Category: Government Intervention
The analysis published under this category are as follows.
Tuesday, February 12, 2019
Socialist “Green New Deal” Points the Way to Hyperinflation / Politics / Government Intervention
By: MoneyMetals
Socialist Venezuela’s economic collapse and hyperinflationary spiral serves as a warning for American investors. It’s what can happen when a government spends perpetually beyond its means and refuses to face reality.
Despite a U.S. economy that appears relatively strong and stable on the surface, its foundation is beginning to crack under the pressure of a $22 trillion (and growing) debt load.
Both Republicans and Democrats are to blame for that. But rising pro-socialist sentiment within the Democrat Party could turn our current debt danger into a clear and present disaster.
Monday, October 31, 2016
Blame Government, Not Markets for Monopoly / Politics / Government Intervention
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
When Time-Warner announced it planned to merge with another major communications firm, many feared the new company would exercise near-total monopoly power. These concerns led some to call for government action to block the merger in order to protect both Time-Warner's competitors and consumers.
No, I am not talking about Time-Warner's recent announced plan to merge with AT&T, but the reaction to Time-Warner's merger with (then) Internet giant AOL in 2000. Far from creating an untouchable leviathan crushing all competitors, the AOL-Time-Warner merger fell apart in under a decade.
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Monday, February 08, 2016
Government Mandatory Depression Screening is A Depressing Thought / Politics / Government Intervention
By: Dr_Ron_Paul
The United States Preventive Services Task Force recently recommended mandatory depression screening for all Americans. The task force wants to force health insurance companies to pay for the screening. Basic economics, as well as the Obamacare disaster, should have shown this task force that government health insurance mandates harm Americans.
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Tuesday, November 17, 2015
CFPB - Another U.S. Government Agency Running Wild / Politics / Government Intervention
By: Rodney_Johnson
Everybody likes to get money back from the government. Now there’s a new way to cash in on Uncle Sam.But like many government programs, this one has a few issues.
If you bought a car in the last few years, you might get a check from the Consumer Finance Protection Bureau(CFPB), as long as you live in the right (or I guess, the wrong) neighborhood and have a certain-sounding last name.
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Thursday, October 29, 2015
US Regulators Mandate Next Stage Of Textbook Financial Repression / Stock-Markets / Government Intervention
By: Dan_Amerman
With comparatively little fanfare, Fidelity Investments has announced that 100% of their $115 billion Cash Reserves fund, the world's largest money fund, will be invested in US government debt by December 1st of 2015. It is expected that many other money fund companies will also change their policies and invest only in US government and agency securities, because of a change in regulations that will occur in 2016.
Since 2010 the US government has been implementing a textbook example of Financial Repression, when it comes to using private savings to control and even effectively pay down the size of the national debt. Far from slowing down or ending this process, these new policies will expand by many millions the number of people who will effectively be forced to fund the purchase of government debt at artificially low interest rates.
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Wednesday, September 30, 2015
The Coming Corporate "Crime Wave" / Companies / Government Intervention
By: William_Anderson
William L. Anderson writes: In a recent appearance before Congress, Deputy Attorney General Sally Quillian Yates declared that the US Department of Justice is going to ratchet up its prosecution of individuals employed in corporations as part of a larger push against “white collar crime.” There is no doubt that such prosecutions will be very popular to a large section of voters, given that presidential candidates like Bernie Sanders, Hillary Clinton, and Martin O’Malley, along with Massachusetts Senator Elizabeth Warren pretty much have declared that nearly all American businesses are part of a massive criminal conspiracy that must be brought down by federal authorities.
Friday, May 15, 2015
A Novel Way to Kill Jobs and Tax Employers / Politics / Government Intervention
By: MISES
Christopher J. O'Connell writes: The state of Connecticut may be embarking on new territory as they seem to be pushing a rather creative way to extract revenue from for-profit businesses. The state legislature of Connecticut has proposed what’s commonly referred to as SB1044. Muddled in the labyrinth known as legal terminology, we find this gem of a sentence in the bill itself:
Tuesday, April 07, 2015
Best Government - Governs Least / Politics / Government Intervention
By: BATR
Once upon a time the Founding Fathers were considered to be the personification of the American Republic. Most notable among giants, was Thomas Jefferson. The significance of his authorship of the Declaration of Independence is heralded as the very essence of the purpose for fighting the revolution. Jump onward to the present era and examine the sentiment held by the populace. The seeming disconnect from the political thought of the 18th and 19th century to the attitudes in this 21st totalitarian collectivist mindset that dominates the culture, often resembles life on a different planet.
Saturday, February 07, 2015
How Economic Aggregation Hides the Problems of Interventionism / Economics / Government Intervention
By: MISES
Gary Galles writes: I was going through the textbook for my economics principles course recently, thinking about how I could better reconcile the fact that since only individuals choose, the logic of economics is about individual choices facing the fact of scarcity. Yet macroeconomics is generally presented directly in terms of aggregates and how to control them, as if aggregates were the relevant measures.
Friday, February 06, 2015
U.S. Department of Justice and the Corruption of the “Innocent” / Companies / Government Intervention
By: Money_Morning
Shah Gilani writes: It’s time to rate the Justice Department.
But before we grade it, I want to go on record with a serious proposal.
I think its name should be changed.
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Wednesday, January 28, 2015
The Age of Intervention Continues / Politics / Government Intervention
By: Dennis_Miller
By Dennis Miller
One key perk to working alongside investing seers is the opportunity to ask them the big questions. Wondering what lies ahead, I asked Casey Research Chief Economist Bud Conrad and technical analyst Dominick Graziano to share their views on what investors should expect in 2015.
