Washington is once again massively screwing up the American sugar market. Because American farmers cannot compete with foreign sugar growers, the federal government has maintained an array of sugar import quotas and/or tariffs for most of the last 200 years. The regulatory regime has provided windfalls for generations of politicians and jobs for legions of … Continue reading Why Americans Pay Triple the World Price for Sugar
Category: Economy
Yesterday’s post on CD displayed two maps showing each US state’s largest country trading partner for exports and imports in 2016. In response to a comment on those state maps, the table below shows something that is potentially very interesting: the degree (importance) of international trade for each US state in 2015. The table shows … Continue reading How Much Does Your State Need Foreign Trade?
When Joseph Whitworth was growing up in Stockport, the man who became the greatest mechanical engineer of the Victorian age witnessed a traumatic sight. In 1812, this unlovely industrial town on the outskirts of Manchester was overrun by Luddite rioters, all the more terrifying as they were wearing women’s clothes as they went on the … Continue reading The Luddites Were Wrong Then and They’re Wrong Now
Donald Trump said the following in his recent address to a joint session of Congress: To launch our national rebuilding, I will be asking the Congress to approve legislation that produces a $1 trillion investment in the infrastructure of the United States—financed through both public and private capital—creating millions of new jobs. This effort will … Continue reading Here We Go with Infrastructure Again
Editorial note: the relationship between the Bitcoin price and gold is interesting as a symbol of Bitcoin's market success, and the broader success of cryptocurrency general, but has no greater structural significance. Moreover, the market capitalization of the gold market is vastly higher. Even so, given the widespread perception of gold as a safe haven, … Continue reading One Bitcoin Is Now Worth More Than an Ounce of Gold
No two drugs have defined human civilization the way alcohol and caffeine have. Nature created both to kill creatures much smaller than us — plants evolved caffeine to poison insect predators, and yeasts produce ethanol to destroy competing microbes. True to its toxic origins, alcohol kills 3.3 million people each year, bringing about 5.9% of all deaths and 25% of … Continue reading Civilization Was Built on Coffee and Alcohol
For more than 30 years, I’ve been trying to educate my leftist friends about supply-side economics and the Laffer Curve. Why is it so hard for them to recognize, I endlessly wonder, that when you tax something, you get less of it? And why don’t they realize that when you tax something at high rates, … Continue reading Lowering Taxes Would Actually Increase Tax Revenue
“[O]n life support,” says US Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) of the “Border Adjustment Tax,” proposed during last year’s GOP presidential primaries by US Senator Ted Cruz (R-TX) and backed by Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI). If the idea is indeed dead, American workers and consumers should heave a sigh of relief. It’s a very bad … Continue reading The Target of the “Border Adjustment Tax” is You
The national debt decreased by $12 billion in Trump's first month month...as long as you define "month" as "34 days" and make sure it ends on Feb. 23. Between Jan. 20 and Feb. 23, total national debt decreased by $12 billion, even though Trump made no spending or borrowing decisions. There's a reason Trump stopped … Continue reading Did Trump decrease the debt by $12 billion? Ha, ha…No.
The pronunciation in English is lay-say-fair. Its French origins date back to the late Renaissance. As the story goes, it was first used about the year 1680, a time when the nation-state was on the rise throughout Europe. The French finance minister, Jean-Baptiste Colbert, asked a merchant named M. Le Gendre what the state could … Continue reading What Is Laissez-Faire?
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