Fret Over Inflation Reduction Act’s Tiny Tax Increase.” By Alan S. Blinder. [Damage done through higher corporate rates would be offset by job-creating provisions.] 8-5-22 (Blinder was an adviser to Al Gore and John Kerry during their respective presidential campaigns in 2000 and 2004.)
Economy. “RIP Big Bull Market (1982-2022).” by Andy Kessler. [From Start to finish, the Dow rose from 776.91 to 36800, a 9.6 annual rate.] 8-8-22
Economy. “With Inflation High, Unions Suppress Wages.” By F. Vincent Vernuccio. [Most contracts lock in nominal raises that aren’t enough to keep up with rising prices.] 8-8-22
Economy. “How Miami ‘Caught a Wave’ and Became the Hot New Tech Hub.” [A business -friendly mayor helped. So did the quick Covid reopening and the loss of SALT deductions.] 8-6-22
Economy. “The Chamber’s House of Horrors.” [The business lobby has received almost nothing for helping elect a Democratic majority.] 8-9-22
Economy. “Floating Currencies Compound Uncertainty.” By Steve H. Hanke. [Instability brings problems for the U.S. and Europe – and serious crises to the developing nations.] 8-9-22
Economy. “The FTC Heads for Legal Trouble.” By Svetlana Gans and Eugene Scalia. [Its aggressive rule-making will create opportunities for judges to rein in the commission’s authority.] 8-9-22
Economy. “Recession Frears May Not Pass GO.” By Mark Skousen. “GDP is slumping, but there’s a better way to gauge the economy.] 8-10-22
Economy. “GM is Government Motors Again.” By Allysia Finley. [Electric-car subsidies put CEO Mary Barra at odds with a business group that she also heads.] 8-10-22
Economy. “The Virtues of Stock Buybacks.” By Jesse M. Fried and Charles C.Y. Wang. 8-10-22
Economy. “’Zero Inflation’? Not Quite.” [Real weekly wages are still down 3.0% over the last 12 months.] 8-11-22
Economy. “Florida Helps, then Gets Out of the Way.” By Casey DeSantis. [Hope Florida connects the needy with existing private and nonprofit services to achieve self-sufficiency.] 8-11-22
Economy. “One Good Inflation Report Isn’t Enough.” By Jason Furman. [The Fed shouldn’t back away from its plan to hike interest rates again.] 8-12-22
Economy. “How Your Retirement Account Got Politicized.” (The Weekend Interview with Vivek Ramaswamy by James Taranto). [BlackRock and other giant firms use your money to advance ideas you may not agree with, even if you own index funds. An alternative has arrived on the market.] 8-13-22
Economy. “Central Planning Won’t Beat China. “ by Nikki Haley. [Politicians seem to be forgetting that free enterprise made the U.S. economy great.] 8-16-22
Economy. “Lessons in Economic Leadership.” By Phil Gramm. [I saw him put the country’s interests ahead of his own more than once. We could use a leader like that now.] 8-17-22
Economy. “Florida Toys With Housing Suicide.” [Orlando may resort to rent control, which is deadly for new supply.] 8-20-22
Economy. “An Inflation Expansion Act.” [“(…cancelling student debt….”…Inflation? Party on, mates.”] 8-24-22
Economy. “Why Warren and Sanders Object to Crypto Rules.” By Brian P. Brooks and Charles W. Calomiris. [Sensible regulation would make it harder to establish a financial system under total government control.]8-24-22
Economy. “Nobody Knows How Interest Rates Affect Inflation.” By John H. Cochrane. [It depends on a question about which economists disagree: Is the economy fundamentally stable?] 8-25-22
Economy. “Income Equality, Not Inequality, Is the Problem.” By Phil Gramm and John Early. [Hose in the middle work much harder, but don’t earn much more, than those at the bottom.] 8-30-22
Economy. “The Americans Who Never Went Back to Work After the Pandemic.” By Nicholas Eberstadt. [With pre-Covid rates of participation, almost three million more people would be in the labor force today.] 9-3-22
Economy. “Inflation and the Scariest Economics paper of 2022.” By Jason Furman. [To bring price increases down to 2%, we may need to tolerate unemployment of 6.5% for two years.] 9-8-22
Economy. “Janet Yellen’s Fantasy Economy.” [She defends Bidenomics by ignoring inflation and falling real wages.] 9-9-22
Economy. “The Hot-and-Cold Economy.” By Andy Kessler. [With plenty of jobs and high inflation, the U.S. is between boom and bust.] 9-12-22
Economy. “Startups Across America.” (Bookshelf by Alison Schrager.) “The Rise of the Rest.” by Steve Case [An AOL co-founder travels by bus on a series of tours around the country in search of local entrepreneurship.] 9-12-22
Economy. “Amazon Discovers That Even Paranoids Have Competitors.” By Allysia Finley. [Its bids for iRobot and One Medical aren’t an attempt to take over the world but to keep up with Walmart..] 9-12-22
Economy. “The Global Economy Has Become a Battlefield.” By Paul Podolsky. [Global economic integration brought rising standards of living but also greater vulnerabilities.] 9-13-22
Economy. “Another Inflation Jolt for Markets.” [Investors get a reality check about prices and Fed tightening.] 9-14-22
Economy. “Biden’s Make-Believe Victory Over Inflation. “ by Karl Rove. [It’s hard to reassure voters when their rent and grocery bills won’t stop rising.] 9-15-22
Economy. “Competition Comes for the PGA Tour.” By Greg Norman. [The pro golf monopoly has mimicked many of LIV’s innovations.] 9-16-22
Economy. “Homeownership for All Is a Dying dream.” (The weekend Interview with Kenneth T. Jackson by Mene Ukueberuwa.) [The U. S. economy evolved to spread affordable homes to the masses. A Columbia historian described how it happened, and why the trend has broken down.] 9-17-22
Economy. ‘What the child Poverty Rate Is Missing.” By Phil Gramm and John Early. [The Census Bureau’s tallies still don’t include $1.9 billion in government transfer payments. 9-21-22
Economy. “Don’t Give Up on the Stock Market.” By Burton G. Malkiel. [Though uncertainty lies ahead, the right equities investment strategy can yield portfolio stability.] 9-22-22
Economy. “A Nation of Quitters.” By Andy Kessler. [A new class, the Cyber Bohemians, avoid work while living off their affluent parents.] 9-26-22
Economy. “You Can’t Eat Without Natural Gas.“ by Heidi Heitkamp. [The U.S. has the world’s largest proven reserves, but a lack of infrastructure is hindering production.] 9-29-22
Economy. “The Bad Inflation News Continues.” [Financial markets anticipate that interest rates will keep rising.] 10-1-22
Economy. “Marxism at the Museum.” By Andy Kessler. [What does donor Stephen Schwarzman think of these anti-capitalist exhibits.] 10-3-22
Economy. “Capitalism Says the More the Merrier.” By Wm. McGurn. [When Earth’s eight billionth baby is born, we should kick up our heels in celebration.] 10-4-22
Economy. “St. Paul Regrets Rent Control.” [The City Council does damage control after builders flee.] 10-4-22
Economy. “Putin’s Best Weapon: Bidenomics.” By Daniel Henninger. [In a time of economic and security peril, the U.S. has forsaken pro-growth policies.] 10-6-22
Economy. “You Can’t Build Roads Without Oil.” By Jacob R. Borden. [Where does the Biden administration think asphalt comes from?] 10-6-22
Economy. “Ben Bernanke Wins a Nobel, in Theory.” [His research about financial crises didn’t help prevent one in 2008.] 10-11-22
Economy. “A Mistaken Rein on REITs.” [A proposal would limit what investors can put into real-estate trusts.] 10-11-22
Economy. “China’s threat to Taiwan Semiconductors.” By Vivek Ramaswamy and Mike Pompeo. [Why aren’t American asset managers paying attention to the risks from an invasion of the island?] 10-11-22
