Chris Edwards The federal government’s debt is massive and growing rapidly. How massive? Federal debt held by the public of $28.5 trillion is eight times larger than the combined debt of all state and local governments of $3.3 trillion. Not only is state and local debt much
While Murray Rothbard believed that self-ownership formed the basis for private property rights, other philosophers disagree. Original Article: Can We Find a Basis for Private Property Rights?
I recently wrote about how the Federal Reserve has made the economy of the United States much worse than it would have been without their bureaucratic central planning over the past century. While the Fed’s disastrous track record is widely acknowledged even by Fed apologists, they
The ongoing conflict between the state of Israel and Hamas escalated considerably on Saturday. A group of armed fighters—presumably of Hamas—broke through the Gaza-Israel border barrier and launched what is sure to be a short-lived invasion of southwestern Israel. At least 700 Israeli citizens—most of them
Scott Lincicome As I mentioned last month, Cato’s Defending Globalization project will publish new content every other week throughout the fall and into 2024. Today we’ve published three new essays: Globalization: A race to the bottom – or to the top?, by Johan Norberg, debunks the myth that expanded trade and
Andrew C. Forrester Around the time that Cato published my estimates that the Middle Eastern or North African (MENA) population is around 3.8 million in 2021, the US Census Bureau found similar results from the 2020 enumeration that counted 3.5 million MENA people. Census’ numbers come
Travis Fisher The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) offers a master class in implementing expensive, counterproductive, and highly partisan energy policy. In previous posts, I discussed 1) how the electricity generation subsidies in the IRA could cost taxpayers $2.5 or $3 trillion and 2) why policymakers should remove those
Aside from stealing your life savings and launching depressions, one of the nastier features of paper money is what it does to governments. In short, paper money transforms governments from parasites to predators. Once a government can print what it likes, it no longer needs taxes. Meaning
Jeffrey A. Singer When the California legislature passed a bipartisan bill one month ago that would decriminalize possessing and personally using certain plant‐based psychedelic drugs, I welcomed the action as building momentum toward full legalization of a class of drugs with great potential to treat depression, post‐traumatic stress disorder,
From the WaPo (Olive oil prices reach record highs as Spain’s harvest is halved): Extreme heat, wildfires and drought have decimated much of the world’s olive oil harvest yet again, driving prices to a record high of $9,000 per metric ton. Most home cooks aren’t buying olive