Earlier this year, I borrowed from Dante’s Inferno and created the Five Circles of Statist Hell. At the time, I suggested that Venezuela was on the cusp of moving from the third circle (“widespread poverty and economic misery”) to the fourth circle (“systematic and grinding poverty and deprivation”). Since we now know that children in […]
Search Results for '"Thomas Sowell"'
Venezuela and Santa Claus vs Thomas Sowell and the Little Red Hen
Posted in Economics, Government Thuggery, Redistribution, Statism, Venezuela, tagged Economics, Government Thuggery, Redistribution, Statism, Venezuela on December 11, 2016| 17 Comments »
Thomas Sowell on the Economics of Redistribution: Quicksand at One End and Beatings at the other End
Posted in Big Government, Dependency, Poverty, Redistribution, Welfare, Welfare State, tagged Big Government, Dependency, Poverty, Redistribution, Thomas Sowell, Welfare, Welfare State on July 18, 2016| 67 Comments »
Over the years, I’ve shared some clever images, jokes, and cartoons to expose the flawed mindset of those who hope to achieve coerced equality of outcomes with redistribution and high tax rates. The size of a pizza vs the share of a slice. The modern version of the Little Red Hen. Washington’s Byzantine welfare state. […]
In the Debate over Capitalism and the Poor, the Score Is: Thomas Sowell 1 – Pope Francis 0
Posted in Argentina, Big Government, Economics, Hong Kong, Pope Francis, Poverty, Statism, United States, tagged Argentina, Big Government, Economics, Hong Kong, Pope Francis, Poverty, Statism, United States on September 24, 2015| 19 Comments »
Two days ago, I contrasted the views of Pope Francis and Walter Williams about capitalism and morality. I explained that Walter had the upper hand because free markets are a positive-sum game based on voluntary exchange while redistribution (at best) is a zero-sum game based on coercion. That’s the theoretical argument. Now let’s look at […]
Thomas Sowell Explains How the Welfare State Hurts the Poor
Posted in Economics, Poverty, Welfare, Welfare State, tagged Economics, Poverty, Thomas Sowell, Welfare, Welfare State on July 3, 2013| 31 Comments »
Political cartoonists like Michael Ramirez and Chuck Asay are effective because they convey so much with images. But we need more than clever cartoons if we’re going to educate the general population about how government harms the economy and undermines freedom. And that’s why Thomas Sowell is so invaluable. He’s one of the nation’s top […]
Thomas Sowell Exposes Dishonest Budgetary Scare Tactics and Cartoonists Mock Obama’s Hysteria
Posted in Bureaucracy, Fiscal Policy, Government Spending, Humor, Political Humor, tagged Bureaucracy, Fiscal Policy, Government Spending, Humor, Political Humor, Sequester, Sequestration, Washington Monument Syndrome on March 5, 2013| 21 Comments »
Public finance experts are quite familiar with the budgetary shenanigans of cossetted government bureaucracies. They even have terms to describe how agencies and departments try to manipulate outcomes by claiming that any requirement for fiscal restraint will necessitate cuts to the most politically popular parts of the budget. The “fireman first principle” – Describes how […]
After Reviewing the Federal Reserve’s Lousy Track Record, Thomas Sowell Asks Why such a Deeply Flawed Institution Should Be Allowed to Accumulate more Power
Posted in Bernanke, Big Government, Central planning, Easy money, Economics, Federal Reserve, tagged Bernanke, Big Government, Central planning, Easy money, Economics, Federal Reserve on February 6, 2013| 17 Comments »
When speaking about the difference between the private sector and the government, I sometimes emphasize that mistakes and errors are inevitable, and that the propensity to screw up may be just as prevalent in the private sector as it is in the public sector. I actually think the government is more likely to screw up, for reasons […]
An Invaluable Economic History Lesson from Thomas Sowell: Politicians Should Only “Do Something” If that Means Doing Less
Posted in Economics, Fiscal Policy, Government Spending, Keynesian, Obama, Reagan, Recession, stimulus, tagged Economics, Fiscal Policy, Government Spending, Keynesian, Obama, Reagan, Recession, stimulus, Thomas Sowell on September 11, 2012| 25 Comments »
The great Ronald Reagan famously said (and I am paraphrasing, since I do not remember the exact phrase) that the most dangerous words in the English language were “I am from Washington and I am here to help you.” Those are very wise words, especially when we think of the damage politicians have done because of […]
Thomas Sowell Exposes How the Left Advances Statism by Distorting Language
Posted in Housing, Race, Statism, tagged Housing, Hunger, Race, Statism, Thomas Sowell on June 27, 2012| 21 Comments »
Even though it’s important – particularly in a world with slippery politicians – to define words and terms accurately, I haven’t focused on this issue. Indeed, a quick search through my archives shows that the only glossary I’ve ever published was this humorous list of financial terms. And the only dictionary I’ve ever published was […]
Thomas Sowell Explains the 1942 Case that Enabled Government Statism, Just as Plessy v. Ferguson Enabled Government Racism