Economy. “An Economics Nobel for and by Central Bankers.” By David R. Henderson. [The winners hold views on dealing with financial crises that many monetary economists find strange.] 10-11-22
Economy. “Stocks Can Always Get Cheaper.” By Andy Kessler. [The bottom still feels far off as bad earnings reports and defaults begin to surface.] 10-17-22
Economy. “Ohio’s Example for Liz Truss.” By John Kasich. [Sweeping tax cuts brought jobs and growth back to the state I governed.] 10-18-22
Economy. “The U.K. Market Meltdown Could Be Headed Your Way.” By Joseph C Sternberg. [The standard explanation for Truss’s bad few weeks doesn’t hold up. The real reason is far scarier.] 10-21-22
Economy. “Wall Street and Hong Kong’s Strongman.” [Financial CEOs will attend a ‘summit’ with Hong Kong’s strongman.] 10-22-22
Economy. “Why We’re Bullish on Energy Stocks.” By Vivek Ramaswamy and David Sokoi. [The ESG bubble has begun deflating, and high interest rates make technology companies less attractive.] 10-25-22
Economy. “Now They’re the Biden-Trump Tariffs.” [U.S. beverage makers continue to pay for tariffs on aluminum.] 10-27-22
Economy. “The Deadly ‘De-Growth’ Craze.” By Andy Kessler. [Stagnant societies eventually slide into oppression, chaos, anarchy and ruin.] 10-31-22
Economy. “The Inflation Reduction Act Is Already Killing Potential Cures.” By Joe Grogan. [The law’s price controls do away with incentives for research and development of life-saving drugs. ] 11-4-22
Economy. “The Cure? Cut Taxes and Spending.” By Andy Kessler. [Economic growth will become from efficient supply chains and U.S productivity.] 11-7-22
Economy. “ESG Investing Is Consistent With Fiduciary Duty.” By Al Gore and David Blood. [It’s not an end in itself. It’s simply an analytical tool that investors would be smart to make use of.] 11-9-22
Economy. “Another Nail in the Crypto Coffin.” by Andy Kessler. [FTX’s failed sale might signal the end of investment in these hot-air assets.] 11-10-22
Economy. “The FTX Crypto Fiasco. “ [Another lesson in the risks of joining a mania in speculative assets.] 11-11-22
Economy. “A Tentative Inflation Break.” [“…the data also show how much work the Fed has left to do.”] 11-11-22
Economy. “The Decline of Work.” By Andy Kessler. [When you slack off and withhold your human capital, you steal from everyone.] 11-14-22
Economy. “The G-20’s to-Do List for Restoring Global Economic Stability.” By Rishi Sunak. [We must work against economic coercion by Russia and other authoritarian states.] 11-14-22
Economy. “The Crypto Politics of Bankman-Fried.” [The FTX mogul was the second biggest donor to Democrats this cycle.] 11-16-22
Economy. “A Plan to Save America’s Finances.” By Paul Ryan. [Avoiding a debt and currency crisis and its economic fallout requires ideas and political will.] 11-17-22
Economy. “Sam Bankman-Fried, ESG Truth-Teller. [The fallen wizard of crypto confesses to phony virtue signaling.] 11-18-22
Economy. “The U.S. Needs a Better Digital Dollar.” By Kevin Wursh. [China’s new digital yuan could compete as a reserve currency and undermine U.S. financial dominance.] 11-21-22
Economy. “Elon Musk Can Save Twitter – and Democracy.” By Mark Weinstein. [The company is losing value by the day. Here are six steps to restore user and advertiser confidence.] 11-21-22
Economy. “Disney and the Post-Pandemic Reckoning.” [The end of easy money is making life tougher on CEOs like Bob Chapek.] 11-22-22
Economy. “Disney Needs ‘Chainsaw Bob.’ By Holman W Jenkins, Jr. [The streaming wars may be about to enter their shoot-the-wounded phase.] 11-23-22
Economy. “America Can’t Depend on China for Its Cars.” By William P. Barr. [An Inflation Reduction Act provision promotes local production of electric-vehicle batteries.] 11-22-22
Economy. “Regulate Crypto or It’ll Take Down the Economy.” By Elizabeth Warren. [Financial innovators always claim they don’t need oversight. They’re always proved wrong.] 11-23-22
Economy. “The Labor Shortage and Border Crisis Collide.” By Carine Hajjar. [As American businesses gasp for employees, migrants awaiting hearing can’t get work permits.] 11-25-22
Economy. “Crypto’s Final Price Could Be Zero.” By Andy Kessler. [No sane lender would extend credit against assets lacking any underlying collateral.] 11-28-22
Economy. “Centralization Caused the FTX Fiasco.” By Vivek Ramaswamy and Mark Lurie. [Automated market makers can obviate the need to hold customer money and the opportunity for fraud.” 11-28-22
Economy. “A New Federal McMansion Subsidy.” [Biden’s regulators order taxpayers to underwrite million-dollar mortgages.] 11-30-22
Economy. “A Two-Time CEO’s Advice to Disney’s Bob Iger. By A.G. Lafley. [I returned to Procter & Gamble after my successor abruptly retired. Here are five lesson I learned.] 12-1-22
Economy. “Where Did Young Male Workers Go?” [Employers keep hiring but too many people stay on the sidelines.] 12-3-22
Economy. “Psychos in the C-Suite.: by Peggy Noonan. [While they don’t seem to feel shame, they are preoccupied with being thought of as highly moral.] 12-3-22
Economy. “A Hype Cycle Winds Down.” By Andy Kessler. [It produced some good companies –but also gave us NFTs, FTX and SPACs.] 12-5-22
Economy. “Blockchain Is Much More Than Crypto.” By David Solomon. [Regulated financial institutions are well positioned to harness the revolutionary technology.] 12-7-22
Economy. “Who’s to Blame for the High Cost of Living?” by Judy Shelton. [Congress flails, the Fed professes responsibility, and taxpayers get stuck holding the bag.] 12-8-22
Economy. “Workers Need Freedom, Not More Government.” By Scott Lincicome. [Subsidies, tariffs, and excessive regulations inhibit living standards more than they raise them.] 12-9-22
Economy. “A New Financial Threat Emerges.” [Forex swaps amount to unprecedented hidden debt.] 12-10-22
Economy. “The Cryptocurrency Adventures of Mark Zuckerberg and SBF.” By Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. [One sought to comply with law and regulation, the other bought off everyone in sight.] 12-10-22
Economy. “The Battle Over work and Welfare.” [States are fighting back against the Biden drive to increase dependency.] 12-12-22
Economy. “Sam Bankman-Reid’s Crypto Crash.” [It’s ‘old-fashioned embezzlement,’ but with new blockchain jargon.] 12-14–22
Economy. “Biden Has the Economy Back on Track.” By Janet Yellen. [His policies have helped the country weather a global economic storm and invest for the long term.] 12-15-22
Economy. “A World of Tighter Money.” [Financial markets are awakening to the new central bank reality.] 12-16-22
Economy. “The Inflation Pain You Don’t See.” By George Zuo. [Definitions of ‘middle class’ miss one viral factor that shows how much price hikes hurt Americans.] 12-20-22
Economy. “Crypto Is Money Without a Purpose.” By Todd H. Baker. [It isn’t a financial service and shouldn’t be regulated as one. Laws on gambling are more relevant.] 12-20-22
Economy. “Who Lost General Electric.?” (Bookshelf by Charles Gasparino.) “Power Failure.” By William D. Cohen. [Once a pillar of American capitalism, GE is now but a shadow of its former self. Whose fault is that?] 12-22-23
Economy. “We Aren’t Ready for a Financial Crisis.” By Howard B. Adler. [With$31 trillion in debt and a Fed balance sheet of $8.6 trillion, budgetary restraint is essential.] 12-22-23
