How Do You Tackle a Big Idea?
It has long been believed that Capitalism is the last economic system. It has triumphed over its rivals, socialism and communism, and has now come to define modern society. Many believe that the religion of Adam Smith was the culmination of all of our economic experiments. To many, not only is Capitalism the best economic system that humanity has ever devised, it is the best that it will ever devise.
Illinois is teetering on bankruptcy and other states are not far behind, largely due to unfunded pension liabilities; but there are solutions. The Federal Reserve could do a round of “QE for Munis.” Or the state could turn its sizable pension fund into a self-sustaining public bank.
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A man waves a Greek flag in front of the Greek Parliament during a rally against new austerity measures in Athens, May 18, 2017. (AP/Yorgos Karahalis)
Greece’s main free-market think tank, the Center for Liberal Studies, published its annual Tax Freedom Day study last week. Besides extending Tax Freedom Day by 15 days relative to last year, the study also projects that Greece will end up with the third-highest Tax Freedom Day in the EU, after France and Belgium. The public is not happy with this continuance of their recent tax situation, and they're proving it at the polls.
Illinois already owes $15 billion in unpaid bills, but a judge ordered the state to pay $586 million a month for its Medicaid program. The Governor says he will veto the proposed 32% income tax hike. [...]
Free trade, debt and war are all part of the same package, each feeding off the other. They are – each of them – rackets in their own right and they are all symptoms of the same problem. That problem has to do with the fact that our government – along with the rest of the world – has entirely forgotten the basic concept of how a national economy actually “earns” its way to prosperity.
(ANTIMEDIA) —Most people haven’t studied economics and don’t understand the contributing factors that led to the Great Recession, so they still view the Federal Reserve as a hero that saved the country from total collapse. But those who are informed understand that the financial bubbles seen over the last 20 years have been directly caused by reckless central bank intervention in the markets.
Japan has found a way to write off nearly half its national debt without creating inflation. We could do that too.
Let’s face it. There is no way the US government is ever going to pay back a $20 trillion federal debt. The taxpayers will just continue to pay interest on it, year after year.
A lot of interest.
Puerto Rican resident Maria Quinones looks carefully at her ballot with a magnifying glass before voting during the fifth referendum on the island’s status, in San Juan, Puerto Rico, June 11, 2017. (AP/Carlos Giusti)
On June 11, millions of Puerto Ricans will head to the polls to decide the political status of the Caribbean island.
Sunday’s two-part plebiscite, the fifth held since 1967, will decide the future of the unincorporated U.S. territory. Since 1898, Puerto Rico has functioned as a “commonwealth” of the U.S., essentially making it a colony of Washington.
