According to Elizabeth Warren, we have a problem. And like every good central planner, she believes she can fix it.
In fact, Warren has made, “I have a plan for that,” a campaign slogan.
These people never learn. They try to micromanage the economy, create all kinds of unseen consequences, blame “capitalism,” and repeat the process.
José Niño was born in Venezuela and his family has experienced the impacts of socialism first hand. But was it “real socialism?”
On this episode of It’s Your Dime, José and host Mike Maharrey talk about it.
José had the good fortune of leaving Venezuela before it descended into chaos. After reading the tea leaves and realizing that the country was heading down the path of political turmoil, José’s parents brought his family to the US in search of better opportunities.
As I write this, Hurricane Dorian is taking aim at Florida. What’s fun about that? you might ask. Well, nothing. And I don’t want to minimize the potential for disaster. But the hurricane hasn’t hit yet and the runup to a storm provides a lot of amusement and some educational moments. I just can’t resist.
Raising the minimum wage might be good politics, but it’s bad economics – despite what some economists say.
Last week, the Maryland legislature overrode the governor’s veto and adopted a $15 per hour minimum wage. It was a major victory for the “Fight for $15” crowd, but it almost certainly won’t be for low-skilled workers — at least not the ones who whose maximum wage will be $0 per hour because they cannot find jobs.
Context is key.
During last week’s Friday Gold Wrap podcast, Mike Maharrey emphasized the importance of understanding sound economic theory. Without a firm grasp of basic economic principles, it becomes impossible to properly evaluate any observations you make and to properly interpret economic data. As economist Frank Shostak put it in a recent article published at the Mises Wire, “In order to really make sense of the data one must have a theory, which stands on its own feet, and did not originate from the data. By means of a theory, one could scrutinize the data and could then try to make sense out of it.”
Shostak goes on to explain the most fundamental economic concept and how we can use the framework of “human action” to better understand economic data.
Central bankers and politicians think they can run the economy.
They can’t.
In this episode of the Friday Gold Wrap, host Mike Maharrey digs into some fundamental economic theories that explain why these central planners will always fail, no matter how noble their intentions.
The Democrats led by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez released their “Green New Deal” last week. As Peter Schiff put it in his latest podcast, the Green New Deal is really red – as in socialist red.
The whole thing is an economic train wreck.
It’s masterful politics though.
If you have studied economics at all, or if you are interested in conservative/libertarian political philosophy, you have probably heard of F.A. Hayek.
Hayek won the Nobel Prize in 1974 and wrote prolifically on both economic and non-economic topics. He’s probably best known for his book “A Road to Serfdom.”
Tom Woods recently interviewed economist Joseph Salerno about this important figure in economic and political theory.
The SchiffGold Friday Gold Wrap podcast combines a succinct summary of the week’s precious metals news coupled with thoughtful analysis. You can subscribe to the podcast on iTunes.
As we’ve noted before, Keynesian central planners suffer from fatal conceit. They think they are smart enough to plan and direct the economy better than the free market. When you boil it all down, these people believe they can do a better job of making your economic decisions than you can. After all, a free market is nothing more than the aggregate of all of our individual economic choices. Paul Krugman serves as the poster child for central planning arrogance, but another Nobel Prize-winning central planner is making a name for himself by tearing down the free market. Joseph Stiglitz claims capitalism is “rigged.” But as economist Bill Anderson shows in an article recently published on the Mises Wire, Stiglitz has got it completely wrong. Capitalism – in the true sense of the word – isn’t rigged. Socialism is.