Economy. “The Great Tesla Stock Repricing.” By Holman w. Jenkins, Jr. “It’s healthy for the electric-car-maker, but can Elon Musk’s finances handle it?} 12-28-22
Economy. “Gasoline Prices Will Rise Again.” By Timothy Fitzgerald. [Consumers don’t buy crude oil, and Americas is dangerously constricting its refining capacity.] 12-28-22
Economy. “The Year Markets Came Down to Earth.” [Rising interest rates taught investors hard but eternal lessons.] 12-31-22
Economy. “New State Laws May Make 2023 a Year of Unintended Consequences.” By Jason L. Riley. [Higher minimum wages, pot legalization and limits on school choice will harm the intended beneficiaries.] 1-4-23
Economy. “I Got 2022 Mostly Right, Now on to 2023!” by Karl Rove. [I missed on Roe v. Wade but correctly called the NBA and the House majority.] 1-5-23
Economy. “What if Inflation Suddenly Dropped and No One Noticed?” by Alan S. Blinder. [The high year-over-year rate masks progress in the past five months. But we’re not out of the woods.] (Blinder was an adviser to Al Gore and John Kerry during their respective presidential campaigns in 2000 and 2004) 1-6-23
Economy. “Upward mobility Is Alive and Well.” By Phil Gramm and John Early. [Studies show the vast majority of American Adults have higher income than their parents did.] 1-7-23
Economy. “The Split-Screen Economy.” [A shock decline in the services index, but a solid month for jobs.] 1-7-23
Economy. “How Japan Kept Inflation Rates Low.” By John Greenwood and Steve H. Hanke. ]It’s monetary policy has long been ultra-tight, not ultra-loose.] 1-10-23
Economy. “Moving to Ohio Doesn’t Make You a Bad Plumber.” By Haley Holik and Michael Greibrok. [A new law recognizing occupational licenses from other states removes a costly barrier to work.] 1-14-23
Economy. “Water Is a Terrible Thing to Waste.” [California hasn’t built the storage to make use of winter rains.] 1-18-23
Economy. “Debt, Not the Debt Limit, Is the Real Fiscal Crisis.” By Red Jahncke. [A spending blowout and higher interest rates make spending cuts not only necessary but urgent.] 1-20-23
Economy. “Nationwide Rent Control?” [Democrats want Biden to impose rules to limit rent increases.] 1-23-23
Economy. “Crypo’s New Bankruptcy Racket.” By Gregg Opelka. [Do these failed hedge-fund founders have a deal for you!] 1-24-23
Economy. “The West’s Drug Self-Sabotage.” [A lesson from Europe on how price controls reduce access to cures.] 1-24-23
Economy. “The Economy Slows Down.” [Fourth-quarter growth was solid, but falling investment bodes ill.] 1-27-23
Economy. “Savers Will Benefit From A Return to Sound Money.” By Joe Davis. [A signal in the bond market suggests the return to a more stable long-run economy may be upon us.] 1-31-23
Economy. “Why America Should Ban Crypto.” By Charlie Munger. [It isn’t currency. It’s a gambling contract with a nearly 100% edge for the house.] 2-2-23
Economy. “The Looting of Johnson & Johnson.” 2-3-23
Economy. “The Incredible Expanding Job Market.” [There’s no hint of recession in January’s employment report.] 2-4-23
Economy. “How to Prevent the Next Supply Chain Crisis.” By Peter Tirschwell. [Automate container handling at ports that operate 24/7 will keep vital goods moving.] 2-6-23
Economy. “The West’s ‘Anti-Groth Coalition’ Prevails.” By Joseph c. Sternberg. [Liz Truss’s apologia for her failure as British PM exposes a truth about parties of the right.] 2-10-23
Economy. “This Is One Puzzling Job Market.” By Andy Kessler. [Why has productivity lagged for so long? Because huge sectors shunned technology.] 2-13-23
Economy. “The Junk Economics of ‘Junk-Fee’ Politics.” [The regulatory assault on businesses will hurt low-income Americans.] 2-14-23
Economy. “High Inflation Will End Soon.” by John Greenwood and Steve H. Hanke. [But the Fed’s change in course heightens the risk of recession.] 2-15-23
Economy. “Inflation Stays Stubbornly High.” 2-15-23
Economy. “Self-Driving Cars Are Progress at a Price.” By Gregg Opelka. [They may be safer than getting around the old way, but we’ll miss chauffeurs and movie chase scenes.] 2-22-23
Economy. “A Bigger Subsidy for Risky Mortgages.” [The housing lobby wins again, but taxpayers could lose in a recession.] 2-24-23
Economy. “S.O.S. for the U.S. Electric Grid.” [PJM interconnection sounds the latest alarm. The political class yawns.] 2-27-23
Economy. “Biden’s New Industrial social Policy.” [Raimondo uses the Chips Act to drive progressive demands.] 3-1-23
Economy. “Unleash the Banks in Times of Crisis.” By Justin Muzinich. [Short-term wholesale funding is an economic strength. But it needs a shock absorber when the economy falters.] 3-2-23
Economy. “Yes, There’s a Housing Crisis, No, You Can’t Build Here.” By Stephen ford. [A modest redevelopment proposal meets resistance in my ‘quirky’ suburban Virginia neighborhood.] 3-4-23
Economy. “The Rise of Kickback Capitalism.” By Andy Kessler. [That the government does best is throw your tax money at favored constituents.] 3-6-23
Economy. “Is the Pope Capitalist?” by Wm. McGurn. [The left’s push to ‘civilize capitalism’ has today found a home on the right.] 3-7-23
Economy. “Nothing Redeems Crypto.” By Steve H. Hanke and Matt Sekerke.[Part chlorofluorocarbon, part cocaine, part bearer bond. We need policies that will eliminate it.] 3-9-23
Economy. “And Now for a Little Bank Panic.” [After the credit mania, the monetary reckoning takes two casualties.] 3-11-23
Economy. “Is ESG Profitable? The Numbers Don’t Lie.” By Mike Edleson and Andy Puzder. [Corporations that remain neutral on social and political issues outperform companies that lean left.] 3-11-23
Economy. “Who Killed Silicon Valley Bank?” by Andy Kessler. [Apparently no on e at the firm perceived any risk from the Fed raising interest rates.] 3-13-23
Economy. “The Silicon Valley Bank Bailout.” [The bill for bad policy comes due, but there’s risk in a second bank rescue in 15 years.] (“…You can’t run the most reckless monetary and fiscal experiment in history without the bill eventually coming due…”) 3-13-23
Economy. “SVB Doesn’t Deserve a Taxpayer Bailout.” By Vivek Ramaswamy. [Ignore Silicon Valley fearmongering about bank runs. This is a simple case of bad risk management.] 3-13-23
Economy. “Biden’s Bank Bailout Whoppers.” [The President offers assurances that markets don’t believe.] 3-14-23
Economy. “The Education of Barney Frank. [The Dodd-Frank author has a Signature Bank failure moment.] 3-14-23
Economy. “Deposit Insurance Encourages Bank Failures.” By Charles W. Calomairis. [Informed customers used to monitor banks’ risk management. Now they skirt the $250,000 limit.] 3-14-23
Economy. “The Tide Goes Out, and Silicon Valley Bank Already Drowned.” By Gerard Baker. [Imprudent bankers weren’t the only ones who believed the financial waves would never recede.] 3-14-23
Economy. “U.S. Needs Economic Regime Change.” By Kevin Warsh. [The cost of stopping inflation would have been lower if the Fed had faced the problem earlier.] 3-20-23
Economy. “Barney Frank Was Right.” [The FDIC all but confirms it closed Signature over crypto.] 3-21-23
Economy. “Bernie Sanders’s Moderna Show Trial.” [The Vermont socialist is upset the company may make a profit.] 3-21-23
Economy. “Why Ford Can Afford to Lose on EVs.” [Federal subsidies and gas trucks make the business too big to fail.] 3-24-23
