
News
Recent posts and articles from IGEG fellows, advisers, experts and scholars.
Rich but Bankrupt
ENTREPRENEURS MAKE US WEALTHIER WHILE GOVERNMENT MONEY MANAGERS LEAD US TO RUIN Almost everyone has far more wealth due to technological advances than anyone had 30 years ago, yet their money balance sheets and that of most governments flirt with bankruptcy. How can...
The Endless Quest for Stable Money
GOVERNMENTS ACT TO KEEP THEIR CURRENCY MONOPOLY If a carpenter were trying to build a house and his measuring stick (ruler) randomly changed in length from week to week, the tool would be of little use. France adopted the metric system in the 1790s to provide a...
Florida’s Reasonable Response to Hurricane Idalia
A major hurricane hit Florida last week, and only one person died directly — amazing! The lesson is that mankind can engineer its way out of most of the adverse effects of climate change or spend billions and trillions more on unproven schemes to alter the...
Scamming Taxpayers with the Federal Government’s Mission Creep
The American Founding Fathers created a federal republic as the best form of government they could devise to protect persons and property and ensure liberty. Unfortunately, the federal government has evolved from the protector of the people to the biggest scammer. The...
Looking Back on Russia’s War with Ukraine: What U.S. and EU Should have Done
Why did Vladimir Putin’s Russia invade Ukraine? Ukraine posed no threat to Russia, and it was smaller and poorer. The Russians and Ukrainians shared some history, ethnic background and religion. Many Ukrainians used Russian as a first or second language. To the extent...
Who will Go to Prison, Biden or Trump?
IT'S HARD TO SEE A GRACEFUL EXIT FROM THE CURRENT MESS President Biden and former President Donald Trump are now in a legal death match, where, for either one to stay out of prison, his opponent will probably go to prison. The Biden Democrats have made no secret that...
Watergate Redux: Those Defending the Biden Crime Family will Eventually Look Like Fools
Many bright young people come to Washington — to do good. Some do right well. A few others go to jail. But most eventually end up feeling various degrees of disgust. In 1973, recently out of graduate school and immediately following a stint as the New York director of...
People Need to Seek a Variety of News Sources to Be Well Informed
Is the press more biased now than in the past? Owners of newspapers have always supported their friends and impugned their opponents. In the early days of the American republic, when paper was very expensive, journalists would produce one-page bulletins that might...
Reparations and Statutes of Limitations: We Have to Live Life Moving Forward
Delaware U.S. Attorney David Weiss is being accused of deliberately letting the statute of limitations run out on Hunter Biden’s failure to pay his full taxes for 2014 and 2015. If this is true, it is further evidence of substantial corruption in the Justice...
Long-Run Debasement of the U.S. Dollar Likely to Get Much Worse
The good news is that inflation is slowing, largely because of the reduction in money growth over the last year or so. The bad news is that the unemployment rate will increase. (It already has but is disguised by the reduction in the labor force participation rate.)...
Money and Regulatory Tyrants: Shutting Down the Cryptocurrency Business
Imagine you have an entirely legal business in your home state, but certain politicians and powerful government bureaucrats do not like your business for personal or political reasons and are determined to shut you down. One of the easiest ways for government tyrants...
End of Affirmative Action Provides a Level Playing Field
This past Thursday, the Supreme Court ruled that all Americans are entitled to “equal protection of the laws,” as stated in the 14th Amendment. The case was about colleges discriminating against some students because of their race or ethnic background — e.g., “No...
Effects of Government Corruption on Democratic Republics
A functioning democracy and civil society depend on most people having a high level of honesty and a low tolerance for corruption by those in government. The U.S. in the past was justifiably known for its adherence to the rule of law and high level of civic honesty....
Out-of-Touch Executives are Forgetting Their Core Responsibilities to Stockholders
Too many senior executives of publicly owned companies seem to have forgotten that they have a fiduciary and moral responsibility to maximize long-term profits for the benefit of their stockholders. It is not their job to save the planet from climate change, end...
Lockdown Disaster: Pandemic Made Great Excuse for Many in Government to Seize More Power
“Most likely, lockdowns represent the biggest policy mistake of modern times.” This past week, the most comprehensive study to date — a 220-page book — of the effect of lockdowns (written by Lars Jonung, professor emeritus at Sweden’s Lund University, Jonas Herby of...
Those Who Argue There Are No Inherent Differences between Men and Women Are in Denial
If women, on average, are as intelligent or perhaps more so than men (which they are), why did women most often obtain the right to vote decades after men? The only country that had granted women the right to vote before 1900 was New Zealand. The U.S. granted the...
2024 Election will Have More to Do with Oil Prices than Supply and Demand
How tall are you? How much do you weigh? What is the net value of your assets? The answers to all of these questions change over time — they are variables. Your height changes over the years — as you grow from an infant and then into middle age, you begin to shrink —...
Three Untruths from the Political Class, Including the Media
Take a look at the nearest food package. Notice there is a list of ingredients that tells you how many calories and other useful information. Most of us assume that the information is largely accurate because we know the manufacturer can be sued for misleading us. Do...