Center on Wealth & Poverty
Would you have been more likely to be murdered in 1900, if you had been alive, than in 2000? If you answered no, as I expect most people would, you would be correct. The evidence is, albeit imperfect, that most Americans were less likely to be murder victims 100 years ago than today. Sociologists, criminologists, economists, and assorted other “ists” Read More ›
Discussion of economic policy matters among politicians has sunk almost to the level of a frat house food fight. There are several reasons for this sorry state of affairs. First, there is an appalling level of ignorance among many political leaders about economic fundamentals. For instance, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle recently blamed the recession, in part, on the president’s Read More ›
Crime may have declined in the streets but, by the recent inflammation of the pundits, you would think there has been an outbreak of corporate criminality. The Internet, communications, and stock-market booms of the 1990s, it seems, were based on a pervasive series of felonious acts. A wide array of businesses, from Global Crossing to Loral, from General Electric to Read More ›
The American people are under attack not only from foreign terrorists but now from some members of their own U.S. Congress. The most basic function of government is to protect the people and their property. Our intelligence and law enforcement community failed in this duty on September 11, and the Congress failed in this duty the week before Christmas We Read More ›
As a culture, we increasingly believe government should protect us from dying from anything, yet we are all going to die. At the moment, despite our apparent successful efforts against the Taliban, many Americans fear being killed by a terrorist far more than they fear many things that are much more likely to kill them. Fortunately, during the past 50 Read More ›
Deflation is upon us. Put another way, the U.S. economy is now experiencing a sustained reduction in the general level of prices. Last month, the Producer Price Index posted its biggest decline on record, 1.6%, and the Consumer Price Index fell by 0.3%. All of the major commodity price indices are down by 11% to 20% for the year. Many Read More ›
A broad coalition of representatives of many major economic policy organizations came together in late September with a common message and program for economic recovery. The political establishment now favors economic “stimulus.” Stimulus is a nice, positive sounding (in most cases) word, but it doesn’t tell us with any specificity what we should do for the economy. Those of us Read More ›
If you boarded an airplane and had some concern about it being hijacked, would you be more concerned about an older woman with a sewing kit, or a young man in casual clothing with no visible carry-on items as a fellow passenger? If you answered the young man, you are being rational rather than an anti-young-man bigot. Older women are Read More ›
[From the August 9, 2001 edition of The Washington Times] Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan said recently that the economic slowdown might last despite the Fed rate cuts. His comments notwithstanding, there is no reason for us just to sit like toads and wait for some favorable alignment of the stars. We can revive high growth if we so choose. Read More ›
On Fox News Sunday a few weeks ago, Senate minority leader Tom Daschle was twice asked a simple question that he refused to answer: What do you think the maximum income tax rate should be for any American? This question is at the core of the debate about the structure of the tax cut, yet very few reporters have asked Read More ›