Economics

In a striking indication that an economy hovering barely above recession is becoming the “new normal,” the president and much of the media heralded the September unemployment figure of 7.8 percent as great news. In fact, as the Wall Street Journal puts it, “the real news . . . is…

Dear Mr. Krugman, In “Galt, Gold and God,” you assert of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged that “the book is a perennial favorite among adolescent boys. Most boys eventually outgrow it. Some, however, remain devotees for life. And [Paul] Ryan is one of those devotees. . . . Mr. Ryan is…

Ari Armstrong reviews The Financial Crisis and the Free Market Cure: Why Pure Capitalism is the World Economy’s Only Hope, by John Allison.

Ari Armstrong reviews Free Market Revolution: How Ayn Rand’s Ideas Can End Big Government, by Yaron Brook and Don Watkins.

Richard Salsman answers a letter about Objective Economics.

Ladies and gentlemen, computer geeks and warriors, unsheathe your swords. In an extraordinary fund-raising drive, Subutai Corporation raised $526,125 from 9,023 backers (me included) to finance the creation of a video game called CLANG, a game to be built by swordsmen using a realistic sword-like interface. No doubt the Kickstarter…

“The natural law,” says Hugh Jackman, “is that we should all have equal access, equal opportunity with the planet, but it seems the way we’ve divided it up politically or economically, that is not the case.” It certainly is not the case that everyone has equal access or equal opportunity…

You can listen to people talk about “a man with six fingers” or “a businessman who met with overnight success” all day long. But chances are that you will never meet either—and for good reason. As regards the latter, it’s because no matter how some people describe it, a businessman’s…

On “public” radio Wednesday, yet another financial guru was advising Europe to follow the lead of the United States: Bail out troubled banks (such as those of Spain) and forcibly transfer more wealth to cover high debt (as persists in Italy). Coincidentally, the same evening I read a passage by…

JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon announced last week that the bank had lost over $2 billion as a result of some bad investment decisions. Following the announcement, Dimon hit the airwaves apologizing for what he called “sloppy” and “stupid” behavior on the part of his company, and he told the company’s…