I have decided to shut the Daily Capitalist down and this is our last post. I have been publishing this blog for 5 years and, as they say, it’s fun until it isn’t. Think of a blog like a newspaper where readers expect new content every day. That takes quite a bit of time and […]
The great economist James M. Buchanan died yesterday. He was truly a great thinker. You can read about his importance by comments from Robert Higgs and and Tom Dilorenzo.
Here are some excerpts from Cato that discuss the importance of his work.
Nobel Prize-winning economist James M. Buchanan died on Wednesday at the age of […]
President Obama nominated Jacob “Jack” Lew as his new Treasury secretary. I couldn’t find any real information about his economic views, but I am confident he will follow the well worn trail established by his predecessor, Tim Geithner, and other Neo-Keynesians that populate mainstream economics in our capitol.
This is fro…
Congress broke a rancorous stalemate Tuesday to pass legislation designed to avert the so-called fiscal cliff. But the compromise bill, which blocked most impending tax increases and postponed spending cuts largely by raising taxes on upper-income Americans, left a host of issues unresolved and guaranteed continued budget clashes between the parti…
Nothing happened.
I was hoping that we would go over the fiscal cliff because taxes would go up on everyone. I think everyone should suffer the pain of paying for the government’s uncontrollable spending. Perhaps the “middle class”, whom politicians believe are clueless, would then start to think about the future of our co…
As readers of the Daily Capitalist know I, as a purveyor of unconventional economic wisdom, have a different take on … well, (almost) everything. I have some thoughts on the year 2012, a retrospective if you will of the really important economic issues in 2012. I and others here have written extensively about these issues […]
This excerpt from Delanceyplace.com is from a biography of Deng Xiaoping (Deng Xiaoping and the Transformation of China by Ezra F. Vogel). Mao’s radicalism had destroyed China and the country was facing catastrophe when he took over. This brings up my youthful struggles with the age old argument of man versus history. The argument I […]
Is gift giving during Christmas and Hanukkah a wasteful practice by which we just crave status from friends and family? Is it a harmless, even joyful, practice to bestow goodwill and joy on the ones we love? Is it a giant commercial venture by which retailers encourage us to part with dollars in an orgy […]
This excellent article by Austrian theory economist Frank Shostak appeared Friday on Mises.org. — JH
Bernanke Loosens Up
December 21, 2012
On Wednesday December 12, 2012 Fed policy makers announced that they will boost their main stimulus tool by adding $45 billion of monthly Treasury purchases to an existing program to buy …
Insanity
n. Mental illness of such a severe nature that a person cannot distinguish fantasy from reality, cannot conduct her/his affairs due to psychosis, or is subject to uncontrollable impulsive behavior. (See here.)
The above is a legal definition as distinguished from the popular quote (misattributed to Albert Einstein), “…
I am sure that all of you are as shocked and saddened as I am by the mass murders of little children and their teachers at Sandy Hook Elementary School. It is very difficult to read about this tragedy and the precious young lives that were lost. It is one of those events that stops the […]
A bit of humor from Andy Borowitz in the New Yorker. Enjoy.
Billionaires Warn Higher Taxes Could Prevent Them From Buying Politicians
Posted by Andy Borowitz
WASHINGTON (The Borowitz Report)—Introducing a new wrinkle into the already fraught fiscal cliff showdown, a consortium of billionaires today warned that if their taxes…
This wonderful video was produced by John Papola who produced the Fight of the Century (Hayek v. Keynes) videos with Russ Roberts. Here he gives us a Christmas gift on the fallacy of consumption as the road to wealth and prosperity. Enjoy!
[…]
We all have been following the dance in Washington about the budget problem that makes headlines every day about how Congress and the Obama Administration are heading for a fiscal cliff. Savvy political observers say that Obama has the upper hand in this fight to lay more taxes upon the rich. The more frantic say […]
This Bloomberg article is like a roadmap for destroying an economy. France under François Hollande is the Progressive’s ideal state where the “rich” pay for the poor’s welfare benefits. One could say it is the same roadmap that Obama’s Progressive agenda is following. It is one that fails to understand how economies …
The title of this piece relates to an article in the City Journal, a book review of The Victims’ Revolution: The Rise of Identity Studies and the Closing of the Liberal Mind, a book that presupposes that our culture has become degraded, and questions why that is. The presumed answer is that the mainspring of […]
This article originally appeared in my regular column in a local newspaper. — JH
I’ve been sulking ever since the elections. Just about everything and everyone I voted for lost. Locally the opposition Republicans ran mostly bad candidates and lost everywhere. But so did the Democrats and they won. For the record I […]
This is the third anniversary of this Thanksgiving message to readers.
Every year celebrations of Thanksgiving give thanks for the blessings of God for our well-being. As a skeptic, curmudgeon, and capitalist, I attribute my blessings to free market capitalism. I believe America’s success is the result of two ideas and ideals: human […
Free markets = spontaneous organization + free trade + specialization of labor + capital + entrepreneurship. In his 1958 essay, “I Pencil” Foundation for Economic Education founder Leonard Read told the story of the simple pencil, and the complex process which brought it into existence. It’s a classic, aimed at children, but I ur…
This is not a good statistic. This is the latest data from the OECD. Note that this is a relative statistical construct (2006=100). While 2006 was not a bad year in the U.S., relative to other countries we are flatlining. In France start-up rates were boosted in 2009 and 2010 by new legislation supporting auto-entrepreneurs. […]
Diversified Asset Allocation Portfolios For Your Plans
| Vanguard ETF: | 10%* |  |
| Diversified Core: | 11%* | |
| Six Core Asset ETFs: | 10%* | |
Bogleheads Latest Posts