03/04/2021
Today David Catron, American Spectator Experts told us our salvation from COVID required draconian measures such as school closures, stay-at-home orders, and business lockdowns. |
Matt Stieb, New York Magazine Businesses in Texas and Mississippi can still set occupancy limits and require masks despite Abbott and Reeves orders. The end of most COVID restrictions in Texas and Mississippi predict challenges states will face as reopening occurs this year. |
Alan Reynolds, AIER Vaccines for flu, pneumonia, hepatitis, and other diseases are normally purchased and distributed efficiently by private physicians, drug stores and clinics. In the case of the Covid-19 vaccine, though, governments relied on central planning and long waiting lines. Federal officials monopolized the purchase and distribution of vaccines which were sent to state governments, which micromanaged distribution of vaccines to their counties. Vaccines were then rationed by political preferences (such as defining some jobs as more essential than others) and by random luck after spending hours... |
John Tamny, RealClearMarkets Cato Institute co-founder Ed Crane has long argued that it's hard to be informed about politics and economics without reading the Washington Post and New York Times. Crane's viewpoint may strike some as odd given the slant of both newspapers mentioned, but it's really not. He reminds skeptics that both publications employ extraordinarily talented people, and while they may not share his libertarianism, they report crucial information. All that, plus Crane's view is that reading the Post and Times is the equivalent of being allowed into "the other team's huddle." Evan Osnos is a former... |
Patrick Carroll, Foundation for Economic Education In a typical year the world emits over 51 billion tons of greenhouse gases, and as we keep doing that, the consequences for human life will be catastrophic." So begins the promotional video for Bill Gates's new book, How to Avoid a Climate Disaster. It's a harrowing thought, really, that the world could be on the brink of catastrophe. But Gates is optimistic that we can mitigate the climate crisis if we take the right steps in the coming years. |
Blanche Lincoln, RealClearMarkets As members of my party prepare the legislative calendar for the coming year in Congress, I encourage policymakers to remember the principle long embraced by leaders across the aisle: a recession is the wrong time to raise taxes. Noted economists like Mark Zandi - to whom leaders like President Joe Biden and Speaker Pelosi turn for sound, impartial analysis - agree. Per Zandi's recent recommendation, Congress "shouldn't allow any tax increases to take effect for several more years…anything that could potentially be an impediment to getting this economy fully up and running." |
Jim Stergios & Charles Chieppo, RCPolicy After a year of living with the COVID-19 pandemic, we're finally seeing signs of hope, as more Americans get vaccinated. While most of us may return to something approaching normal soon, it... |
Mark Anthony, RealClearMarkets Anyone involved in cryptocurrency dreams of the day when crypto "goes mainstream." It's a day we all fantasize about: CNBC runs crypto prices right alongside stock prices on their tickers; coffee shops accept payment in crypto; your bank accepts crypto deposits in the same account as your cash deposits; retirement accounts are diversified into crypto; and paychecks are given out in the form of crypto or fiat, whichever you'd prefer. Are we there yet? Surprisingly, we're getting close. A few years back in 2017, we saw Bitcoin break into the mainstream culture for the first time. The price... |
Alexander Salter, Washington Examiner Inflation is low, yet, inflation fears are growing. Especially as Democrats begin the final push of their $1.9 trillion stimulus package, commenters on the Right and Left predict generalized price increases. |
Matt Phillips, New York Times The markets are stressed at the prospect of an economic rebound, which is forcing investors to reassess their holdings. |
Joy Wiltermuth, MarketWatch This chart shows why the S&P 500's bull market run may be both too short lived and too limited, in terms of price gains, to be over anytime soon. |
Market Minder, Fisher Investments Value stock enthusiasts seem to be overlooking some fundamental headwinds. |
Carrie Schwab-Pomerantz, Schwab The Saver's Credit is like a retirement match from Uncle Samâ?"if you qualify. Here's what you need to know. |
Jim Masturzo, Research Affiliates We compare the current value of bonds versus stocks within the context of the equity risk premium. We couple this analysis with an evaluation of possible Fed policy direction. Our conclusion is that risk assets, such as US equities and corporate bonds, are poised to benefit as are gold and other commodities due to tumbling real yields and dollar weakening. |
Various, The Roofstock Team Startups are a significant driver of the U.S. economy. Each year, thousands of entrepreneurs launch new businesses that create jobs and spur innovation and efficiency across the market. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, more than 420,000 startups accounted for 2.2 million new jobs in 2018. |