Economy. “The Economy Gets Wrung Out.” By Andy Kessler. [A steady drip of bad news, including missed earnings and layoff, is under way.] 3-27-23
Economy. “When Big Business Married Big Government.” By Allysia Finley. [From banking and chips to broadband and pharma, Biden has ushered in a new era of dependency on D.C.] 3-27-23
Economy. “How U.S. Regulators Are Choking Crypto.” By Katie Haun. [The effort would stifle American innovation and competition – and that seems to be the objective.] 3-28-23
Economy. “’Equal Occupational Fatality Day.’” [Biden celebrates Equal Pay Day, but dangerous jobs earn a premium.] 4-1-23
Economy. “Monetary Mischief Here and Abroad.” By Mary Anastasia O’Grady. [When public spending fees inflation, high interest rates starve business of capital.] 4-3-23
Economy. “You Don’t Need a Banking Crisis for a Financial Meltdown.” By Joseph C. Sternberg. [Post-2008 regulations may save us from a bank panic. The danger is every other financial institution.] 4-7-23
Economy. “The Man Who Saw the Economic Crises Coming.” (The Weekend Interview with Paul Singer by James Freeman.) [He warned about subprime mortgages before 2008, Dodd-Frank in 2010, and inflation in 2020. What does he think is next?] 4-8-23
Economy. “Mundell Predicted Our Economic Instability.” By Sean Rushton. [The Nobel laureate knew that floating exchange rates would make the global economy volatile.] 4-12-23
Economy. “Biden Remakes the Auto Industry.” [His new car rules are a de facto order to make and buy EVs.] 4-13-23
Economy. “’Ne Zero’ Will Mean a Mining Boom.” By Daniel Yergin. “But political instability will make it difficult to obtain all the minerals electric cars will need.] 4-13-23
Economy. “The Price Is Still Wrong.” [Inflation has fallen from its peak, but ‘core’ price remain sticky.] 4-13-23
Economy. “Two Years of Falling Real Incomes.” 4-18-23
Economy. “SpaceX’s Latest Successful Explosion.” [The Starship blew up in the sky, but that’s the way progress is made.] 4-21-23
Economy. “Upside Down Mortgage Policy.” [A new rule would make reliable borrows subsidize risky loans.] 4-22-23
Economy. “The Case of the Missing Investment.: [The supply-side of the economy is hurting from anti-growth policies.] 4-28-23
Economy. “Prosperity Requires a Stable Dollar.” By Vivek Ramaswamy. [By trying to do too much, the Fed has given us a volatile currency. I’d change that as president.] 5-2-23
Economy. “Trump Picked an EV Loser.” [Lordstown Motors won’t be the last casualty of the new industrial policy.] 5-4-23
Economy. “The Gilded Age’ Myth, then and Now.” By Phil Gramm and Amity Shlaes. [‘Robber barons’ of the 19^th and 21^st centuries enrich, not exploit, the poor and middle class.] 5-8-23
Economy. “How to Make Housing Less Affordable.” [An energy rule for manufactured homes will hit low earners.] 5-9-23
Economy. “Venture Capitalists Should Bet on America.” By Katharine Boyle and David Ulevitch. [Washington can cooperate with the private sector. Elon Musk’s SpaceX showed the way.] 5-9-23
Economy. “The Big Meat Conspiracy Theory Unravels.” 5-15-23
Economy. “Elon Muck Squeezes His Electric-Vehicle Competitors.” By Allysia Finley. ]How can they live as Tesla cuts prices and the White House and unions demand higher output and wages.] 5-15-23
Economy. “The Right Targets Corporations.” By Daniel Henninger. [The business of America should become business again, not politics.] 5-18-23
Economy. “For Gen. Z., Unemployment Can Be a Blast.” By Suzy Welch. [It struck me as bonkers. But then I thought back on the angst of my decades of working seven days a week.] 5-18-23
Economy. “Why Cancer Drugs Are Being Rationed.” [The government squeeze on generic profits is leading to shortages.] 5-23-23
Economy. “Get Ready for Deflation.” By Donald L. Luskin. [Inflation would have gone down without the Fed’s tightening, which we will soon see was overkill.] 5-24-23
Economy. “the World Economy Needs to Get Its Growth Back.” By David Malpass. [Without free-market policies that encourage dynamism, the current drift may persist for years.] 5-25-23
Economy. “VinFast in North Carolina Shows the Perils of Industrial Policy.” By Scott Lincicome. [Officials offer to bulldoze through two towns to have the Vietnamese carmaker. But they picked a lemon.] 5-27-23
Elections. “Tim Scott and Ron DeSantis Enter the Race.” By Peggy Noonan. [One has the most winning personality in politics. The other doesn’t but has a story to tell about policy.] 5-27-23
Economy. “Tesla’s Message to Biden.” By Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. [A regulatory regime that rewards money-losing vehicles is a loser for America.] 5-31-23
Economy. “The Global Economic Growth Deficit.” [China slumps and Germany is in recession, while the U.S. holds on.] 6-2-23
Economy. “China Won’t Save the U.S. From Recession this Time.” By Joseph C. Sternberg. [Beijing’s supply-side stimulus eased the 2009 contraction, but don’t expect another one.] 6-2-23
Economy. “How America Can Bring the Japanese Economic Miracle Stateside.” By Daisue J Nakajima and Jeffrey D. Korzenik. [Tokyo increased its labor force, despite a falling population, by recruiting nontraditional employees.] 6-6-23
Economy. “Welcome to Biden’s Tale of WOE.” By Robert B. Zoelick. [His industrial policy doesn’t serve consumers, and its rules and subsidies will be hard to undo.] 6-8-23
Economy. “Never Bet Against the American Economy.” By Joe Biden. [Over the past year, we helped create jobs, reduce inflation, and give working families breathing room.] 6-9-23
Economy. “A Tale of Two Economies.” By Andy Kessler. [For anyone working on AI, it’s the best of times, but for others, it’s the worst of times.] 6-12-23
Economy. “How to Prevent Another Financial Crisis.” By Kevin Warsh. [Banks that aren’t ‘too big to fail’ need injections of private capital and opportunities to merge.] 6-12-23
Economy. “How to Rebuild Fast After the Interstate 95 Collapse.” By John Fund. [Incentives for speed are the key, California showed the way after the 1994 Northridge earthquake.] 6-13-23
Economy. “Byron Allen’s Big Mac Attack.” [The media mogul plays the race card as a business strategy.] 6-16-23
Economy. “Adam Smith’s Solution to Poverty.” [by Rainer Zitelmann. [Even in the 18^th century he understood that only economic growth would improve living standards.] 6-16-23
Economy. “At Ford, Government Is Now Job One.” [The company gets a $9.2 billion loan – along with orders on how to use it.] 6-23-23
Economy. “Big Ethanol vs. Electric Vehicles.” [It’s Godzilla vs. King Kong in the battle for subsidy primacy.] 6-24-23
Economy. “The Lordstowns of Industrial Policy.” [The Ohio electric-truck maker Trump touted files for bankruptcy.] 6-28-23
Economy. “Bidenomics in One Lesson.” 6-29-23
Economy. “The Incredible Expanding Chips Act.” [More companies can get grants, if they adopt progressive social policy.] 6-29-23
Economy. “Stop Homelessness Before It Starts.” By Louis V. Gerstner Jr. [Modes emergency grans can help people stay out of shelters.] 6-30-23
Economy. ‘Cracks Open in the LaBor Market.” [Employers show their hiring pace in June, and Washington is no help.] 7-8-23
Economy. “A Judge-Made Right to Vagrancy.” [The Ninth Circuit blocks cities from taking down homeless camps.] 7-8-23
Economy. “The Bidenomics Blather.” By Andy Kessler. [His populist policies are similar to Donald Trump’s, albeit without the wall.] 7-10-23
Economy. “The States Where Incomes Grow Faster.” 7-11-23
