The North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) was the Pièce de résistance of the Clinton presidency and is likely to form the major part of his legacy.  While I have my problems with it (is it REALLY a free trade agreement?), it did represent a symbolic step forward in the drift towards globalization.  I say [...]

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Before the Fair Tax advocates attack me as being uninformed, first let me tell you I am actually for the Fair Tax, or at least some form of consumption tax instead of the current income tax system.  Unfortunately, the Fair Tax proposal in its current incarnation has a few serious flaws, some of them unintentionally [...]

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Ah, the age-old question:  do the rich pay their fair share in taxes?  Many liberals argue that they don’t, saying the rich owe their success to the efforts of the poor and middle class and should bear a higher percentage of the tax burden in gratitude.  On the opposite side of the spectrum, most conservatives [...]

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For centuries, mankind has been obsessed with shiny pieces of metal known as gold.  Even today, investors the globe over often flee to gold in times of economic instability because it has often functioned well as a hedge against inflation and a falling currency.  True to form, gold has been on a tear of late, [...]

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April 2008 inflation numbers were released by the BLS recently, causing quite a stir.  According to the BLS, the official CPI-U index (yes, this index includes food and energy) was up a moderate 3.9% over the past year and a worrisome 0.6% since March.  The biggest inflationary offenders over the last year are dairy products up [...]

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According to popular tradition, one particularly harmful affect of a depreciating dollar is the prospect of an uptick in consumer price inflation.  Denial of this self-evident truth is usually met with a vitriolic tirade of ad hominem attacks, straw men arguments, and comments about the sobriety of your mother during pregnancy.  Yet, just how much [...]

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You’ve no doubt heard about the proposed gas tax holiday supported by presidential candidates Hillary Clinton and John McCain but opposed by Barack Obama.  I’m going to have to side with Obama on this one.  A gas tax holiday is by far the dumbest idea to ever come out of a presidential candidate, and that’s [...]

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I got quite a bit of negative feedback to my post Calculate Your Personal Inflation Rate because in it I stated that inflation numbers are not, in fact, manipulated by the government.  Well, that statement really upset the tin-foil-hat conspiracy theorists.  I got a few emails telling me how wrong I am without any supporting evidence.  I got some [...]

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We’ve already seen how recessions can be good for consumers, but recessions actually serve a much larger purpose.  Capitalism, at its root, is all about the efficient allocation of scarce resources.  In a free-market capitalist society, capital naturally flows wherever promises to give the highest return.  If manufacturing companies are having trouble competing  in the [...]

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Recessions get a bum rap. People lose their jobs, their homes lose value, their savings account pays peanuts, and the media predicts the end of the world on the hour. But there are several reasons you should welcome a recession,  some selfish and some selfless. Let’s start with the selfish reasons you might welcome a [...]

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