Donald Trump’s Education Secretary nominee Betsy DeVos is getting flak from both sides – from the left because she is not fully committed to unionized public education, from the right because she appears at least neutral on the “Common Core” national standards mandated by the Obama administration. Education is important – it is how we […]

Establishment journals such as the Economist and the Financial Times, and the participants in this week’s Davos rock festival have recently been decrying defeats for “liberalism” in the votes for Brexit and Donald Trump. Naturally, we are expected to sympathize: after all, what right-thinking person could object to liberalism? There is just one problem: the […]

Former Congressman Ron Paul, (R-TX) America’s foremost Gold Standard advocate, has indicated his interest in filling one of the two vacant Federal Reserve Governor posts. Even assuming President-elect Trump does not intend to move towards a Gold Standard, he should still appoint Paul to the Fed, ideally announcing the appointment immediately. An immediate Paul appointment […]

Following Britain’s Brexit vote last June, there has been considerable speculation, or indeed wishful thinking, that Brexit might be followed by the break-up of the European Union. However, many members of the EU would have nowhere to go if it broke up; they are too small to survive successfully in a dog-eat-dog world. For them, […]

The Electoral College on December 19 elected Donald Trump President with only modest “faithless” votes for candidates who did not run on November 8. Before the vote, there were claims that the electoral college in voting for the candidates selected by the public, was not fulfilling Alexander Hamilton’s vision set out in Federalist #68. This […]

After the Federal Open Market Committee raised the Federal Funds rate by 0.25% last week it became clear that Janet Yellen and her predecessor Ben Bernanke have laid a trap for President-elect Donald Trump. Each time the FOMC raises rates, increasing the rates the Fed pays on $2.1 trillion of bank deposits with it, it […]

President-elect Donald Trump’s deal with Carrier rescued some 800 jobs at a cost of some $7 million in additional subsidies. It was immediately attacked, often by commentators whose devotion to the free market had never previously been detected. In reality, the Ricardian free trade doctrine is an abstraction that does not work well in the […]

The price of gold shot up on Election Night, as it became clear that Donald Trump would be the next President, but has since sunk by more than $100 per ounce. President Trump may raise interest rates, cause a global depression through tariffs or govern as a Reaganite, boosting the stock market – all bad […]

Last year, the British government redeemed the Consolidated Annuities perpetual bonds (Consols), which had been in existence for 263 years, albeit with two reductions in rates in 1757 and 1888. This was only an extreme example of the effect funny money policies worldwide have had on investment, reducing “time horizons” to no more than a […]

Four weeks ago, I wrote of the likely future in Hillary Clinton’s America; it was not a pretty sight. Since we have now been spared that future, it’s now worth looking forward to what Donald Trump’s America may look like in eight years. Unfortunately, there are still a few hiccups.