Economy. “A Healthy Financial Industry Is Good for America.” By Barney Frank. [Democrats can’t be afraid to work with Republicans to prevent failures like Silicon Valley Bank.] 7-11-23
Economy. “Cracking the Proxy Advisory Duopoly.” [Glass Lewis and ISS have a 97% market share and conflicts of interest.] 7-13-23
Economy. “Inflation Isn’t Conquered Yet.” 7-13-23
Economy. “The innovation Cage Match.” By Andy Kessler. [From Musk and Zuckerberg to Gates and Jobs, rivalry builds the future.] 7-17-23
Economy. “The Biden Accounting Jobs Boom.” 7-18-23
Economy. “Tin-Foil Logic for Tin-Mill Tariffs.” [Will Gina Raimondo punish all Americans to help Sherrod Brown?] 7-18-23
Economy. “How to think About ‘Bienomics.’” By Gerard Baker. [Don’t ask if the economy’s stronger than it was four years ago. Will it be stronger in 2033 than it is today?] 7-18-23
Economy. “We Will Never Run Out of Resources.” By Marian L. Tupy and David Deutsch. [The supply of minerals is theoretically finite, but human knowledge and creativity are limitless.] 7-21-23
Economy. “The Stealthy Economic Stimulus of the Post-Covid Spending Spree.” By Mickey D. Levy. [As the Fed tries to lower inflation, Biden’s industrial policies and programs pump up GDP.] 7-21-23
Economy. “We Audit the Auditors, and We Found Trouble.” By Erica Y. Williams. [PCAOB inspectors are turning up an increasing number of deficiencies. That’s bad for investors.] 7-25-23
Economy. “’Lazy Girl Jobs’ Won’t Make Gen Z Less Anxious.” By Suzy Welch. [Their overweening parents – baby boomers like me—failed to prepare them for adulthood’s challenges.] 7-24-23
Economy. “Why SVB Financial Is Getting Off Easy in Bankruptcy Court.” By Todd H. Baker. [Regulators didn’t order the holding company to help. Now other banks are stuck with an unjust bill.] 7-26-23
Economy. “The Resilience in the GDP Data.” [The U.S. economy almost looks normal for the first time in a while.] 7-28-23
Economy. “Inflation Slows, but Don’t Expect Political Relief.” By Joseph C. Sternberg. [As Spain and other places show, the real problem is a lack of growth, causing wages to lag behind prices.] 7-28-23
Economy. “The Yellow Road to Bankruptcy.” [High labor and debt costs bring down the venerable trucking firm.] 8-1–23
Economy. ‘I wouldn’t Bet the Farm on ‘Bidenomics.’” By Blake Hurst. [I’ve spent half a century in agriculture, and I’ve seen the benefits of respect for the free market.] 8-1–23
Economy. “What We’ve Learned About Inflation.” By John w. Cochrane. [With price increases easing, it’s time to take stock of how various theories have performed.] 8-2-23
Economy. “Fitch Downgrades America.” [The rating agency may be too optimistic about the U.S. fiscal future.] 8-3-23
Economy. “BlackRock Gives Investors a Say.” By Salim Ramji and Joud Abdel Majeid. [BlackRock clients who represent more than $550 billion in assets joined the Voting Choice Program.] 8-4-23
Economy. “How High Mortgage Rates Fuel Inflation.” By Tomas J. Philipson. [It’s costlier to move, so fewer houses are on the market. Less supply means higher prices and rents.] 8-4-23
Economy. “Stablecoins Can Keep the Dollar the World’s Reserve Currency.” By Brian F. Brooks and Charles W. Calomiris. [Blockchain-based assets could be to finance what Voice of America has been to U.S. diplomacy.] 8-10-23
Economy. “The Benefit of Falling Inflation.” 8-11-23
Economy. “Disney’s Mickey Mouse Mistake.” By Andy Kessler. [The company is raising prices as consumers choose to cut cable and skip park visits.] 8-14-23
Economy. “The Battle of Bricks and Clicks.” (Bookshelf by Marc Levinson.) “Winners Sells All.” By Jason Del Rey. [Walmart executives were initially skeptical of online retail’s future. They were used to cutting costs, not making risky investments.] 8-16-23
Economy. “Rent Control Is Constitutionally Vulnerable.” By alexander Talel. [New York’s 2019 law is so onerous that the Supreme Court may revisit the issue for the first time in years]. 8-16-23
Economy. “America’s Political-Subsidy Economy.” [Government is steering investment now, at the cost of future growth.] 8-17-23
Economy. “The ‘Public Nuisance’ Menace.” By David b. Rivkin Jr. and O.H. Skinner. [Trial lawyers exact billions from companies that sell and distribute perfectly lawful products.] 8-17-23
Economy. “The EV Bubble Starts to Deflate.” [Biden is imitating China just as its industrial policy starts o crack.] 8-22-23
Economy. “The Return of High Interest Rates.” [Do investors see faster growth ahead, or more spending and inflation?] 8-23-23
Economy. “Purdue Pharma’s Bankruptcy Heads to the Supreme Court.” By David Skeel. [A 40-year-old strategy for dealing with mass torts may end up needing a new look from congress.] 8-28-23
Economy. “The Political Battle for U.S Steel.” [Unions and politicians are trying to steer the company’s sale.] 8-29-23
Economy. “Makers vs. Taylor Swift Shakers.” By Andy Kessler. [Buying tickets to her concerts won’t boost the economy and create societal wealth.] 9-11-23
Economy. “Free Riders on the Sidewalk.” By Ivan Png. [Outdoor dining helps restaurants and their landlords a everyone else’s expense.] 9-11-23
Economy. “The Student-Debt Bubble Fueled a Housing bubble.” By Alysia Finley. [Fannie and Freddie ignore much of what borrowers owe, allowing them to qualify for huge mortgages.] 9-11-23
Economy. “Does the UAW Want an Auto Strike? [The union’s demands will drive more jobs to right-to-work states.] 9-12-23
Economy. “Trump’s Trade War Was a Loser.” By Phil Gramm and Donald J. Boudreaux. [Tariff destroyed jobs in Michigan, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin and made all Americans worse off.] 9-12-23
Economy. “Can Tim Scott Rev Up the U.S. Economy?” [The GOP Senator’s new plan is a good but too cautious start.] 9-15-23
Economy. “If the Economy Collapses, Do You Back Biden or Trump for 2024?” by Joseph C. Sternberg. [It’s a vexing question, but a crisis wouldn’t be all that shocking an October surprise next year.] 9-15-23
Economy. “Shawn Fain’s Economic Reality Test.” [Non-union Tesla has a huge cost advantage over Detroit’s Big Three.] 9-19-23
Economy. “Inflation Will Continue Until Morale Improves.” By Gerard Baker. [Why aren’t Americans happy with the Biden economy? The answer couldn’t be more obvious.] 9-19-23
Economy. “Bidenomics Is Unsustainable.” By Stephen Miran. [Subsidies for unions will drive labor costs up, making the U.S. uncompetitive.] 9-20-23
Economy. “A ‘Common Good’ That Isn’t.” (Bookshelf by Pat Toomey.) “No Trade Is Free.” by Robert Lighthizer. [Robert Lighthizer, President Trump’s trade representative, claims the trade deals of the mid-1990s led to economic ruin. He’s wrong.] 9-21-23
Economy. “Wall Street and the Fed Are Both Wrong on Interest Rates.” By Joseph C. Sternberg. [The central bank shouldn’t treat growth as a problem, but there’s reason to think easing off won’t help GDP.] 9-22-23
Economy. “Bidenomics Is Keynesianism Without Constraints.” By Richard B. McKenzie. [Deficit spending to cure a recession is temporary. Now it’s permanent and justified by ‘emergencies.’] 9-23-23
Economy. “Time for Zombie Reaganomics.” By Wm. McGurn. [Candidates should dust off his Oct. 24, 1980, speech for Wednesday’s debate.] 9-26-23
Economy. “The Rise and Fall of SBF.” By Andy Kessler. [Michael Lewis’s new book hits the stores Tuesday, as the FTX founder goes on trial.] 10-2–23
