Mark Skousen
Minimum Wage Minimizes Job Growth
Job growth has been the bleakest aspect of the seemingly never-ending Great Recession. It is not even keeping up with population growth, and more and more Americans are dropping out of the labor force (only 63% of all adult Americans now hold a job). Artificial efforts to stimulate the economy aren’t helping. The latest dumb […]
The Fed is out of Control
“The establishment of Central Banking removes the checks of bank credit expansion, and puts the inflationary engine into operation.” — Murray N. Rothbard, “What Has Government Done to Our Money?” Last Monday morning’s Yahoo Finance headline was most appropriate: “Markets Rise on Summers’s Decision; Free Alcohol in Stores.” The announcement had reference to Larry Summers’s […]
The 9/11 Investment Strategy: Preparing for the Unexpected
“It’s easier to prepare than to predict.” — Hank Brock I gave my first talk about the 9/11 terrorist attacks yesterday at the New York City chapter of the American Association of Individual Investors (AAII). I moved to New York only a week before the 9/11 attacks in 2001 to become the new president of […]
How to Protect Yourself from a Stock Market Crash
“Look out! A 1987-Style Crash is Coming.” — Marc Faber Last month, Marc Faber, publisher of the Gloom, Boom & Doom Report, predicted that a 1987 crash “will happen in the back half of 2013.” In 1987, the stock market boomed — until it collapsed on October 19, 1987, when the Dow fell more than […]
I Too Have a Dream
“I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.” — Martin Luther King, Jr. (1963) Fifty years ago, Martin Luther King, Jr., gave a famous sermon at the Lincoln […]
Deficits Fall: Is Gridlock Good?
A mild recovery in the economy, combined with tax hikes and a spending slowdown, resulted in a sharply falling annual federal deficit — from $1.5 trillion two years ago to $600 billion today. Chris Edwards of the Cato Institute has just released a series of charts showing a definite slowdown in federal spending since the […]