Robert P. Murphy
Business & Economics
Big deficits and easy money have failed
Investors around the world are rattled at the recent plunges in the U.S. stock market. Keynesian pundits predictably blamed our economic woes on the (nonexistent) austerity measures in the recent budget compromise, saying we just need more deficits and a looser Federal Reserve. But in reality, it is unprecedented budget ...
Business & Economics
Was Obama’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve release the best way to lower gasoline prices?
On June 23, the Obama administration, in conjunction with other governments, announced a plan to release a total of 60 million barrels of oil from strategic oil reserves in the U.S. and other countries, at a rate of 2 million barrels per day for 30 days. That day, oil prices ...
Business & Economics
New consumer bureau will be a bust – guaranteed
In July, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) formally begins operations. Republicans oppose President Obama’s top choice, Elizabeth Warren, to head the new bureau, which should not have been created in the first place. The CFPB will drive up prices, but won’t actually protect consumers. Consider first the sheer implausibility ...
Business & Economics
The Fed needs to free the market
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission issued its finding that the devastating economic events of the past few years were “preventable.” The FCIC heaped the blame on many parties, but drew the wrong conclusion when it faulted the government and Federal Reserve for lax oversight. On the ...
Business & Economics
Better To Cut Payroll Tax For Employers
As the clock wound down on 2010, President Obama signed into law the tax deal he struck with Republicans. One provision is a one-year, 2-percentage-point reduction in the employee portion of the Social Security payroll tax. This measure is supposed to reduce unemployment by boosting spending, but a more effective ...
Business & Economics
The government is paying people not to work
This year’s Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics went to Peter Diamond, Dale Mortensen, and Christopher Pissarides for their work on “search theory,” especially as applied to labor markets. The irony is that their award-winning work provides peer-reviewed justification for a commonsense solution to high unemployment. Continuous extensions of unemployment benefits ...
Business & Economics
The Fed won’t relinquish its bigger role
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Financial analysts have been parsing Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s speech at the August meeting of central bankers in Jackson Hole, Wyo. More worthy of attention, however, is the statement made earlier in August by the Fed’s Federal Open Market Committee. It not only represented a ...
Business & Economics
An ironic twist in fiscal policy
In an ironic twist in world politics, European leaders are calling for fiscal austerity while U.S. officials are preaching about more borrowing and spending. In the wake of the Greek debt crisis, major European governments are recognizing the value of reining in the massive deficit spending that has not “stimulated” ...
Business & Economics
An education autopsy for Steinberg’s tax swap
The tax swap proposed by Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg may be dead, but it can still help educate legislators in their quest to fix the budget, currently about $20 billion in the red, and restore prosperity in California. Steinberg advanced a plan to cut the sales tax rate ...
Business & Economics
More regulators is the wrong fix
The BP oil spill has prompted calls for more federal regulatory power. Yet the behavior of the federal bureaucrats who were supposed to prevent this type of disaster provides no reason to expect better outcomes with more bureaucracy. The Minerals Management Service was the Interior Department agency responsible for regulation ...
Big deficits and easy money have failed
Investors around the world are rattled at the recent plunges in the U.S. stock market. Keynesian pundits predictably blamed our economic woes on the (nonexistent) austerity measures in the recent budget compromise, saying we just need more deficits and a looser Federal Reserve. But in reality, it is unprecedented budget ...
Was Obama’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve release the best way to lower gasoline prices?
On June 23, the Obama administration, in conjunction with other governments, announced a plan to release a total of 60 million barrels of oil from strategic oil reserves in the U.S. and other countries, at a rate of 2 million barrels per day for 30 days. That day, oil prices ...
New consumer bureau will be a bust – guaranteed
In July, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) formally begins operations. Republicans oppose President Obama’s top choice, Elizabeth Warren, to head the new bureau, which should not have been created in the first place. The CFPB will drive up prices, but won’t actually protect consumers. Consider first the sheer implausibility ...
The Fed needs to free the market
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — The Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission issued its finding that the devastating economic events of the past few years were “preventable.” The FCIC heaped the blame on many parties, but drew the wrong conclusion when it faulted the government and Federal Reserve for lax oversight. On the ...
Better To Cut Payroll Tax For Employers
As the clock wound down on 2010, President Obama signed into law the tax deal he struck with Republicans. One provision is a one-year, 2-percentage-point reduction in the employee portion of the Social Security payroll tax. This measure is supposed to reduce unemployment by boosting spending, but a more effective ...
The government is paying people not to work
This year’s Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics went to Peter Diamond, Dale Mortensen, and Christopher Pissarides for their work on “search theory,” especially as applied to labor markets. The irony is that their award-winning work provides peer-reviewed justification for a commonsense solution to high unemployment. Continuous extensions of unemployment benefits ...
The Fed won’t relinquish its bigger role
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) — Financial analysts have been parsing Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke’s speech at the August meeting of central bankers in Jackson Hole, Wyo. More worthy of attention, however, is the statement made earlier in August by the Fed’s Federal Open Market Committee. It not only represented a ...
An ironic twist in fiscal policy
In an ironic twist in world politics, European leaders are calling for fiscal austerity while U.S. officials are preaching about more borrowing and spending. In the wake of the Greek debt crisis, major European governments are recognizing the value of reining in the massive deficit spending that has not “stimulated” ...
An education autopsy for Steinberg’s tax swap
The tax swap proposed by Senate President Pro Tem Darrell Steinberg may be dead, but it can still help educate legislators in their quest to fix the budget, currently about $20 billion in the red, and restore prosperity in California. Steinberg advanced a plan to cut the sales tax rate ...
More regulators is the wrong fix
The BP oil spill has prompted calls for more federal regulatory power. Yet the behavior of the federal bureaucrats who were supposed to prevent this type of disaster provides no reason to expect better outcomes with more bureaucracy. The Minerals Management Service was the Interior Department agency responsible for regulation ...
