With November getting nearer by the day, it’s hard to avoid at least hearing if not participating in heated debates over which candidate would do better on this or that issue.  Everybody has their opinion on which candidate would be best for the economy, but usually the arguments you hear are based more on emotion [...]

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Much has been made of the falling U.S. dollar, especially against the euro, British pound, and Canadian dollar.  Why is this happening and what can we do about it?  There are a few fundamental reasons for the dollar’s demise and a few (painful) remedies.
I must start by pointing out that fiat currencies, such as the [...]

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Damned if you do, damned if you don’t.  The Federal Reserve catches a lot of flack for its loose monetary policy and inflationary actions, and perhaps rightfully so.  There is little doubt inflation will accelerate over the intermediate future as years of too-low interest rates manifest themselves in the form of consumer price inflation.  Nobody [...]

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Misconception:  The CPI does not include food or energy prices.
Yes it does.  There are many different CPI indices used for different purposes.  There is one, the CPI Core index, that excludes food, energy, and other volatile products to make it easier to see short-term inflation trends, but this is by no means the only or [...]

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Inflation gets a bad rap.  Sure, runaway inflation is horrible for any economy; nobody is denying that.  But is inflation always bad for society?  Many, if not most, of economists think not.  In fact, inflation can have some powerfully positive effects on the economy.  Following are some of the most-commonly cited benefits of inflation.
Is Moderate Inflation [...]

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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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