The Federal Open-Market Committee’s decision Tuesday to leave its target interest rate unchanged surprised no one. Under Alan Greenspan, it adopted a practice of changing course only after prior warning. It had not given such hints after its November meeting.…
Category: Other
Immigration reform complex
The coordinated raids Tuesday on Swift & Co. packing plants in Worthington, Minn. and five other cities around the country highlight the inherent complications of immigration reform. In each case, large numbers of federal officers led by Immigration and Customs…
Politics can scuttle Fed’s mission
History has demonstrated repeatedly that when a nation’s money supply is subordinated to politics, inflation results and society suffers. The United States structured the Federal Reserve to minimize political tinkering. But elected officials still pressure Fed decision makers to manipulate…
Price laws are useless relics of New Deal
Institutions and laws often outlive the problems they were created to solve — even when they were bad in the first place. Thomas Hobbes, the 17th-century English philosopher, famously described the politicized Renaissance papacy as “the ghost of the deceased…
Money only buys so much happiness
The argument that money cannot buy happiness is old and broadly accepted. Economists assume people make decisions so as to get the greatest possible satisfaction of their needs and wants. Moreover, they assume that — all other things being equal…
How cost-efficient is NATO?
Collective-security agreements like NATO can foster efficient use of resources for national defense. However, member nations of such organizations may be tempted to free-ride on the expenditures of others. President Jimmy Carter struggled with this problem 27 years ago, and…
Treasury cashes in on collected coins
The U.S. Treasury has discovered that “seignorage” works. Building on the free money the public forked over after the Treasury issued quarters in honor of each state, the Treasury is starting a series of dollar coins featuring each U.S. president.…
Time to give thanks for immigrants
Thanksgiving is a good time to reflect on international migration. After all, the holiday began with immigrants giving thanks for what was then a pretty bleak survival. That early migration to Plymouth Rock was one of many migrations that built…
Policy stymied by politics in U.S., China
U.S. election news overshadowed an extraordinary announcement by China last week: Its holdings of foreign currencies passed $1 trillion. Much of the hoard consists of U.S. dollars, most of which are lent back to the U.S. government. This unprecedented development…
Is drug-cost bargaining sound policy?
When Congress passed the Medicare Prescription Drug Improvement and Modernization Act in 2003, it specifically banned the Social Security Administration from negotiating preferential prices with drug companies. The new Democratic majority in Congress wants to change that. Indeed, removing that…