Economy. “Welcome Back, Bond Market.” [Skip the shock and horror at rising rates as traders again price risk.] 10-6-23
Economy. “Labor Lessons From the Pandemic.” 10-6-23
Economy. “Beware Market complacency.” By Andy Kessler. [Global bond losses and the uncertainty caused by war join the roster of bad news.] 10-16-23
Economy. “Realtors Face an Antitrust Reckoning.” [A trial starting Monday could yield benefit for home buyers.] 10-16-23
Economy. “The Economy Is Great. Why Do Americans Blame Biden?” by Alan C. Blinder. [Inflation is lower, but some won’t be happy until prices come down too. That would be a disaster.] 10-19-23 (Blinder was an adviser to Al Gore and John Kerry during their respective presidential campaigns in 2000 and 2004)
Economy. “Democrats Peddle a ‘Child Labor’ Deception.” By Tarren Bragdon. [Parents know better than the government or the media how much work is too much for a teen.] 10-21-23
Economy. “The Auto Makers Cry for EV Mercy.” [The Big Three tell Biden his fuel-economy rules will ‘devalue’ their EVs.] 10-23-23
Economy. “Why Bidenomics Isn’t Popular.” [Minority families have fallen behind, a new Fed report says.] 10-23-23
Economy. “Home Sellers Take On the Realtor’s Cartel.” By Allysia Finley. [ An antitrust lawsuit challenges anticompetitive rules that inflate fees and drive-up housing costs.] 10-23-23
Economy. “Another Black Monday May Be Around the Corner.” By John Greenwood and Steve H. Hanke. [The Federal Reserve’s policies threaten the American economy and financial markets.] 10-23-23
Economy. “Get Ready for a Short-Lived Economic Boom.” By Stephen Miran. [Third quarter economic growth may run at 5%, but the bubble is sure to deflate quickly after that.] 10-24-23
Economy. “Ford Pays Dearly for Labor Peace.” [The real test of the deal will be whether Ford can stay competitive.] 10-27-23
Economy. “The third Quarter Growth Boom.” [Consumers keep driving GDP even as business investment lags.] 10-27-23
Economy. “America’s Business Community Is AWOL in Local Politics.” By Eva Moskowitz. [Unions and their left-wing allies meet little resistance as they chip away at the free-enterprise system.] 10-28-23
Economy. “Three Ideas to End Tent Cities.” By Andy Kessler. [Changing a few laws and tightening border security could reduce urban homelessness.] 10-30-23
Economy. “A Big Legal Defeat for the Realtors.” [A federal jury found the powerful lobby liable for conspiring to fix prices.] 11-1-23
Economy. “How WeWork Rose and Went Broke.” [The company’s failure is a lesson in the risks of easy-money investments.] 11-8-23
Economy. “Bidenomics Gets No Respect.” By Daniel Henninger. [Citing the president’s age lets Democrats off the hook for his economic policies.] 11-9-23
Economy. “The Final Frontier Is Getting Crowded.” By Ed Lu. [The number of spacecraft launches is doubling every two years, creating logistical challenges.] 11-9-23
Economy. “Luci’s $227,802 EV Loss Leader.” [The electric-vehicle startup is struggling to find buyers for its cars.] 11-10-23
Economy. “To Save Disney, Bring Back the Takeover Market.” By Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. [Even if a sale or breakup doesn’t result, a lively market for control inspires new strategic ideas.] 11-11-23
Economy. “Autonomous Cars Beat EVs.” By Andy Kessler. [Biden should have updated our roads, not subsidized car purchases for the rich.] 11-13-23
Economy. “Proxy Advisers and Double Standards.” [A new study shows Glass Lewis and ISS make material errors in their recommendations.] [“…they promote the progressive agenda against corporate America.”] 11-16-23
Economy. “Companies That Can’t Make Money.” By Marlo Oakes. [The SEC pushes a plan to misallocate capital by buying land and taking it out of productive use.] 11-16-23
Economy. “Capitalism Works, Says ChatGPT.” By Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. [A royal governance screw-up shows what nonprofits could learn from CEO pay.] 11-22-23
Economy. “Inflation Is Still on the Menu.” By Dave Seminara. [Think price have gone down? Try eating at a restaurant.] 11-24-23
Economy. “America’s Anti-Economist.” (Bookshelf by Barton Swaim.) “Milton Friedman: The Last conservative.” By Jennifer Jones. [Milton Friedman’s advice on the burning economic question of the 1970s – inflation – was ignored by President Nixon and his Fed chair.] 11-28-23
Economy. “Will GM Shareholders Survive the EV Meltdown?” by Holman W. Jenkins, Fr. [With a big share buyback, Mary Barra reminds investors that gas-powered trucks provide the profits.] 12-2-23
Economy. “Free Trade Is Good for American Farmers Like Me.” By Terry Wanzek. [Trump is hopeless, but a candidate with a positive trade agenda could harvest farm-country votes.] 12-9-23
Economy. “Tariffs Are for Losers.” By Andy Kessler. [There is a bipartisan zeal for policies that misallocate capital and raise prices.] 12-11-23
Economy. “Biden Ambushes Pharma Patents.” [New guidance will let the feds steal IP if drug prices are too high.] 12-11-23
Economy. “Biden to Apprentices: You’re Fired.” 12-19-23
Economy. “Big Steel’s Industrial Policy Boomerang.” [Protectionists paved the way for Nippon’s takeover of U.S. Steel.] 12-20-23
Economy. “Bidenomics Is Working for the Middle Class.” By Janet L. Yellen. [The economy defied the gloomy forecasts for 2023. Growth is steady, inflation id sown, and wages are up.] 12-21-23
Economy. “Tariffs and the Common Man.” 1-2-24
Economy. “Xenophobia Drives Fores of Nipon Steel’s Deal.” By Wilbur Ross. [The acquisition of U.S. Steel poses no threat to America’s economic or national security.] 1-2-24
Economy. “James Gwartney Made Economics Accessible.” By Richard Vedder and Robert Lawson. [He helped popularize free-market ideas and even brought them to post-Soviet Russia.] 1-8-24
Economy. “Boeing and the Automation Standoff.” By Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. [A plane maker has too many constituencies to please, and it doesn’t help safety.] 1-10-24
Economy. “Why No One Goes Out to Eat in D.C. Anymore.” By Michael Saltsman and Rebekah Paxton. [Misguided public policy has led to fear on the streets and surcharges on restaurant bills.] 1-13-24
Economy. “The High Cost of the Trump-Biden Tariffs.” By Phil Gramm and Donald J. Boudreaux. [They benefited a politically connected few, while U.S. consumers and producers paid the bill.] 1-18-24
Economy. “Biden’s Dispiriting Antitrust Cops.” [In blocking a JetBlue-Spirit merger, they are reducing competition.] 1-19-24View Stats
Economy. “Lovable Elon Pulls a Fast One.” By Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. [He wants to be paid twice for the artificial-intelligence hopes already in Tesla’s stock price.] 1-20-24
Economy. “Our Plan to Grow U.S. Steel.” By Eiji Hashimoto ad Takashiro Mori. [We at Nippon Steel will strengthen the company and honor all union contracts.] 1-23-24
Economy. “The Public May Soon See the Economic Light.” By Alan s. Blinder. [Perceptions tend to lag behind reality. But inflation has been going down for a while.] 1-24-24
Economy. “The Markets Party Like It’s 1939. By Gerard Baker. [As 2024 starts, investors seem untroubled by a series of crises, wars and political uncertainties.] 1-23-24
Economy. “Biden Has Brought Happy Days for Investors.” By Ed Finn. [Higher interest rates and better bank regulation stabilize the economy, fostering equity growth.] 1-25-24 (“Mr. Finn…was editor and president of Barron’s 1998-2017.”)
