By: Alasdair Macleod In seeking to measure everything, econometricians gave us the dubious gift of gross national product and gross domestic product, the latter being in fashion today and the former in times past. Although there are different ways of measuring it, GDP is commonly taken as a measure of spending, comprised of household spending, […]
Austrian Economics
The establishment still can’t define inflation correctly
By: Frank Shostak Inflation is typically defined as a general increase in the prices of goods and services—described by changes in the Consumer Price Index (CPI) or other price indexes. If inflation is a general rise in measured prices, then why is it regarded as bad news? What kind of damage can it inflict? Mainstream […]
Ex-Federal Reserve president pushes basic income, tax cuts
Hey, two out of three ain’t bad! Narayana Kocherlakota, president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Minneapolis from 2009 to 2015, is prescribing public policy panaceas to rescue the U.S. economy from the doldrums of the coronavirus pandemic. If you remember, last time he encouraged the Fed to adopt subzero interest rates. Now he is […]
The Federal Reserve, central banks are destroying what’s left of free markets
By: Alasdair Macleod President Reagan memorably said that the nine words you don’t want to hear are “I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.” Governments in all the major jurisdictions are now making good on that unwanted promise and are taking responsibility for everything from our shoulders. Those receiving subsidies and loan guarantees […]
Dumping milk, killing livestock in the middle of COVID-19 pandemic
By: Andrew Moran In the middle of this pandemic, milk is poured down the drain, livestock is euthanized, and vegetables are plowed over. Supermarket shelves are not as well-stocked as they were only a few months ago, while food banks are having difficulty meeting the uptick in demand. It is so rough out there that […]