As the COVID-19 pandemic continues to rage around the world, a new proposal regarding how to slow the spread has emerged. This proposal, however, has nothing to do with masks, lockdowns, or social distancing but rather with the intellectual property … Continue reading
To most people, “inflation” signifies widespread rising prices. Economists have long argued, as a matter of technical accuracy, that “inflation” denotes an increasing money supply. Frankly, though, most people don’t care what happens to the supply of money, but they … Continue reading
Having proposed trillions of dollars of additional federal spending, President Joe Biden and allies have launched a belated and somewhat desperate search for additional tax revenues. The economic reality is that there simply isn’t enough wealth available in the private … Continue reading
For years, I have been sounding the alarm about chronic federal deficit spending—practiced by both Republicans and Democrats—steering our country into a fiscal abyss. I feel like a broken record as I periodically chronicle the folly of it all. The … Continue reading
During a heated 1990 U.S. Senate race in North Carolina between the Republican incumbent Jesse Helms and Democratic challenger Harvey Gantt, basketball superstar and North Carolina native Michael Jordan was asked to endorse Gantt’s candidacy. While Jordan declined to publicly … Continue reading
Editor’s note: This article first appeared in Crisis Magazine. “The early church was a socialist church.” So said Rev. Raphael Warnock in 2016, four years before the citizens of Georgia elected him a U.S. senator. It’s a strange statement, least … Continue reading
Hedge funds are in the news again. (I wrote about the Melvin Capital hedge fund blow-up a couple of months ago.) A firm named Archegos Capital Management “blew up” (to use the common vivid metaphor), vaporizing tens of billions of … Continue reading
Editor’s note: A shorter version of this article first appeared at Newsweek. Dr. Gary Scott Smith is the author of the new book, “Duty and Destiny: The Life and Faith of Winston Churchill.” During his long life, Winston Churchill suffered … Continue reading
It is quite often the case that the simplest explanation is the correct explanation. The namesake for this principle comes from the English philosopher and theologian, Franciscan friar William of Ockham. It is called Occam’s razor. From various sources, Occam’s … Continue reading
Editor’s note: This article first appeared at The American Spectator. On February 14, 2021, the world quietly lost one of the most intriguing, enduring figures of the Cold War. He was Lt. Gen. Ion Mihai Pacepa, the highest-ranking Soviet Bloc … Continue reading
Since the days of Adam Smith, economists have sought a set of social institutions which permit “neither dominion, nor discrimination,” to use Nobel Prize-winning economist James Buchanan’s phrase. In this, economists are joined by all people of goodwill—including those in … Continue reading
Join AIER’s Bastiat Society program in DC and Grove City College’s Institute for Faith & Freedom for a virtual event with Dr. Paul Kengor, professor of political science at Grove City College and Senior Director & Chief Academic Fellow at the college’s Institute … Continue reading
The investment world was convulsed last week when at least one hedge fund (Melvin Capital) lost billions of dollars. The sudden, massive losses happened when a tidal wave of independent individual investors, spearheaded by posts on reddit.com, triggered a short … Continue reading
Americans are known to have big hearts. When disaster strikes, Americans unselfishly and heroically extend a helping hand. That certainly has been the case in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Nobody wants to see those who have lost income through … Continue reading
Walter E. Williams, prolific author, piercing cultural commentator, old-school economist (that’s a good thing), devoted husband, loving father, and long-time friend of Grove City College, has passed from this world. To the rest of America, Williams was known as a … Continue reading
With all the attention commanded by the presidential campaign, election, and aftermath, plus the ongoing COVID-19 story, many other issues have faded into the background. Though escaping the headlines, some of these other issues will be with us for a … Continue reading
In my previous column, I described the “paradox of prosperity”—the strange tendency of many people who have benefited from economic advances to denounce and vilify the source of their prosperity, a sort of “bite-the-hand-that-feeds-you” phenomenon. One example of this syndrome … Continue reading
Editor’s note: A version of this article first appeared at National Catholic Register. “In 1949, some friends and I came upon a noteworthy news item in Nature, a magazine of the Academy of Sciences.” So opens Alexander Solzhenitsyn’s majestic The Gulag Archipelago, … Continue reading
In Friedrich Hayek’s 1954 book Capitalism and the Historians, the late French philosopher and political economist Bertrand de Jouvenel noted a baffling historical trend: “Strangely enough, the fall from favor of the money-maker coincides with an increase in his social … Continue reading
“If someone calls it socialism,” said the Rev. William Barber at an August 2019 conference of the Democratic National Committee, “then we must compel them to acknowledge that the Bible must then promote socialism, because Jesus offered free health care … Continue reading