Economy. “America’s Resilient Economy.” 1-26-24
Economy. “The ‘Soft Landing’ Could Easily Turn Hard.” By Robert E. Rubin. [Dangers and risks include a government shutdown, a Trump victory and wars in Gaza, Ukraine and Yemen.] 1-26-24
Economy. Hawaii’s Electric Utility Could Soon Feel the Burn.” By R.A. Moss. [Even if the Lahaina wildfire is ruled an accident, the company faces liabilities on multiple fronts.] 1-27-24
Economy. “Cleveland-Cliffs, Tariffs and Buybacks.” 1-31-24
Economy. “The Intelligence Paradox: AI May Make Markets Less Rational.” By Alena Brynjolfsson and Erik Brynjolfsson. [Even the smartest algorithm has to operate within its limitations on risk and capital.] 2-1-24
Economy. “Will a Delaware Judge Pop the Tesla Bubble.?” By Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. [the company owes its stratospheric reputation to its workaholic, risk-tolerant CEO.] 2-3-24
Economy. “’Shrinkflation’ Is in the Air, Online and Everywhere Else.” By Allysia Finley. [You pay more for ‘extras’ tht used to be part of the base price. The CPI doesn’t measure that.] 2-5-24
Economy. “Trading Places.” (Bookshelf by Paul Kennedy.) “A world Safe for Commerce.” By Dale C. Copeland. [For the first time in more than a century, there is a global trade war that America may not win.] 2-8-24
Economy. “FAA Inspectors Won’t Fix Boeing.” By Phillip S. Coles. [The company should focus on getting its manufacturing right.] 2-12-24
Economy. “The Story Behind Biden’s Trade Failure.” [Emails show how Lina Khan and the left co-opted Katherine Tai.] 2-13-24
Economy. “Reagan’s Free-Market Moon Shot.” By Rainer Zitelmann. [In 1984 he foresaw the space economy, which has overshadowed the space program.] 2-14-24
Economy. “Sticker Shock and Sticky Inflation. 2-14-24
Economy. “Slow Growth Is Ahead Unless Government Gets Out of the Way.” By David Malpass. [The rise of regulatory activism and the adoption of multilateral edicts may hold America back.] 2-15-24
Economy. “The Vindication of Biden’s American Rescue Plan.” By Gene Sperling. [He learned the lessons of past downturns. The claim that he ‘overlearned’ them has proved to be specious.] 2-16-24
Economy. “Progressives Against Financial Competition.” [A Capital One tie with Discover Financial would help retailers.] 2-21-24
Economy. “Nvidia, AI and U.S. Innovation.” [The government didn’t build that $2 trillion share valuation.] 2-23-24
Economy. “Profit Can Be Your Purpose.” By Andy Kessler. [Why do Millennials and Gen Zers want their work to provide psychic rewards?] 3-4-24
Economy. “The Biden ‘Strike Force’ Is Coing for You. [After causing prices to rise, the White House blames business.] 3-6-24
Economy. “The Letitia James Business Model. [The New York AG sues a meat company because it sells too much meat.] 3-6-24
Economy. “Block Capital One’s Merger With Discover.” By Elizabeth Warren. [It would create America’s biggest credit-card issuer, allowing it to charge customers exorbitant fees.] 3-8-24
Economy. “Beware the Frothy AI Frenzy.” By Andy Kessler. [Dominant players often miss the next big market because of bloat and hubris.] 3-11-24
Economy. “As Rural America Declines, There Are Still Plenty of Farmers.” By Blake Hurst. [Total U.S. agricultural output increased even as acreage declined 20% between 1950 and 2017.] 3-11-24
Economy. “Hold the Inflation Champagne.” 3-13-24
Economy. “Steel-Making in the Swamp.” [Cleveland-Cliffs’s CEO brags about his sway over Joe Biden.] 3-18-24
Economy. “Understanding the Boeing Mess.” By Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. [An overlooked NTSB report and why the two 737 MAX crashes were different.] 3-20-24
Economy. “The Realtors Stage a Tactical Retreat.” [The NAR’s ballyhooed legal settlement is less than meets the hype.] 3-20-24
Economy. “Buy American, Build Nothing.” By Judge Glock. [The infrastructure law of 2021 makes it hard to build anything.] 3-26-24
Economy. “The C-Suite Cleanup at Boeing.” 3-26-24
Economy. “The Muddle at Boeing as Big Choices Loom.” By Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. [The company and its overseers are looking backward in a rapidly changing world.] 3-30-24
Economy. “Slow GO May Mean a Recession Soon.” By Mark Skousen. [GDP numbers look great, but a leading indicator signals trouble ahead.] 4-5-24
Economy. “The Realtors Still Need Market Reform.” (The Weekend interview with Jack Ryan by Allysia Finley.) [Despite a recent lawsuit settlement, the cartel keeps home prices high and damages the economy. This entrepreneur wants federal antitrust action.] 4-6-24
Economy. “The Labor Market Keeps on Truckin.’” 4-6-24
Economy. FDIC. “FDIC May Spoil Your Index Funds.” By Burton G. Maikiel. [A limit on bank-stock holdings could make it impossible to track the benchmarks.] 4-9-24
Economy. “The Inflation Thief Rises Again.” [The real average hourly wage has risen seven lousy cents in a year.] 4-11-24
Economy. “What Economists Miss About Inflation.” By Robert Pozen and S.P. Kothari. [Prices aren’t rising as fast as they were in 2022, but consumers tend to have a longtime horizon.] 4-13-24
Economy. “Biden, Cfius and the U.S. Steel Acquisition.” By Thomas P. Feddo. [Are his remarks empty rhetoric or an attempt to subvert the law?] 4-16-24
Economy. “Crotonville and the Death of Fun at Work.” By Suzy Welch. [Young employees can’t imagine caring about a company and vice versa.] 4-17-24
Economy. “The Race to Be Protectionist in Chief.” [Biden sees Trump’s tariffs on metals and raises to no good effect.] 4-18-24
Economy. “What Home Buyers Get for Those Agent Commissions.” By Damian Eales. [It’s caveat emptor in some Australian states, where agents have a fiduciary duty only to the seller.] 4-18-24
Economy. “Houston Would Welcome BP and Shell.” By Paul M. Dabbar. [Europe has become a hostile environment for energy companies.] 4-19-24
Economy. “Do Interest Rates Matter Anymore?” by Andy Kessler. [The economy may be chugging along, but usury could bring a day reckoning.] 4-22-24
Economy. “The Boeing Just-So Story.” By Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. [Aviation romantics aren’t helping a troubled company get back on track.] 4-24-24
Economy. “Who Pays Corporate Taxes? Look in the Mirror.” By Phil Gramm and Mike Solon. [Costs are passed on to consumers. If you work for and invest in companies, you get hit three times.] 4-24-24
Economy. “Signs of Stagflation Appear. “ [Voters aren’t crazy if they feel uneasy about the economy.] 4-26-24
Economy. “Remote Work Is a Leadership Killer.” By Louis V. Gerstner Jr. 4-26-24
Economy. “The Government-Spending Jobs Boom.” [Most new jobs are in healthcare, government and social assistance.] 5-4-24
Economy. “Return of the Housing Godzillas.” [Freddie Mac wants to guarantee second mortgages. Yikes.] 5-6-24
Economy. “Public Companies Are Alive and Well.” By Mark J. Roe and Charles C.Y. Wang. [They’re fewer in number but bigger and more profitable than ever before.] 5-9-24
Economy. “Protectionists Go to the Mattresses.” [Apparently everyone in the world is ‘dumping’ their beds on the U.S.] 5-11-24
Economy. “Whose Trade War Is Worse, Trump’s or Biden’s?” by Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. [It’s still true that the dumbest trade war is a green trade war.] 5-11-24
Economy. “Is a Trial Lawyer Worth 100 Elon Musks?” by Jonathan Macey and M. Todd Henerson. [Attorneys seek $5.6 billion for convincing a Delaware Court that the CEO is overpaid.] 5-14-24
Economy. “Yellen’s New Too-Big-To-Fail Firms.” [Treasury says non-bank mortgage servicers are systemically important.] 5-14-24
Economy. “Preventing Bailouts Is Simple, but It Isn’t Easy.” By John M. Cochrane and Amit Seru. [The Fed could simply stop blocking run-proof banks from emerging. But that would take political will.] 5-14-24
Economy. “The Retreat From ESG Proxy Voting.” [Major funds are losing their zeal to push politics in shareholder votes.] 5-16-24