These two gentlemen blow me away. Bud can make big-picture forecasts with uncanny accuracy. Dominick is a pure trader, relying on historical charts and graphs and seeing relationships in a way I had never before experienced. He is totally unemotional in his approach and makes decisions based on what the charts tell him. Like Bud, Dominick has made so many calls ahead of time I’ve stopped keeping track.
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Wednesday, November 19, 2014
The Government Owns Your Children / Politics / Government Intervention
By: LewRockwell
Scott Lazarowitz writes: Well, the CPS vultures are out there, once again. This time in Seminole County, Florida. In June the county’s Child Protection Services bureaucrats took a 12-day-old baby away from his vegan Seventh Day Adventist mother who insisted on breastfeeding the baby, and, when the baby was losing weight the mother refused to take him to the hospital and instead she provided the baby with a supplemental vegan formula. That diet and method of healing was consistent with her religious beliefs, but her “doctor” believed otherwise, reported her to the “authorities” who arrested her, and had CPS seize her child.
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Monday, November 10, 2014
How Macroeconomic Data Encourages Government Intervention / Economics / Government Intervention
By: Frank_Shostak
Frank Shostak writes: It is generally held that for an economist to be able to assess the state of the economy, he requires macroeconomic indicators which will tell him what is going on. The question that arises is this: why is it necessary to know about the state of the overall economy? What purpose can such types of information serve?
Careful examination of these issues shows that in a free market environment it doesn’t make much sense to measure and publish various macroeconomic indicators. This type of information is of little use to entrepreneurs. The only indicator that any successful entrepreneur must pay attention to is whether he makes profit. The higher the profit, the more benefits a particular business activity bestows upon consumers.
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Wednesday, October 08, 2014
What the Feds and Bernie Madoff Have in Common / Politics / Government Intervention
By: MISES
Brandon Dutcher writes: Through the years, Bernard Madoff, the convicted ponzi schemer who defrauded his investors, “generously” donated millions of dollars to charity — cancer research, hospitals, theaters, schools, and more. At least one of these charitable organizations invested with Mr. Madoff, where the invested funds disappeared.
But Madoff is not the only one who gives money to people after first taking it from them. Today’s political leaders win votes and plaudits by giving goodies to little Johnny, but they don’t bother to tell little Johnny that they’re putting it all on his credit card.
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Monday, September 08, 2014
There Is a Rogue Elephant in Your House / Politics / Government Intervention
By: Casey_Research
By Doug Casey, Chairman
One time when I was in Burma (now Myanmar), I spent a couple of days riding around the forest by elephant back. Elephants are a fine thing to have in the forest but, believe it or not, you have one living in your house with you. And you should do something about it now, before your house is wrecked and you and your family get stomped in the process.
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Thursday, July 24, 2014
How Government Uses “Efficiency” as an Excuse to Steal / Politics / Government Intervention
By: MISES
Gary Galles writes: Scarcity makes efficiency — getting the most value from given resources —important. The more efficient individuals are, the more they benefit from their actions. That’s why economists are always talking about efficiency.
Unfortunately, some things said to be efficient are not. A major reason is that while efficiency is usually described in terms of mutual benefits, in public policy discussions, economists and governments who employ them actually use an efficiency standard known as “potential compensation.” In a nutshell, this means that the “winners” gain more than the “losers” lose, so that the winner could potentially compensate the loser enough that they would both come out ahead.
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Tuesday, July 01, 2014
How Government Forces the Poor Into Black Markets / Economics / Government Intervention
By: MISES
Peter St. Onge writes: From the left we often see tension between those who want to help the poor, and those who want to help the government. One recent example of this is the proposal to ban cash forwarded by Harvard’s Ken Rogoff.
The gist of Rogoff’s beef with cash is that cash fuels the black market, and it makes it harder for the government to push negative nominal interest rates. In both cases, Rogoff doesn’t even get that he’s describing benefits of cash, not problems to be solved.
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Thursday, May 08, 2014
Health Care and the Candy Store Called Socialism / Politics / Government Intervention
By: MISES
Jim Fedako writes: Some 27 years ago, I spent two weeks in Yugoslavia, the supposed workers’ paradise cobbled together by the strong arm of Marshal Tito. And, if my memory serves, the country was an overflowing candy store — a middle schooler’s sweet-toothed delight. Socialism as a candy store? Sure. But you have to consider the question and its answer in context.
Thursday, April 24, 2014
When Does Government Policy Become Criminal Behavior? / Politics / Government Intervention
By: Raul_I_Meijer
That’s always a hard question to answer. At what point does government policy become criminal? Since governments make the laws, perhaps never. But then again, countries tend to have constitutions, and government actions can violate those. Still, before you know it, you get trapped and stuck in lawyer lingo limbo, and that’s not what I’m looking for. I’m wondering to what depths a government can go in its actions vis à vis it own people. So maybe I should rephrase this, maybe a more relevant question would be when government policy becomes morally repugnant. There I sure have a few candidates.
Tuesday, February 11, 2014
Obama Spins Subsidies Both Ways / Politics / Government Intervention
By: Peter_Schiff
In our current age of spin and counter-spin, there is no contortion too great for a politician to attempt. On occasion, however, the threads of one story become entangled with another in a manner that should deeply embarrass, if the media were sharp enough to catch it.