Tuesday, February 4

Tag: economics

Harvard Should Pay Its Fair Share
24Dec By adminNo Comments
Business

Harvard Should Pay Its Fair Share

What can we do about the corruption of American higher education? Milton Friedman had an idea 20 years ago: Tax the schools rather than subsidize them. That reflected a change of heart. In “Capitalism and Freedom” (1960), he argued that college education had enough “positive externalities” to justify subsidies. But when I was researching a book in 2003, I emailed him (then 91) and asked if he still believed that.He replied: “I have not changed my view that higher education has some positive externality, but I have become much more aware that it also has negative externalities. I am much more dubious than I was . . . that there is any justification at all for government subsidy of higher education. The spread of PC”—political correctness—“would seem to be a very strong negative externality...
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Biden’s Foolish Snub of Nippon Steel
23Dec By adminNo Comments
Health

Biden’s Foolish Snub of Nippon Steel

Nippon Steel’s proposed $15 billion acquisition of U.S. Steel “appears to deserve serious scrutiny,” the White House said Thursday. The statement came after an outcry from protectionist lawmakers, including Sen. John Fetterman (D., Pa.), who have cited union and national-security concerns and vowed to block the sale. The anti-Japanese business rhetoric is reminiscent of the 1980s, when U.S.-Japan trade tensions threatened to undermine a critically important bilateral alliance during the Cold War.U.S. politicians’ unjustified criticisms of the deal could strain relations between the U.S. and Japan and weaken their collaboration on trade and economic security. The White House should work with allies on economic and military cooperation, not criticize them.Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Com...
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BOE Money Printing to Cost UK as Much as HS2, Ex-Official Says
20Dec By adminNo Comments
Money

BOE Money Printing to Cost UK as Much as HS2, Ex-Official Says

The Bank of England’s quantitative easing program is on track to cost the UK taxpayer as much as the entire HS2 high-speed rail link that the government has scaled back on value-for-money grounds, according to a former BOE rate setter.Michael Saunders, who was on the Monetary Policy Committee between 2016 and 2022, said the £126 billion ($161 billion) “lifetime cost” to the taxpayer of central bank money printing, calculated using the government’s own official forecasts, is “similar to the full HS2 scheme adjusted to 2023 prices.” In October, Prime Minister Rishi Sunak scrapped the rail link’s northern leg as costs spiralled.
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DeSantis Is Right About Medicaid
18Dec By adminNo Comments
Health

DeSantis Is Right About Medicaid

North Carolina has become the 40th state to succumb to federal cash and adopt ObamaCare’s Medicaid expansion for able-bodied working-age adults. A new study from the Paragon Health Institute shows there is little to celebrate. Overall health is unlikely to improve despite this massive increase in public welfare. We now have 10 years of data on ObamaCare’s Medicaid expansion. The evidence against the policy is overwhelming: Expansion leads to a surge in spending but reduces healthcare access for traditional Medicaid enrollees such as low-income children and people with disabilities. And it doesn’t improve health.Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
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Gen Z Flirts With Socialism
6Dec By adminNo Comments
Business

Gen Z Flirts With Socialism

Editor’s note: In this Future View, students discuss Gen Z and the rising interest in socialism. Next week we’ll ask, “With the Treasury announcing a new fentanyl strike force, how much of a threat is the drug to American youth? Is fentanyl a uniquely damaging drug, or is it just as damaging as other substances? How should America deal with the fentanyl problem?” Students should click here to submit opinions of fewer than 250 words before Dec. 12. The best responses will be published that night.Copyright ©2023 Dow Jones & Company, Inc. All Rights Reserved. 87990cbe856818d5eddac44c7b1cdeb8
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Bidenomics Is a Political Bust for Biden
1Dec By adminNo Comments
Entertainment

Bidenomics Is a Political Bust for Biden

To hear President Biden tell it, everything is going great. G.D.P. is up, the deficit is down. Semiconductors are being made in the U.S.A. again. Bridges and tunnels and roads are being fixed. There’s even, unlikely as it sounds, a manufacturing boom. During an appearance on Wednesday in Pueblo, Colorado, Biden touted all he’s done for that corner of southeastern Colorado. The event was held at a wind-turbine factory, where eight hundred and fifty new jobs had been created courtesy of his signature Inflation Reduction Act. Funding from his beloved infrastructure bill had brought in a new water pipeline to serve fifty thousand people and affordable high-speed Internet for local Native American communities. In theory, this was an official Presidential appearance; in practice, it had the fee...
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The Free-Market Fundamentalism of Argentina’s Javier Milei
22Nov By adminNo Comments
Entertainment

The Free-Market Fundamentalism of Argentina’s Javier Milei

On Monday, as political analysts (and many Argentines) anxiously sought to digest the election of the far-right firebrand Javier Milei as the next President of South America’s second-largest economy, investors cheered. In New York, prices of Argentinean stocks and bonds rose sharply, with the value of Y.P.F., an oil and gas company that is majority-owned by the state, closing up forty per cent. “This is the opportunity for a new beginning,” Jorge Piedrahita, the founder of Gear Capital Management, told Bloomberg.Argentina could certainly do with a fresh economic start. A century ago, after the development of steamships first enabled the export of beef and other perishable products to Europe and North America, its G.D.P. per capita was comparable to many Western European countries. Today, ...
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