The latest estimates are that approximately 30 percent of the global government bond issues are now trading in negative territory. Last week, Swiss 50-year borrowing costs fell below zero percent, which means that Switzerland’s entire government bond market now trades...

“In France, everything is denied except what is permitted. In the U.S., everything is permitted except what is denied.” Neither statement is entirely true, of course, but the ability of individuals to take care of themselves when government fails does vary...

Did you ever see some old stock certificates from more than a half-century ago? Many of them would have an engraving of a factory spewing smoke from one or more chimneys. This was meant to imply industrial might with an enterprise that employed many workers. Now, if...

“The hell with it! There ain’t no sin and there ain’t no virtue. There’s just stuff people do. It’s all part of the same thing. And some of the things folks do is nice, and some ain’t nice, but that’s as far as any man got a right to say.” — John Steinbeck “Grapes of...

If the world as we know it is going to end in 12 years, should you pay your college loans back? When we were small children, before we had learned the laws of physics and economics, we thought everything was possible. Fantasyland could be real, so we thought. Twenty...

Most people plod through life, having an impact on their family and friends, but not much on the rest of humanity. Rulers and despots can impact most everyone’s life, as can those who are responsible for great scientific or engineering breakthroughs. Some musicians...

Mankind’s penchant for hoaxes goes back at least as far as recorded history. Some hoaxes are harmless and funny, but others do great damage, including causing massive loss of life. Among the harmless and funny was the “Naked Came the Stranger” hoax. Back in 1969, a...

Never underestimate fear of financial loss as a motivator. Last week in this column, I argued that the threat to place tariffs on Mexican goods was a bad idea because there are less risky and destructive ways to deal with the immigration problem on the U.S. southern...

For more than two centuries, economists and well-read people have understood that tariffs reduce the levels of competitiveness and prosperity. Adam Smith (1723-1790) explained how free trade (by increasing the extent of the market) enabled greater specialization and...

People are easily taken in by scientific, literary, financial and political hoaxes, particularly when they want to believe. When we search for “truth,” we tend to rely on authority and whether information supplied by the source has been accurate in the past. Serious...

Sensible people make sure they understand the exit strategy when making an investment. Too often, people lock themselves into investments, like timeshares, vehicle loans, real estate purchases, etc. for far longer than they wish they had. The same is also true for...

For most people, particularly in the United States, things have never been better. Yet, the newspapers and airwaves are filled with stories of impending disaster. Many of the doomsday scenarios have been around for some time but doomsday has yet to arrive. We were...

Athens: Europe’s most significant contribution to the world economy at the moment is serving as a bad example. Much of Western culture and law can trace its origin back to this city of 2,500 years ago. The ancient Athenians learned that democracy is fragile and can...

All too rarely do government leaders fully think through the effects of their actions — extraterritorial application of law being a prime example. If a U.S. citizen engages in bank fraud in Germany, clearly the Germans have a right to prosecute him. But does the U.S....

There are some plagues that mankind seems to be incapable of fully destroying. One of these plagues is slavery, which has existed since man moved from being a hunter-gatherer to agriculture. Slavery is the condition where an individual is deprived of much of the...

Everyone has heard of the Federal Reserve Bank or “The Fed” and that it has something to do with the value of our money — and so it must be very important. But few even claim to really understand what the Fed does and how it does it. This past week, The Economist...

How much will the stock market rise this year? As an economist, I frequently get variations of that question. If I am honest and say “I have no idea,” the questioner most often walks away with a disappointed look. If I say something like “10.4 percent,” the questioner...

Three decades ago, the socialist/communist economies of Eastern Europe died, not with a bang as many had feared, but with a whimper. It was obvious that the economies of those countries were falling further and further behind their Western Europe counterparts — and...