The record for the worst economic decline in a single quarter is 10%, set back in 1958. That record has lasted over 60 years, but it’s about to fall, and fall in a very big way. Even in the worst of times, when the economy is in decline as much as it ever normally does, […]
We are being told that governments are doing everything they can to save us from doom. If we are going to be facing real doom, it is the treatment, not the cure that will bring it on. With each passing day, the hyperbole surrounding our response to COVID-19 just keeps growing, like a cancer. In […]
People are becoming more terrified each day of the health threat they believe COVID-19 is. The health risks aren’t scary at all, but the economic damage gets scarier each day. When COVID-19 became perceived as a big enough threat to lockdown Hubei Province in China, we knew that their economy would take a meaningful hit, […]
University endowments have been earning returns that have well underperformed stocks, due mostly with their fascination with private equity. They happily fail though. University endowments manage a total of $840 billion in funds these days, and coming in with returns that have averaged 6.3% less than the S&P 500 over the last 10 years should […]
Whether or not there is an actual emergency in the United States right now, President Donald Trump has declared one, to provide him access to up to $50 million by his own pen. Looking back on how COVID-19 has played out around the world so far, it shouldn’t surprise us too much that this has […]
China’s massive effort to try to contain the coronavirus definitely is having an effect on their economy, but now that the incident is winding down, they are starting to heal already. Through all the panicking that is going on in the world about the potential spread of the coronavirus, we’re somehow not noticing that things […]
Former Treasury secretary Jacob Lew has a bone to pick with the Trump administration, believing that they are overusing, abusing and undermining U.S. economic power. In the world of politics, it’s all too easy to be a critic, as just being disgruntled is more than enough, whether or not your criticisms have any actual merit. […]
The idea of Bernie Sanders being the stock market’s best hope for Trump to win is starting to gain more traction. We need to be careful when we wish for this though. Both New Hampshire and Iowa are proud of their front and center positions in kicking off the Democratic nomination process for president, and […]
What does the left-wing branch of corporate and antitrust law look like? Wayne State law professor Sanjukta Paul gives us a glimpse, and it’s a pretty strange world indeed. You would think that capitalism and socialism would make strange bedfellows. Capitalism is based upon the combination of property rights and free exchange, where the law […]
Normally, it is preferable to let the market determine the price of something. With something that is believed to be essential, we need to really make sure the market is free. Free markets need to actually be free markets for them to do their thing and seek out efficiency. The key word here is free, […]
