Mark Skousen
The Power of One — Milton Friedman Won All Debates Except One
“It is incredible the quantity of good that may be done in a country by a single man who will make a business out of it…” — Ben Franklin (1783) I joined more than 300 people in the ballroom of the Drake Hotel in Chicago to celebrate Milton Friedman’s 100th birthday on Tuesday evening, July […]
Beware of Artificial Prosperity in China
I believe the 21st century will belong to China because most centuries have belonged to China.” — Niall Ferguson After this year’s highly successful FreedomFest, my wife and I flew to China for several speaking engagements and an opportunity to access the second-biggest economy in the world (unless you count the European Union (EU) as […]
The Ongoing Crisis — Special Report from “Emergency Session” at FreedomFest
“One rarely comes across other venues in life that remotely match FreedomFest’s intellectually elevated atmosphere of free association for free minds.” — Gene Jewett, attendee More than 2,000 investors and concerned citizens gathered for FreedomFest last week at Bally’s Events Center in Las Vegas to hear from over 150 speakers, including Sen. Rand Paul, Judge […]
Demise of Small Banks Shows Unintended Consequences of Regulation
Since 1990, when the United States had more than 12,000 commercial banks, the number of financial institutions in the country has nearly halved to hit 6,263. Unfortunately, a good portion of the consolidation has been driven by the unintended consequences of heavy-handed government regulation. You do not need to take my word for it, since […]
Are We Going Back to the Gold Standard
After I wrote “The Economics of the Pure Gold Standard” (FEE, 4th ed., 2010) — click here to order — many subscribers have asked me if we are going back to a gold standard. I don’t think so, unless we have a complete meltdown of our monetary system — and that’s a big if. I […]
Supreme Alert: Court Endorses “Unlimited Government!” Stock Market Falls Again…
The fallout of the Supreme Court decision will be felt for months… In essence, the decision opens the floodgates for a bigger, more intrusive, more dangerous government. As George Washington warned, “Government is a dangerous servant and a fearful master.” Last week, I taught a group of Scouts about the U.S. Constitution. I pointed out […]