THE DEMOGRAPHIC CRISIS IN RUSSIA AND UKRAINE Demographers and economists have long known that one indication of the economic and social health of a country or region is whether the population is growing or declining. Russia has been slowly losing population since...

Many Americans are in a sour mood when it comes to the economy, yet the Biden administration argues that things have never been better — with something close to full employment and the rate of inflation coming down. Why the disconnect? Are we returning to a world of...

As we sit down to enjoy Thanksgiving today, it is worth noting that it has been 234 years since George Washington first proclaimed it a national holiday to give thanks for our bounty and liberty. In part, the U.S. has prospered because our forefathers had the ability...

Many people, including virtually all Republicans, properly view President Ronald Reagan as a great success. The economy grew rapidly at an average rate of well over 4% for the last seven years of his presidency, with many millions of new high-paying jobs being...

The good news was that the gross domestic product report came in higher than expected at 4.9% for the third quarter. The bad news was that too much of the GDP growth came from government spending. The old joke: Economists, to prove they have a sense of humor, provide...

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN AMERICANS STOP PLAYING BY THE RULES “If, as it appears, the election will come down to Trump vs. Biden, the U.S. is headed for a constitutional crisis and the social and political chaos that implies. Like prisoners of the economists’ dilemma, there...

A DOOMSDAY GUIDE Each morning, we wake up and turn on the news, thinking things cannot get worse — but they do. From the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, most things have gone downhill. So how do you protect your family when previously low-probability events such...

IS AMERICA DESTINED TO STAGNATE AND COLLAPSE LIKE THE SOVIET UNION? Do all jobs have the same value? More people working should lead to higher real incomes, except when the jobs are destroying wealth. Wages have been rising, but prices are rising even faster. So the...

BIG-SPENDER STATES OFFER FEWER BENEFITS THAN THEIR MORE PRUDENT PEERS There are unpredictable disasters, like earthquakes, and predictable disasters, like deaths caused by a war. And there are predictable disasters, like a surge in crime stemming from abolishing bail,...

DISTINGUISHED SCIENTIST SHUNNED FOR SAYING CLIMATE CRISIS OVERBLOWN What is the probability of dying from an external event, rather than from an ailment such as cancer or heart disease? As an exercise, list the following external potential life-ending events in order...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...