Bitcoin Won’t Put Food on the Table
Bitcoin also won’t put gas in your car or provide medical care for your family. To be clear, I mean this literally. I realize people have made millions and billions speculating in Bitcoin. They can use...
View ArticleGovernment-Granted Patent Monopolies Lead to Corruption #47,284
The New York Times ran an important investigative piece on how the opioid manufacturers gave kickbacks to pharmacy benefit managers (PBMs) to push their drugs, even in cases where they knew they could...
View ArticleFixing the Media and Campaign Spending by the Rich
Virtually everyone, except Elon Musk, agrees that the rich have too much political power these days. When a single individual can put tens or even hundreds of millions of dollars behind their favored...
View ArticleTrump Wants to Make Us Pay More for Oil and Gas
That is the implication of his latest threatened taxes on imports. Trump issued his threat on Truth Social, where he said that he would raise our taxes on the goods we import from Europe, unless...
View ArticleA Quick Note on Trade and Inequality
Oren Cass, the head economist of Compass, had a column in the New York Times today touting Donald Trump’s proposed tariffs. The gist of the piece is that “free trade” has not worked out as economists’...
View ArticleSenator Chris Coons and the Cult of Patent Monopolies
Last week, Delaware Senator Chris Coons, the chair of the Senate Subcommittee on Intellectual Property, made an assertion about the nature of patents that is flat out wrong. Senator Coons said: “OUR...
View ArticleThe New York Times Doesn’t Know About the Affordable Care Act
That is the only possible conclusion from this NYT column on the difficulty that people in the restaurant industry face getting health care insurance. The piece literally does not mention the...
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Best Bet for 2025: Stronger Trade Ties Between Europe and China
One development for 2025 that can be seen clearly in the crystal ball is improving trade ties between China and Europe. The reason this is a virtual certainty is Donald Trump is doing everything he can...
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Stock Market and Budget Projections: Do the Numbers Add Up?
It’s been a while since we’ve had Mr. Arithmetic here, but with Donald Trump coming back to the White House, we may need him around. The immediate reason for consulting his expertise is the projections...
View ArticleRevising NYT History on Democrats Losing the Working Class
The New York Times had a lengthy piece giving a story on how the Democrats lost the support of working-class voters over the last three decades. The essence of the argument is that working-class voters...
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