Mark W. Hendrickson
Fri, August 20, 2010
Understanding Austerity
Editor's Note: A longer version of this article first appeared in American Thinker.
A couple of years ago, the terms "too big to fail" and ...
Mon, August 09, 2010
Global Warming: The Big Picture
"Climategate: A Veteran Meteorologist Exposes the Global Warming Scam" By Brian Sussman | WND Books (April 22, 2010) | 240 pp. | List Price: $25.95
Mon, August 09, 2010
Rethinking The Corporate Income Tax
It is hard to find anything positive to say about the corporate income (i.e., profits) tax. Economists across the ideological spectrum agree that the corporate profits tax is woefully inefficient: ...
Mon, August 02, 2010
Geithner Vs. Bush Tax Cuts
I'm now convinced that the Obama administration is placing its political agenda above policies that would contribute to the economic recovery that millions of Americans so desperately need. That ...
Fri, July 23, 2010
Lessons from History: How Obamanomics May Play Out
The grand lesson of the 20th century is that Big Government retards economic progress.
The evidence of this lesson goes beyond the socialist countries and their ...
Thu, July 15, 2010
Three Neglected Ecoomic Lessons from American History
In most, if not all, states, pupils must pass a course in American history to receive a high-school diploma. Unfortunately, when it comes to our country's economic history, most students are poorly ...
Wed, July 07, 2010
Libertarianism vs. American Sovereignty
Recently, Bill O'Reilly interviewed John Stossel about the dangerous situation along Arizona's porous border with Mexico. Stossel is probably my favorite reporter. I admire the way he demolishes ...
Tue, June 29, 2010
Economic Information Worth Knowing
It's easy to be overwhelmed by the bewildering array of economic data, statistics, charts, and graphs floating around. Often, we economists can't see the forest for the trees. It's hard to figure out ...
Fri, June 25, 2010
Exchange Rate Mythology
If you read the financial press or listen to what politicians say, you have probably heard many times how important it is for the Chinese renminbi (yuan) to strengthen against the dollar. Indeed, it ...
Wed, June 23, 2010
Columbia Presidential Election: Not 'Too Close to Call'
The just-completed Colombian presidential election took place in two stages.
The first round took place on May 30. There were multiple candidates. Since
nobody received an outright ...
Mon, June 14, 2010
Reservations About a Balanced Budget Amendment
Calling for a balanced budget amendment has been a staple campaign issue for conservative Republicans for years. Undeniably, our nation is beset by fearful fiscal woes. However, a balanced budget ...
Thu, June 03, 2010
America Needs Union Competition
I agree with President Obama that we need more labor unions. However, I disagree with his approach.
Full disclosure: I have been a dues-payer to both the United ...
Wed, May 26, 2010
Reflections on the Deepwater Horizon Disaster
The explosion that sank British Petroleum's Deepwater Horizon oil-drilling vessel/platform in the Gulf of Mexico in April was an unmitigated disaster. The accident killed 11 workers and has caused ...
Mon, May 24, 2010
Tragedy in Amish Country
I first met Levi almost 20 years ago. He was about 12. We had just purchased our land from his parents, Jake and Nancy. Being old-order Amish, Jake and Nancy needed a ride to the attorney's office, ...
Mon, May 17, 2010
The Great Greek Bail-Out
The sovereign debt crisis—centered on Greece for the moment, but bound to spread to other heavily indebted national governments—has taken an ominous turn.
The European Central Bank (ECB), ...
Wed, May 12, 2010
Good Cop, Bad Cop
Economic error knows no partisan bounds. Republican Herbert Hoover and Democrat Franklin Roosevelt both adopted foolish, harmful policies during the Great Depression. Republican George W. Bush's ...
Tue, May 04, 2010
Financial Intrigue in Greece: Should We Care?
The intertwined worlds of government and finance are swirling with drama not
seen since the fall of Lehman Brothers in 2008. The epicenter of the current
crisis is Greece. The Aegean ...
Thu, April 29, 2010
Financial Reform: The Problem of Leverage
Trying to keep up with all the changes in U.S. Sen. Chris Dodd's (D-Conn.) financial reform bill has been a daunting task. Two weeks ago, it was described in the press as "the 1100-page ...
Tue, April 13, 2010
The VAT-Man Cometh?
Editor's note: This is one of many articles from The Center for Vision & Values dealing with the topic of our April 15-16 conference on "The Progressives." Click here for ...