Economy. “The Invisible Hand Strikes Back.” By Wm. McGurn. [Bradley Prize winner Samuel Gregg stands athwart the populist economic tide.] 5-21-24
Economy. “You Say ‘Trickle Down’ as if It’s a Bad Thing.” By Steven E. Rhoads. [Lower taxes for the rich spur investment, which is good for people of all classes.] 5-22-24
Economy. “Exxon and the proxy Abusers.” [Progressives retaliate after the company fights harmful resolutions.] 5-22-24
Economy. “Open Borders Produced the Biden Economic Boom.” By Donald L. Luskin. [Why doesn’t he get credit for strong growth? In part because he can’t defend his immigration policies.] 5-25-24
Economy. “Exxon Mobil Takes On Climate Extremists.” By Adan Crum. [In Alaska, unlike California, officials look out for retiree’s financial interests.] 5-30-24
Economy. “Our Nostalgia Doom Loop.” By Andy Kessler. [The more technology advances, the more we wish for long-lost simpler times.] 6-3-24
Economy. “The Man Who Made the Futures Markets.” [The Chicago History Museum will honor Leo Melamed. Hear, hear.] 6-4-24
Economy. “The ‘Congestion Pricing’ Economy.” By Paul H. Tice. [The purpose isn’t to raise revenue but to keep cars out of Manhattan. That will constrain growth.] 6-4-24
Economy. “Wall Street Moves to Texas.” [Financial firms want competition for the NYSE and Nasdaq.] 6-7-24
Economy. “Shore Up the Social Safety net With ‘Predistribution.’” By Aan S. Blinder. [Such policies include raising the minimum wage, encouraging unions and fighting monopsony.] 6-7-24
Economy. “A Politically Made Insurance Panic.” [Auto and home rates are soaring, and the causes include inflation and lawsuit abuse.] 6-10-24
Economy. “Crypto Could Stave Off a US. Debt Crisis.” By Paul D. Ryan. [Stablecoins backed by dollars provide demand for U.S. public debt and a way to keep up with China.] 6-14-24
Economy. “Surprise, Tesla Investors Vote for a Higher Share Price.” By Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. [Right or wrong, Elon Musk and his investors are co-believers in a glorious if imprecise future.] 6-15-24
Economy. “Working at Home Helped Whip Inflation.” By Steven J. Davis. [It boosted productivity and restrained wage growth. But now the Fed has to finish the job.] 6-20-24
Economy. “Elon Musk Foils the Proxy Firms.” By Michael Toth. [Like Exxon Mobil, Tesla went directly to investors and over the heads of the left-leaning advisers.] 6-21-24
Economy. “Bidenomics, Also Kown as MMT.” By Arthur Laffer and Stephen Moore. [The crazy economic theory that spending has no consequences.] 6-24-24
Economy. “The Economy Is Good, Why Don’t People Know It?” by Alan S. Blinder. “One is tempted to blame partisanship, and that’s part of it. But ‘negativity bias” is a broader problem.] 6-26-24
Economy. “Immigration Is Behind the Strong U.S. Economy.” By Jason Furman. [We’d be a poorer, weaker country without it. Too bad Biden couldn’t make that point at the debate.] 7-1-24 (Mr. Furman, a professor at Harvard, was chairman of the Whitte House Council of Economic Advisors under Barack Obama.]
Economy. “The Blue-State Wealth Exodus Continues.” [The latest IRS data confirms the blue-to-red-state income tide.] 7-5-24
Economy. “Government to the Jobs Rescue.” [Trades that rely on federal spending are creating most new jobs.] 7-6-24
Economy. “Beating American Defeatism.” By Andy Kessler. [The U.S. enables innovation, while the rest of the world is mired in statism.] 7-8-24
Economy. “Tariff Men Won’t Help America’s Workers.” By Samuel Gregg. [A 10% levy on all imports would reduce jobs, hike prices, and prompt other countries to retaliate.] 7-18-24
Economy. “The Economic Populists Have a Point.” By Glenn Hubbard. [Conservatives shouldn’t abandon competition, but there’s a need to assist those it leaves behind.] 7-19-24
Economy. “Hollywood’s Paramount Rule.” By Andy Kessler. [ Skydance’s David Ellison breaks it as he spends his own money to acquire the studio.] 7-22-24
Economy. “Interest Rates Are a Sideshow in the Fed Drama.” By Kevin Warsh. [Expect inflation to rise if the central bank doesn’t keep reducing the size of its balance sheet.] 7-29-24
Economy. “The Case Against Low Interest Rates.” By John Michaelson. [The dollar is strong, inflation is down, and the average American isn’t calling for cheap money.] 7-30-24
Economy. “Not All Octogenarians Are as Feeble as Biden.” By Richard Vedder. [Many of us are still going strong, and with an aging population, America needs us.] 8-1-24
Economy. “Rumors of an Election Recession.” [Politicians will blame the Fed despite their own anti-growth policies.] 8-3-24
Economy. “Nippon Steel Deal Is Good For America.” By Mike Pompeo. [It puts U.S. workers and their families first, while helping to revitalize domestic manufacturing.] 8-5-24
Economy. “The Easy Money Reckoning Arrives.” [Markets reprice risk after an extended cheap-money experiment.] 8-6-24
Economy. “The financial Markets Will Disappoint Your Yen for Stability.” By Joseph C. Sternberg. [The Japanese currency’s rapid appreciation could serve to trigger a global financial emergency.] 8-9-24
Economy. “Lessons From Sandy Robertson, a Silicon Valley Legend.” By Robert E. Grady. [His investment-banking activities helped Pixar, Dell., AOL and thousands of tother companies.] 8-9-24
Economy. “Interest Rate Cuts Are Coming but Won’t Do Much.” By Joseph C. Sternberg. [Wall Street seems hopeful that Powell will secure a soft landing, but the tightening won’t end here.] 8-16-24
Economy. “Boeing’s ‘Culture’ Needs Profits.” By Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. [Its new CEO has the right background to address deeper questions raised by the 737 MAX catastrophe.] 8-10-24
Economy. “We All pay the Price for Protectionism.” By Phil Gramm and Donald J. Boudreaux. [Industrial policy intrudes on our sovereignty as consumers to protect politically favored jobs.] 8-13-24
Economy. “Interest Rate Cuts Are Coming but Won’t Do Much.” By Joseph C. Sternberg. [Wall Street seems hopeful that Powell will secure a soft landing, but the tightening won’t end here.] 8-16-24
Economy. “The Harley-Davidson Tariff backfire.” [The U.S. motorcycle maker moves mover production overseas.] 8-20-24
Economy. “The ‘Big Grocery’ Lawsuit Goes to Court.” [The FTC suit against the Kroger-Albertsons merger would result in higher food prices.] 8-26-24
Economy. “Kamala Harris’s ‘Joyful’ War on Entrepreneurs.” By Allysia Finley. [When Democrats talk about boosting the middle class, what they mean is government employees.] 8-26-24
Economy. “Housing Is the Sleeper Issue of the 2024 Campaign.” By Michael solon. [Harris promises to double down on Biden policies that have made it more expensive to buy a home.] 8-26-24
Economy. “Starbucks’ New CEO Has a Big Footprint.” By Jonathan Berry and Michael Buschbacker.[He plans to fly to work, never mind climate pledges.] 8-27-24
Economy. “Chevron’s End Could Be Good for Free Trade.” By Thomas J. Duesterberg.. [Thanks to a Supreme Court Decision, Congress now has an extra tool to combat protectionism.] 8-28-24
Economy. “A Federal Judge Rules Against Sports Fans – and TV Innovation.” By Holman W. Jenkins, Jr. [Finally, cable TV powers decide to cannibalize their own business – and a court gets in their way.] 8-31-24
Economy. “Judges Say You Can’t Build That.” [Two case studies in why the U.S. desperately needs permitting reform.] 9-3-24
Economy. “A Confederacy of Economic Dunces.” [America’s leaders all oppose Nippon Steel’s bid to improve U.S. Steel.] 9-4-24
Economy. “Biden and Buttigieg Are Regulating the Airlines.” By Frank Lorenzo. [They fail to appreciate how Deregulation in the 1970s fostered competition and produced lower fares.] 9-4-24

Issue Headlines

“New Global Tax Set to Raise Billions.” “US. Won’t benefit because Congress hasn’t changed law to conform to deal.” [15% Minimum international corporate tax rate took effect this year.] 2-2-24 (WSJ 2-2-24, p. A16)

Economy II (From 10-1-21)

Issues