Posted in Constitution, Health Care, Health Reform, Obama, tagged Constitution, Government-run healthcare, Obamacare, Thomas Sowell, Wickard v Filburn on March 30, 2012| 60 Comments »
A few days ago, I wrote about Article 1, Section 8, of the Constitution, which lists the “enumerated powers” of the federal government. That post included a reference to Wickard v. Filburn, an infamous Supreme Court case that opened the door to unlimited intervention from Washington. Why was this case important? As is so often the […]
Thomas Sowell Wonders Why the Obama Administration Is Trying to Undermine Educational Opportunities for Black Children
Posted in Education, Obama, Race, School Choice, tagged Obama, Race, School Choise, Thomas Sowell on March 13, 2012| 49 Comments »
Welcome, Instapundit readers. This school choice video shows the best way of dealing with the problems described in this post (though, as Walter Williams explains, that’s only part of the answer). ======================================================= If you care about helping the less fortunate succeed, I’m commenting today on a Thomas Sowell column that will make you sad and […]
Thomas Sowell Exposes the Historical and Economic Illiteracy of the Political Class
Posted in Big Government, Class warfare, Economics, Fiscal Policy, Government Spending, Great Depression, Keynes, Keynesian, Laffer Curve, stimulus, Taxation, tagged Big Government, Class warfare, Economics, Fiscal Policy, Government Spending, Great Depression, Keynesian Economics, Laffer Curve, Obama, stimulus, Taxation, Thomas Sowell on September 17, 2011| 23 Comments »
Thomas Sowell just completed a three-part “Back to the Future” series, looking at a couple of fiscal policy issues. His unifying theme is how the political class fails (perhaps deliberately) to learn from mistakes. In Part I, he decimates President Obama’s new stimulus scheme. Once we get past the glowing rhetoric, what is the president […]
Thomas Sowell: Obama’s Policies Are a Sedative, not a Stimulus
Posted in Big Government, Keynesian, Obama, stimulus, tagged Big Government, Obama, Recession, stimulus on March 13, 2010| 13 Comments »
As usual, Sowell is right on the mark. By expanding the size and burden of government, Obama is making it more difficult for the economy to prosper: President Obama keeps telling us that he is “creating jobs.” But more and more Americans have no jobs. The unemployment rate has declined slightly, but only because many […]
Insight from Thomas Sowell
Posted in Big Government, Economics, Fiscal Policy, Great Depression, Keynesian, Obama, tagged Government intervention, Government Spending, Great Depression, Thomas Sowell on September 27, 2009| 19 Comments »
Government did not help us in the 1930s, and it is not helping us today.
Walter Williams, RIP
Posted in Economics, Walter Williams, tagged Economics, Walter Williams on December 3, 2020| 13 Comments »
One of America’s leading public intellectuals, Walter Williams, has passed away. In 2014, I shared a teaser for Suffer No Fools, a video biography of his life. To commemorate the life of this great man, here’s the full video. I first got to know Walter when I was a Ph.D. student at George Mason University […]
Correcting Pope Francis…Again
Posted in Economics, Free Markets, Pope Francis, tagged Economics, Free Markets, Pope Francis on October 5, 2020| 6 Comments »
While I generally don’t think recycling is economically sensible, I am going to reuse this 2013 BBC interview because it’s time (again) to criticize the economic illiteracy of Pope Francis. As I’ve previously explained, it’s good to care for the less fortunate. Indeed, as I explain in the interview, it’s part of being a good […]
The Trump Administration Tramples Property Rights
Posted in Donald Trump, Fascism, Government intervention, Property Rights, tagged Donald Trump, Fascism, Government intervention, Property Rights on September 13, 2020| 16 Comments »
During the Obama years, I frequently criticized the Administration’s bad policy choices. On a wide range of issues. But I also expressed disappointment when President Obama arbitrarily and unilaterally decided to override or overlook laws that were inconvenient to his agenda. Or when he asserted powers that didn’t exist. Simply stated, I care about the […]
Anti-Keynesian Growth after World War II
Posted in Debt, Deficit, Economics, Government Spending, Keynesian, tagged Debt, Deficit, Economics, Government Spending, Keynesian Economics on August 14, 2020| 5 Comments »
Last week, I shared some data showing how the economy enjoyed a strong recovery from recession in the early 1920s when President Warren Harding cut government spending. (And these were genuine cuts, not the nonsense we get from today’s politicians, who claim they’ve cut spending simply because the budget increases by 5 percent rather than […]
Warren Harding’s Anti-Keynesian Solution to a Deep Economic Downturn
Posted in Economics, Government Spending, Keynesian, tagged Economics, Government Spending, Keynesian Economics, Warren Harding on August 6, 2020| 5 Comments »
We did not get good policy during the economic crisis of the 1930s. Indeed, it’s quite likely that bad decisions by Herbert Hoover and Franklin Roosevelt deepened and lengthened the Great Depression. Likewise, George Bush and Barack Obama had the wrong responses (the TARP bailout and the faux stimulus) to the economic downturn of 2008-09. […]
