I’m the Pied Piper, follow me

There are different versions of the legendary story, but the Lüneburg Chronicle records that it was on June 26th, 1284, Saint John and Paul’s day, that the Pied Piper took away 130 children of the town of Hamelin, luring them after him with his melodic pipe, and took them into a cave, from which they were never seen again.The tragic event was recorded on a stained-glass window, circa 1300, in the Hamelin church where the adults were at prayer...

Commercial Republicanism: A New Center-Right Governing Philosophy

Editor’s Note: The following essay is reprinted with permission from the Niskanen’s Center “Defending the Open Society” series. Read more here. You can read more from Robert S. Taylor on republican political theory in his new book,Exit Left: Markets and Mobility in Republican Thought. The 2016 elections transformed the Republican Party—and not for the better. A party that had been deeply committed since Goldwater and Reagan to the open...

What is Heterodox Economics and what is its relationship to Mainline Economics?

I just returned from the annual History of Economic Society meetings at Columbia University. It was a great meeting if you ask me, but also very revealing.  Europeans scholars dominated the attendance, especially for younger scholars, and the number of none economists actively engaged in research in the history of economics and political economy is staggering.  This has been an evolving trend, but it was particularly striking to me at this...

The Donald’s Latest Iranian Caper—Shit-Faced Stupidity

[KR1400] Keiser Report: The Gold/Silver Ratio

In this episode of the Keiser Report, Max and Stacy discuss what central bankers have wrought by printing fresh money for the assets rich as demonstrated by Donald Trump’s Beverly Hills property increasing in value by 1.2% per month and doubling in about a decade. While the elite make off with the asset price gains, governments are driven into bankruptcy by the same financial collapse which enriched these elites and they are now shaking down...

On Bank Size and Bank Asset Holdings

We have so far explored the relatively recent decline in the large number of banks in the US, as well as the long-term institutional factors that likely contributed.. In this last post, we examine the allocation of bank assets across the economy, including the role of bank size on small business lending. Assets in Banks, Thrifts, and Bank Holding Companies In our second post, we showed that the number of banks and thrifts, as well as the...

Understanding the Tax Man: The Gold & Silver Buying Guide & $10K Reporting Myth

You may have heard that you can’t purchase more than $10,000 worth of gold without it being reported to the IRS.This is a myth.You  avoid IRS reporting requirements, even on large-scale purchases. You just have to know the rules. Our revised provide the information you need to navigate the complex world of IRS reporting. You’ll learn:The truth about $10K reporting requirements.What kind of sales transactions trigger IRS reporting.How to buy...

Potpourri

I have a lot going on right now–good stuff!–so my blogging will be sparse. Here are some things to placate you: ==> My conversation with Karl Smith. It may lead you to think about fiscal stimulus in a new way. ==> Ep . 194 of Contra Krugman, in which we bust Krugman’s attempt to say progressives are policy wonks who follow the evidence. ==> Can’t remember if I already posted this, but my article at IER on a new working paper...

Ep. 1435 WaPo Gets History Wrong; We Smash, Hard

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The Most Splendid Housing Bubbles in America: First Year-Over-Year Drops Since Housing Bust 1

New York, San Francisco condo prices fall year-over-year. Seattle house prices flat year-over-year. After earlier declines, Denver, Boston hit new highs. Miami, Phoenix, Las Vegas try to regain nutty peaks of Housing Bubble 1. Seasonal price spikes are cropping up in many of the most splendid housing bubbles in America, but in some metros they were not nearly large enough and prices fell compared to the same month last year, the first such...

NSA Again Exposed For Unauthorized Collection Of Americans’ Phone Records

Yet again, the National Security Agency has been exposed for "accidentally overcollecting" call-record metadata of millions of Americans. According to a WSJ report that relied on documents obtained by the ACLU, the NSA received metadata records from an unnamed phone company that the agency hadn't been authorized to collect. According to the report, it's unclear how the overcollection occurred, but the incident took place after the...

Necessity is the Mother of Invention – Retirees Desperate Reach for Yield

Ben Bernanke’s creativity inspired a generation of economists and central bankers. QE, ZIRP and NIRP established a new class of economics that is mathematically sound but practically disastrous. Billions of dollars were transferred from savers to investors to boost the economy, but the wizards of quant forgot that something has to give. In this case, it was the formation of a pension crisis that threatens the golden years of millions of...

As American Lawyers Battle Over Speech Codes, Ontario Lawyers May Lead the Way

As I noted last year, the American Bar Association in 2016 adopted as a recommendation its Model Rule 8.4 (g), which makes it “professional misconduct” for an attorney to engage in “conduct,” including verbal “conduct,” that “the lawyer knows or reasonably should know is harassment or discrimination on the basis of race, sex, religion, national origin, ethnicity, disability, age, sexual orientation, gender identity, marital status or...

What Gets Measures Gets Improved, Report 23 June

Let’s start with Frederic Bastiat’s 170-year old parable of the broken window. A shopkeeper has a broken window. The shopkeeper is, of course, upset at the loss of six francs (0.06oz gold, or about $75). Bastiat discusses a then-popular facile argument: the glass guy is making money (to which all we can say is, “plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose”). Bastiat says it is true, and this is the seen. The glazier does make money. Then he...

2019 Toyota 86

Many people buy Toyotas because they are Toyotas – which have a reputation for being durable, reliable cars that are known to depreciate less fast than other cars. But how about a Subaru with a Toyota badge? Does the mojo transfer? What It Is The “Toyota” 86 sport coupe is the only Toyota made by another car company – with another car company’s engine under its hood. But a Toyota badge on its hood. It’s functionally identical – and nearly...

2019 Toyota 86

Many people buy Toyotas because they are Toyotas – which have a reputation for being durable, reliable cars that are known to depreciate less fast than other cars. But how about a Subaru with a Toyota badge? Does the mojo transfer? What It Is The “Toyota” 86 sport coupe is the only Toyota made by another car company – with another car company’s engine under its hood. But a Toyota badge on its hood. It’s functionally identical – and nearly...

The Donald’s Latest Iranian Caper—Shit-Faced Stupidity

2019 Toyota 86

Many people buy Toyotas because they are Toyotas – which have a reputation for being durable, reliable cars that are known to depreciate less fast than other cars. But how about a Subaru with a Toyota badge? Does the mojo transfer? What It Is The “Toyota” 86 sport coupe is the only Toyota made by another car company – with another car company’s engine under its hood. But a Toyota badge on its hood. It’s functionally identical – and nearly...

2019 Toyota 86

Many people buy Toyotas because they are Toyotas – which have a reputation for being durable, reliable cars that are known to depreciate less fast than other cars. But how about a Subaru with a Toyota badge? Does the mojo transfer? What It Is The “Toyota” 86 sport coupe is the only Toyota made by another car company – with another car company’s engine under its hood. But a Toyota badge on its hood. It’s functionally identical – and nearly...