Economic History
Next Entries »I Give Thanks
Thursday, November 23rd, 2017It’s always a good thing to stop and examine our lives. Thanksgiving reminds us to see all we have instead of what we lack. Many of us get into the bad habit of concentrating on the negative instead of the positive.  Today, Modern America provides many reasons to give thanks. If we take a short […]
Conservatives Really Don’t Care About the Deficit
Tuesday, May 10th, 2016Â Just like Reagan, Trump does not care abut the debt or the deficit. Throw money at rich people, and it’ll trickle down. The revenue losses understate the total effect on the national debt because they do not include the additional interest that would accrue as a result. Including interest costs, the proposal would add $11.2 […]
Obama, Debt and History
Thursday, October 18th, 2012Obama is not perfect, but we have 4000 years of human civilization to tell us he is on the right side. No society, including the Soviet Union, had a hard time making sure a few people are rich and powerful. Only Liberal American (1932-1968) and those Nasty European Social Democracies found a way to allow […]
Krugman’s EUROmess Summary
Saturday, February 25th, 2012“There are basically three stories about the euro crisis in wide circulation: the Republican story, the German story, and the truth.” The Republican story is that it’s all about excessive welfare states. OK, the German story is that it’s about fiscal profligacy, running excessive deficits. Finally, let’s look at the balance of payments — the […]
The Bell Tolls for Europe, Who Will listen?
Tuesday, February 21st, 2012No man is an island, entire of itself…any man’s death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee. John Donne (1572-1631) Europe is slowly committing suicide. After 50 years of seeking a common path forward, nationalism is dividing Europe once […]
How to tell Conservatives are lying about the housing bubble.
Saturday, January 28th, 2012I modified Mark Zandi’s chartto add what would have happened if conservatives were right about the causes of the housing bubble. Frannie’s and Freddie’s market share would have gone up, while private firms’ share would have gone down.   Blaming FF is not only dishonest, but it prevents us from stopping future scams. If conservatives succeed […]
Greeks lead Western Revolution?
Wednesday, November 2nd, 2011Writing about the future is much harder than writing about the past. Sometimes, however, certain patterns become familiar. Events in Greece are one such pattern. This is how revolutions start. It seems the Greeks have reached their “1932” moment. Average Greeks now know another attempt to “balance the budget” will makes things worse not better. […]
A Brief History of Fiscal Responsibility
Wednesday, August 31st, 2011While crisis economics requires government spending to lessen the damage done to average Americans, sound fiscal policy requires several long-term strategies. Over the last thirty years, Washington policy makers, like American businessmen, have put short-term, temporary gains ahead of long-term, sustainable progress. Solving our problems requires a clear understanding of America’s fiscal history. Liberalism solved […]
Exposing Reagan’s Big Lie
Wednesday, August 17th, 2011Several years ago, a former neighbor, Joe Abraham had an idea. He wanted history taught backwards. Instead of starting with past events and coming to the present, he suggested starting with current events and working backwards. As a professional historian, this method just didn’t feel right. My training at USL and LSU had always focused […]
Condensing Friedrich Hayek: How Popularization Radicalized Austrian Economics
Wednesday, March 9th, 2011In a 1984 interview John O’Sullivan asked Friedrich Hayek to explain the contradiction between the reality of English freedom and his argument that economic planning leads down the Road to Serfdom. Sullivan pointed out that since World War Two, the United Kingdom had adopted “increasing control over industry, over planning, over education, over the provision […]
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