Richard Moody, Regions Bank |
Liz Ann Sonders, Charles Schwab Looking at the latest economic data reveals V-shaped recoveries in many goods-based indicators; while services has more catch-up to do. |
Troy Bombardia, Fundamental Capital What a week it has been! Various markets saw noticeable declines on news of rising yields. The strong upward trend for stocks is finally taking a long-overdue breather and so is extreme sentiment. |
Pat O'Hare, Briefing.com Savings are fuel. |
Fisher Investments Editorial Staff, Fisher Investments |
Fisher Investments Editorial Staff, Fisher Investments |
Fisher Investments Editorial Staff, Fisher Investments |
Fisher Investments Editorial Staff, Fisher Investments |
Benjamin Powell, The Hill The U.S. government should encourage the growth of the private sector in Cuba by repealing its 60-year-old embargo and allowing U.S. businesses to trade with the newly freed Cuban entrepreneurs. |
Thomas Hogan, AIER The deregulation of the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT) region has been held up as a model for electrical utility reform. As economist Jay Zarnikau describes, ERCOT "is generally considered to be the most successful of the restructured retail electricity markets in North America." Yet recent weather-induced blackouts and anticipated price increases are causing many to question whether deregulation has benefited Texas consumers. |
Matt Egan, CNN John Kerry had some tough talk for the leaders of Big Oil. The message: embrace clean energy or get left behind. |
Nicholas Umashev, Fdn for Econ Edu. As I avoided the potholes, ignored the sounds of guns, and walked past beggars throughout the streets of New Orleans, I could not help but be reminded of my travels in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. With their mass poverty and crumbling infrastructure, the two cities differ in one key area: Phnom Penh is in a developing country and New Orleans is in a developed country. |
Paul Krugman, The New York Times Learning from subprime, health care and electricity. |
O.H. Skinner, Washington Times Like a storyline from a TV show or a movie, government attorneys or trial lawyers file a high-profile lawsuit to get justice and compensation for aggrieved victims. Unfortunately, these stories too often miss out on a Hollywood ending. |
Thomas Brewster, Forbes Founded by Google veterans and backed by $340 million from major VCs, Skydio is creating drones that seem straight out of science fictionâ?"and they could end up in your neighborhood soon. |
Mark Hulbert, MarketWatch Warren Buffett?s favored market valuation measure is warning stock investors, no matter how you slice it |
Sam Swenson, Motley Fool Now that tax season is upon us, it's time to better understand the ways in which your investments can cause your tax bill to increase. It's a good idea to think about how to engineer a portfolio in such a way that it gives you the returns you want with a limited tax burden. Here, we'll take a look at four ways to minimize the taxes associated with your investments. |
Robert Wright, American Institute for Economic Research All taxes are "bad" in the sense that they distort economic activity. This suggests that to maximize human happiness, a.k.a prosperity, governments should remain as small as possible and tax in the least distortionary way possible. As governments grow (rightly or not), the quest for the LBT or "Least Bad Tax" (a subset of Optimal Tax Theory) becomes all the more important. One putative LBT candidate, taxes on "sin" levied to ameliorate social problems like "excessive" consumption of X, promise more than it has delivered. |
Bradley Smith, Washington Examiner China's latest technological innovations dovetail all too neatly with its anti-democratic practices. As has widely been reported, Beijing exploits tech to surveil and spy on its citizens, publicly shame those who owe debt or commit minor infractions such as jaywalking, implement social credit score systems, and censor dissent. |
Tyler, Portfolio Charts How to invest like Neo. |
Scott Sumner, The Money Illusion In the old days, we knew how to fix a book that had become dated. Today we'd rather just cancel the book and engage in self-righteous moral grandstanding. |
James Picerno, The Capital Spectator Is it time to act? |
Charlie Bilello, Compound Advisors US National Debt has crossed above $28 trillion for the first time, increasing $4.6 trillion over the last year. |
Andrew Dickson, Financial Times That sure would be nice, wouldn't it? If we all could just sit back and take our money out of 99 per cent of our investments and all plough it in the same 1 per cent that everyone else already knows about, and then expect to outperform. |
Ironman, Political Calculations February 2021 saw the lowest number of dividend rises announced in any February of the past eight years. |
Nick Maggiulli, Of Dollars & Data On calculating your lifetime investment returns and why absolute performance is all that matters. |
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