Ludicrous Poverty Analysis from the United Nations
Posted in Big Government, Poverty, Redistribution, United Nations, tagged Big Government, Poverty, Redistribution, United Nations on July 20, 2020| 7 Comments »
Back in 2017, the Center for Freedom and Prosperity released this video, which shows that free markets and small government are the best recipe for poor nations that want to become rich nations. The CF&P video was motivated in part by a need to debunk international bureaucracies such as the OECD and IMF, which abandoned […]
Teacher Unions vs. Black Children
Posted in Education, School Choice, Union Bosses, tagged Education, School Choice, Thomas Sowell, Union Bosses on June 30, 2020| 14 Comments »
Today is Thomas Sowell’s 90th birthday. The man is a living legend. I’ve cited his great work many times, and I definitely urge people to read what Walter Williams just wrote about his long-time friend. And I also recommend this Mark Perry column, which contains 15 of Sowell’s most insightful quotes, as well as two […]
Economic Liberty and the Constitution
Posted in Constitution, Economics, tagged Constitution, Economic Freedom, Economics, Enumerated Powers on May 30, 2020| 11 Comments »
In this interview from last March, I groused that the Supreme Court – largely thanks to statist Justices appointed by one of America’s worst presidents – basically decided, starting in the 1930s, that it would no longer be bound by the Constitution’s provisions that protect economic liberty. I’m not a lawyer, much less an expert […]
Coronavirus and the Two Americas
Posted in Elitism, Equality, Hypocrisy, Inequality, tagged Coronavirus, Elitism, Equality, Hypocrisy, Inequality on May 25, 2020| 11 Comments »
Earlier this month, Neil Ferguson was awarded membership in the Bureaucrat Hall of Fame after he and his mistress were caught violating lockdown rules that Ferguson – in his role as a supposed public health expert – demanded for the entire United Kingdom. This was a stunning display of hypocrisy, perhaps even to the extent […]
The Media’s Pervasively Dishonest Coverage of Trump’s New Budget
Posted in Balanced Budget, Donald Trump, Fiscal Policy, Government Spending, Media Bias, tagged Balanced Budget, Donald Trump, Fiscal Policy, Government Spending, Media Bias on February 10, 2020| 16 Comments »
I would prefer not to write about President Trump’s new budget, largely because I know it’s not a serious proposal. Even before he was elected, I pointed out that Trump was a big-government Republican who had no intention of dealing with serious fiscal issues such as the rising burden of entitlement spending. So I wasn’t […]
More Economic Illiteracy from Pope Francis
Posted in Class warfare, Free Markets, Pope Francis, Poverty, Redistribution, tagged Class warfare, Free Markets, Pope Francis, Poverty, Redistribution on February 7, 2020| 6 Comments »
Back in 2013, I talked to the BBC about Pope Francis and his bizarre hostility to free enterprise. Sadly, it doesn’t appear that the Pope took my advice (though I think it’s amusing that at least someone in the Vatican is paying attention). There’s a wealth of evidence that markets are the best way of […]
The Federal Government’s Harassment of Oracle
Posted in Discrimination, Government intervention, Race, tagged Discrimination, Government intervention, Race on January 10, 2020| 2 Comments »
Regulatory policy has been one of the bright spots of the Trump Administration (along with tax policy). But it’s not a perfect record. In a column for Townhall, Steve Sherman describes how the Labor Department launched a regulatory attack against Oracle in the final days of the Obama Administration. President Obama was not a good […]
Redistribution Programs and Work Requirements
Posted in Dependency, Food Stamps, Redistribution, Welfare, tagged Dependency, Food Stamps, Redistribution, Welfare on December 5, 2019| 4 Comments »
Building on the success of state-level reforms in Kansas, Maine, Wisconsin, Alabama, and Georgia, the Trump Administration has proposed to tighten rules that impose work requirements on childless and able-bodied adults who receive food stamps. Since I want to get Washington out of the business of redistribution, this is not the ideal solution. But are work […]
Education Week, Part I: The Continuing Deterioration of K-12 Government Schooling
Posted in Education, Government Inefficiency, Union Bosses, tagged Education, Government Inefficiency, National Education Association on November 18, 2019| 36 Comments »
According to the union bosses at the National Education Association, November 18-22 is National Education Week and a “wonderful opportunity to celebrate public education.” I care about facts and I care about kids, and all the evidence shows that government schools do a terrible job. So, instead of celebrating, I’m going to focus this week […]
Pope Francis Rejects Prosperity for Developing Nations
Posted in Economics, Free Markets, Pope Francis, Poverty, tagged Economics, Free Markets, Pope Francis, Poverty on September 11, 2019| 3 Comments »
I first opined about Pope Francis in 2013, when I told a BBC audience why the Pope was wrong on economic policy. The following year, I expanded on that point, explaining that statist policies are bad for the poor. And I revisited the issue again last year. I’m not the only one making these arguments. […]