Thu, April 08, 2010
The Social Justice Fallacy
Editor's note: This is one of many articles from The Center for Vision & Values dealing with the topic of our April 15-16 conference on "The Progressives."
Many ...
Fri, March 05, 2010
The Governing Elite vs. The Rest of Us
The truly revolutionary American idea of government as the servant of the people may be fading away. Many of today's so-called "civil servants" are a protected, privileged class. While ...
Fri, February 12, 2010
Econoclasts: A Book Review
"Econoclasts: The Rebels Who Sparked the Supply-Side Revolution and Restored American Prosperity" By Brian Domitrovic | ISI Books (August 2009) | 368 pp. | List Price: $27.95
Tue, January 19, 2010
A Moment of Illumination
We've all had those sudden epiphanies where the proverbial light bulb clicks on and understanding comes into clear focus. I had one of those moments over the Christmas holiday season. In this case, ...
Thu, January 14, 2010
Obama's Anti-Jobs Policy
High and/or rising unemployment is always a political liability for a president, and so Barack Obama has taken the offensive in trying to persuade the American people that his team can get Americans ...
Wed, December 23, 2009
Combating Recessions:
The search for the right macroeconomic policy
What should governments do to combat recessions? In the United States, before the Great Depression of the 1930s, the answer was "very little."
Of course, the federal government was ...
Thu, December 17, 2009
Jefferson's Warnings About Money and Banks
In 1962, President John F. Kennedy hosted a dinner for 49 Nobel laureates. The occasion provided the opportunity for JFK to display his keen wit in the memorable quote, "I think this is the most ...
Sun, December 13, 2009
The Theory of Moral Sentiments:
Adam Smith's Timely and Timeless Classic
2009 marks the 250th anniversary of the publication of Adam Smiths masterful
treatise on ethics, The Theory of Moral Sentiments. Smith, primarily known today for his hugely influential 1776 work ...
Mon, December 07, 2009
Government Intervention and High Prices
What kind of prices do you prefer to pay when you go shopping—high or low? Unless you're trying to show off for someone by spending a bundle, I'd bet that you prefer low prices. I've never met ...
Mon, November 16, 2009
The Coming of Caesar
We have a problem. This could be "the big one"—bigger than coping with the Ahmadinejads, Kims, and Chavezes of the world and bigger than our current economic woes. Our republic, our ...
Thu, November 12, 2009
Psyching Out the Stock Market
There's something about stocks that turns us upside down. For example, normally when something goes on sale, we tend to buy more of it; yet, when stock prices fall, many investors want to buy ...
Wed, November 04, 2009
Sex, Life and Death
Two summers ago, while passing through an airport, I caught a TV news
story: double homicide in Ohio. The victims were a young woman and the nine-month-old fetus she was carrying. The murderer ...
Wed, October 28, 2009
Cap and Trade Update
On Sept. 30, Senators Barbara Boxer (D-CA) and John Kerry (D-MA) unveiled their proposal for cap-and-trade (C&T) legislation. The Senate bill calls for a 20 percent reduction of U.S. CO2 emissions by ...
Mon, October 19, 2009
Gold, Geopolitics, and the Carry Trade
The price of gold has recently spurted to a new all-time high in terms of U.S. dollars. I'm neither an expert nor a market timer, but let me offer a few perspectives on this event.
Mon, October 12, 2009
Honduras and the United States
As this is being written, Manuel Zelaya, the ousted and exiled ex-president of Honduras, is holed up in the Brazilian embassy in Tegucigalpa, the Honduran capital, having been smuggled there on Sept. ...
Mon, September 28, 2009
The G-20 Meeting is Over (Thanks Goodness!)
Count me among the cynics when it comes to G-7, G-8, and now G-20 meetings. They seem to involve little more than photo ops and platforms for politicians to bore us with platitudinous ...
Mon, September 21, 2009
Truth and Politics
Many of us are cynical about promises made by politicians. "Campaign promises are made to be broken" is a venerable truism of American politics. There are "truth-in-advertising" ...
Wed, September 09, 2009
Monetary Madness
China, Russia, et al. are talking about shifting their monetary reserves out of U.S. dollars. Gold has hit $1000 per ounce, even though wholesale and retail prices exhibit a deflationary bias. The ...
Tue, August 18, 2009
A Trillion Here, A Trillion There
About 50 years ago, Sen. Everett Dirksen (R-IL) uttered his famous quip, "A billion here, a billion there, and pretty soon you're talking about real money."
