December 4, 2023
Many people understandably wonder what spectacular music humanity was denied by the premature death of Mozart at the age of 35. What symphonies, operas, and concertos would today be part of the regular repertoire of orchestras and other musical ensembles had that sublime composer lived even for another ten years? Imagine had he lived to
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Great news on the inflation front: According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, price pressures have significantly eased. The Personal Consumption Expenditures Price Index (PCEPI) rose 3.0 percent year-over-year in October, down from 3.4 percent the month before. Continuously compounded, headline inflation was a mere 0.59 percent last month. Core inflation, which excludes volatile food
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The economy desk at the Wall Street Journal is promoting supply-side disinflation. Some of their articles are quite bad. Others are more promising. Nick Timiraos, the Journal’s chief economics correspondent, recently offered a nuanced perspective. Timiraos outlines the standard productivity-driven view of easing price pressures: The U.S. economy’s speed limit, known as potential growth, appears
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If anything is fair to say in this world, it is that presidential candidate Nikki Haley is not a fan of TikTok. She has been saying for quite some time now that the platform needs to be banned in the United States, and some unfortunate, if predictable outbursts last week provided a whole lot of
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In the Wall Street Journal, James Mackintosh argues the Fed doesn’t deserve credit for the recent decline in inflation. Disinflation occurred “mostly because of things the Fed has no control over, as normality returned after the pandemic,” he writes. Instead, supply-side improvements explain easing price pressures. The best that can be said for the Fed,
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Economists have often written and said that since both parties to a voluntary exchange agreement gain, private property-based market systems can be well-summarized as “mutually beneficial.” Every principles of economics textbook I can remember from over four decades of university teaching has said something of the sort. The reason for such a unanimous positive “verdict”
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The bankruptcy filing of WeWork Inc. on November 6, 2023 came with neither a whimper nor a bang, but with a laconic shrug. Although the company has been around for 13 years, it has been defined more by successive flirtations with demise and unseemly corporate revelations than by innovative ideas for the second half of
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When will we stop electing political candidates from the ivory tower? After nearly 15 months with an academic president in office, the Colombian people are realizing that putting a revolutionary academic in charge may have been unwise. This sends a warning that academics tend to be out of touch, inept at materially connecting with the
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America, apparently, suffers from a new epidemic. US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy called the impact of loneliness and isolation “devastating.” His 83-page report accompanying the advisory defines loneliness as “a subjective distressing experience that results from perceived isolation or inadequate meaningful connections.” The interest of the US government in this phenomenon is not unique; Several
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Unfortunately, most professional historical research has become the essentially worthless appendage of Woke ideology. Empirically grounded research focusing on change over time, however, can provide policymakers with important insights, if only they are astute enough to pay attention. If new policymakers come into office in 2025, they may decide it is in the best interest
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