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News
Recent posts and articles from IGEG fellows, advisers, experts and scholars.
Biden and Yellen’s Nutty Corporate Tax Rate Plan Administration proposes raising rates, proving they're not as smart as Trump economic team
In 2020, a great global pandemic descended upon the Earth. It not only affected people’s bodies, leading to death in many of the elderly, but also caused the global political class to lose a non-negligible number of IQ points. The open question is: “Is their new...
Biden’s Proposed Infrastructure Spending Is Wasteful, Destructive and Corrupt Government should spend $2 trillion, but where did this number come from?
How much should the U.S. spend on infrastructure projects? President Biden has just proposed to have the government spend approximately $2 trillion dollars on “infrastructure” projects. Where did this number come from? Homeowners frequently need to spend money on...
Americans will Suffer from Biden and Democrats’ Latest Uninformed Decisions Government leaders often fail to understand what information is needed, and they often ignore it for political reasons
Why would an insurance company pay a private meteorological company a fee to provide them with information — about the likelihood of a hurricane landfall and severity and timing in a specific location — when the Weather Bureau provides the information for free? The...
World has Paid a Terrible Price for the Tyranny of COVID-19 ‘Experts’ Lockdowns have been costly for billions of people
On average, people live longer in richer and freer countries than they do in poor ones. Knowing this, does it make sense to deliberately make a country poorer? How strong should the wing be on a jetliner? The wing needs to be strong enough not to break off given the...
Latest ‘COVID Relief Bill’ Filled with Destructive and Odious Provisions When equal justice, civil disobedience and liberty become entangled
The new Congress seems intent on passing laws that will result in massive civil disobedience. Most people, when confronted with an unjust law or one that infringes on what they view as an essential liberty, will not take to the streets like a violent Black Lives...
Heritage Foundation Confirms Americans Losing Economic Freedom Annual index shows the U.S. recording its lowest ranking ever
The numbers show — feeling that you are less free is not an illusion. Ed Feulner, the long-term and now retired president of The Heritage Foundation, wrote in The Wall Street Journal this past week: “Hong Kong sat atop the Heritage Foundation’s annual Index of...
Inflation Cruelty and the Evil Capital Gains Tax There are many problems with taxing capital gains, particularly in the way the U.S. does it
One needs to be very ignorant of economics or mean-spirited to think it is permissible to tax people on real wealth losses. Yet, tens of millions of Americans are subject to such abuse each year — through the combined cruel taxes of inflation and capital gains....
How an Increase in Inflation Affects the Average American Biden administration policies are likely to cause the price of energy and many other goods and services to increase
Will inflation increase, and if so, how will it affect you? The short answer is that many economists, including yours truly, expect inflation to increase. Most measures of human activity get better over time, but not inflation numbers — more on this below. Economists...
How Much Should Taxpayers Be Forced to Spend to Militarize D.C.? Nearly a half-billion dollars of taxpayer money in last six weeks
Should taxpayers be forced to spend approximately 1 million dollars to protect each member of the House and Senate in the absence of specific threats to justify such expenditures? According to the AP, nearly a half-billion dollars of your money has been spent on the...
The ‘Non-Crisis’ Reality of Climate Change It is simply not the danger it's made out to be, especially relative to greater dangers
In the next 50 years, what do you think is more likely to kill you: a pandemic; a major war, including the use of nuclear, biological or electronic weapons; the income-destroying effects of a global economic meltdown or the effects of global warming? If you really...
How ‘Social Justice’ Stopped the Keystone XL Pipeline
It is rather ironic that those most active in trying to repress the freedom of speech and thought of others are most often found in the academy, high-tech information giants, and the press — or precisely those who ought to be the strongest defenders of liberty. Why is...
Raising the Minimum Wage: The Cruelest Tax on Job Growth
It is unlikely that President Biden and his advisers dislike the young, uneducated and unskilled, but their proposal to double the minimum wage to $15 per hour is unspeakably mean. It pains me that once again I need to give a basic tutorial on supply and demand; but...
Offsetting the Misery of the U.S. Government’s Spending Disaster Stimulus checks coupled with government-induced shortages could lead to higher rates of inflation
The persistent myth is that government spending increases economic growth when, in fact, it slows growth beyond a certain point. The myth is based on an old Keynesian theory argument that if there are unemployed people, the government can boost employment by giving...
‘You are not allowed to read this’ Big Tech operates as an oligopoly when they shut down Parler
Do you have freedom of speech if you have no means of distributing your ideas to large numbers of others? An unprecedented attack on freedom of speech is now underway, primarily by private oligopolists working in concert with their political allies. Before the fall of...
Gauging the Return of Inflation in a Post-Pandemic America The Fed, the Administration and Congress must extinguish excess pandemic money to avoid inflation
Will inflation in the U.S. return in a big way? Inflation is a rise in the average price level, caused by an increase in the supply and/or velocity of money. If a central bank like the Fed increases the money supply at a faster rate than the economy is producing...
When will the COVID-19 Pandemic Be Over? U.S. will reach herd immunity when 56.5% of the population is immune
The pandemic will be over when the U.S. reaches herd immunity. Herd immunity is the level of individual immunity where the spread of the disease from person to person becomes unlikely, and results in the whole community becoming protected, even those who are not...
2020 has Been Horrible, but It Could have Been Worse
The year 2020 has been horrible — but it could have been worse. Approximately one-tenth of 1% of the population of the U.S. has died as a result of the COVID-19 virus — which is a great tragedy — but by historical standards it is barely measurable. During the Black...
How America’s ‘Useful Idiots’ Allow China to Ignore Environmental and Human Rights Reform
Two decades ago, most economists — including me — believed that as a country became richer it would likely become more democratic and more protective of basic human rights and liberty. After all, we had seen South Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Chile and most of the...