Tue, August 04, 2009
The Next Great Depression, Updated
"There is nothing inevitable about another depression. We have a simple choice: We can repeat the errors of the past or we can avoid them."
Those were my words, Feb. 8, 2008. ...
Fri, July 17, 2009
Remembering July 20, 1969
For those of you above a certain age, do you remember where you were on July 20, 1969? I certainly do. Just as many of us will never forget where we were when we learned about 9/11 or heard President ...
Thu, July 16, 2009
The Nuts and Bolts of Cap and Trade
The purpose of cap and trade (C&T) legislation is to reduce Americans' consumption of fossil fuels—coal, oil, and natural gas—and to speed up the transition to alternate forms of energy, such as wind ...
Thu, July 09, 2009
Upheaval in Honduras: A Defining Moment for the Obama Presidency
Quick, what's the capital of Honduras? Probably fewer than 10 percent of Americans could answer that question prior to the recent news that Honduran President Mel Zelaya was sent packing to Costa ...
Thu, July 02, 2009
No Laughing Matter
Who won the Cold War? That's a no-brainer. The United States prevailed while the Soviet Union collapsed, and the People's Republic of China dumped Marxism; capitalism (free markets and private ...
Tue, June 16, 2009
Detroit: A Glimpse into America's Future
Wouldn't it be wonderful if, like Ebenezer Scrooge, we could have a preview of the future so that we could change our course if necessary? This can happen in real life. Such a dispensation was ...
Mon, June 15, 2009
Team Obama's Auto Coup
In assessing Team Obama's semi-nationalization of the auto industry, a slight alteration of the famous verse by Elizabeth Barrett Browning encapsulates my reaction: "How do I [not] love thee? ...
Mon, June 08, 2009
Opening Pandora's Box: Classifying CO2 as a 'Pollutant'
A few days before "Earth Day" (which happens to be the same day as Lenin's Birthday), America's ideological greens and reds received a present they have been desiring for many moons: The ...
Thu, May 28, 2009
The U.S. Constitution:
Living, Breathing Document or Dead Letter?
In the concluding paragraph of my article about President-elect Obama's constitutional philosophy, I opined: "Our Constitution has been terminal for a long time." President Obama's ...
Tue, May 26, 2009
A Closer Look at the IPCC
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is widely regarded in the media as the ultimate authority on climate change. Created by two divisions of the United Nations, and recipient of the ...
Fri, May 15, 2009
Economic Strangulation
The "greens" must be thrilled with the new Obama/Pelosi/Reid (OPR) troika in charge of the federal government. Three times already, the troika has blocked the development of domestic oil ...
Wed, May 06, 2009
Obama's Two Achilles' Heels
In my recent article "Checkmate," I made the case that President Obama's grand strategy has outfoxed the opposition, dooming us all to a massive increase in the scope and power of Uncle ...
Thu, April 30, 2009
Checkmate?
Some people I know react with incredulity when they hear television commentators remark on President Barack Obama's brilliance. "How can he say that?" they expostulate. "He doesn't ...
Mon, April 27, 2009
FDR: Then and Today
Economic historian Burton Folsom's "New Deal or Raw Deal?" is a truly important book. Thoroughly researched, well organized and fluently written, this reader-friendly study of President ...
Fri, April 03, 2009
Two Americas?
One of the favorite refrains of the class-warfare left has long been to lament what it perceives as a division in America between economic haves and have-nots. From the standpoint of egalitarian, ...
Tue, March 31, 2009
In Praise of Capitalist Exploitation
For well over a century, socialists, progressives, and even many Christians have railed against the capitalist exploitation of workers. They denounce capitalists—whether the Carnegies and Fricks of ...
Mon, March 30, 2009
More Bailouts, More Fed
In the last week, the Treasury Department and the Federal Reserve each announced a major policy initiative for the stated purpose of reversing our economic woes. Don't hold your breath.
Thu, March 19, 2009
Anger at AIG
A raw nerve was struck this week. Reports that employees of the insurance giant AIG—the recipient of four federal bailouts totaling more than $170 billion—were now receiving $165 million in bonuses, ...
Fri, March 13, 2009
The Ghost of John Maynard Keynes
The Ghost of John Maynard Keynes
By Dr. Mark W. Hendrickson
The British economist John Maynard Keynes (1883-1946) turns out to have been something of a ...
Fri, March 06, 2009
Into the Fiscal Abyss
The U.S. Treasury recently released its "2008 Financial Report of the United States Government." In case you had any doubts, our government's finances are in a terrible mess. According to ...
Mon, March 02, 2009
Three Books for the Current Crisis
When my friend Paul Kengor, the executive director of The Center for Vision & Values here at Grove City College, asked me what three books I would recommend to students if they wanted to broaden ...
Thu, February 19, 2009
Tough Times for Wise Virgins
The biblical parable of the 10 virgins (Matthew 25:1-12) is particularly relevant today. As you may recall, the five wise virgins behaved responsibly and prudently, making sure they had enough lamp ...
Wed, February 11, 2009
Team Obama: Ready to Rock 'n Roll
Ready for some political and economic rock and roll? It's happening. In 2008, Americans were rocked by the beginnings of a deflationary credit collapse and Uncle Sam's extraordinary ...
Tue, February 03, 2009
Love That Economic Pain
What would you think if you heard a prominent physician being interviewed and the topic of discussion was the breakout of a serious epidemic, and then the physician started enthusing about how great ...
Tue, January 20, 2009
Assessing the Presidency of George W. Bush
George W. Bush had the misfortune to become president when two long-term trends that predated his presidency reached historical tipping points: First, decades of militant Islamic ferment culminated ...
Thu, January 15, 2009
'Only Government Can . . . . ?'
Parsing Obama's speech on the economy
Last Thursday, President-elect Barack Obama delivered a major speech on the economy. I didn't know if it had that legendary tingling effect on its listeners, but reading the text in black and white, ...
Mon, December 29, 2008
Lessons from the Oil Market
The longer I study economic phenomena, the more I learn two truths. The first truth is how little I know. This is very humbling. There is just too much information out there for any one human being ...
Thu, December 18, 2008
The Problem with Monotheism
When an author argues that there is no God, that's his personal business—something between him and the Creator. But when an author, in addition to denying God, asserts that monotheism is a net ...
Tue, December 09, 2008
Dancing with Fred or Frankenstein:
Free Markets, Socialism, and the Bailout
Washington's $700 billion bailout plan is making a lot of people unhappy. The Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), as the implementation of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 has come ...
Wed, November 26, 2008
The Big Three: Assigning Blame & An Alternative to a Bail-out
I've already explained the problematical economics and ethics of a federal bailout for the Big Three (see "A Bailout for Detroit"). The demise of the pillar of metro Detroit's economy ...
Wed, November 26, 2008
Thanksgiving Thoughts 2008:
The challenge of affluence
Throughout recorded history, most human beings have been poor. Poverty has been the norm and affluence the exception. Given a choice, most of us would rather be affluent than poor, but in this year ...
Mon, November 17, 2008
The End Game
If you wanted to turn the United States of America into a socialist country, what strategy would you adopt? Joseph Stalin, the world's top communist from 1924 to 1953, is reputed to have advocated ...
Fri, November 14, 2008
The Threat Within
Human nature has a blind spot. We often detect external flaws faster than internal ones—seeing the speck in our neighbor's eye sooner than the beam in our own, to use the biblical metaphor.
Thu, November 06, 2008
Obama, FDR, the Constitution, and Rights
Earlier this year, in "The Next Great Depression," I noted several parallels between the political economy of the early 1930s and today. Another intriguing parallel between then and now is ...
Thu, October 23, 2008
Hatred and Politics
Politics in America is a contact sport. Passions flare and the rhetoric can get heated and nasty. Political parties stoke these fires, playing on people's fears as a key fund-raising tactic.
...
Wed, October 15, 2008
The Dominant Campaign Question
What issue(s) dominated the presidential campaign two months ago—foreign policy, taxes, health care? That seems like ancient history now. The one question that everyone wants Barack Obama and John ...
Wed, October 01, 2008
Thoughts on the Bailout
The biggest bailout plan (so far) will continue to be revised in an attempt to win approval of a congressional majority. The goal of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 is to put the ...
Thu, September 25, 2008
Blaming the Free Market
It's finger-pointing time, folks. Whose fault is the ongoing financial crack-up that has hurt, angered, and frightened so many people? There is plenty of blame to go around, and the American people ...
Tue, September 23, 2008
Economic Nonsense
It saddens me when I see a member of my profession go over to "the dark side," that is, to politics. Politics replaces voluntary action with compulsion, private contract with coercion. ...
Tue, September 16, 2008
Another One Bites the Dust
September 15, 2008. Lehman Brothers, the giant Wall Street firm, declares bankruptcy. Merrill Lynch, the most famous stock brokerage company in the country, avoids the risk of eventually suffering a ...
