How Large Is the Federal Debt?
Chris Edwards The federal government’s debt is massive and growing rapidly. How massive? Federal debt held by the public of $28.5 trillion is eight times larger than the combined debt of all state and local governments of $3.3 trillion. Not only is
Can We Find a Basis for Private Property Rights?
While Murray Rothbard believed that self-ownership formed the basis for private property rights, other philosophers disagree. Original Article: Can We Find a Basis for Private Property Rights?
How To Prevent the Boom-Bust Business Cycle
I recently wrote about how the Federal Reserve has made the economy of the United States much worse than it would have been without their bureaucratic central planning over the past century. While the Fed’s disastrous track record is widely acknowledged
Get the US Out of the Middle East
The ongoing conflict between the state of Israel and Hamas escalated considerably on Saturday. A group of armed fighters—presumably of Hamas—broke through the Gaza-Israel border barrier and launched what is sure to be a short-lived invasion of southwestern Israel. At least
New Defending Globalization Essays: China Then; China Now; and the ‘Race to the Bottom’
Scott Lincicome As I mentioned last month, Cato’s Defending Globalization project will publish new content every other week throughout the fall and into 2024. Today we’ve published three new essays: Globalization: A race to the bottom – or to the top?, by Johan Norberg, debunks the
Census Bureau Analysis Supports Cato’s MENA Analysis
Andrew C. Forrester Around the time that Cato published my estimates that the Middle Eastern or North African (MENA) population is around 3.8 million in 2021, the US Census Bureau found similar results from the 2020 enumeration that counted 3.5 million
How the Inflation Reduction Act Bankrolls EPA Overreach
Travis Fisher The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) offers a master class in implementing expensive, counterproductive, and highly partisan energy policy. In previous posts, I discussed 1) how the electricity generation subsidies in the IRA could cost taxpayers $2.5 or $3 trillion and 2)
How Paper Money Turns Governments into Predators
Aside from stealing your life savings and launching depressions, one of the nastier features of paper money is what it does to governments. In short, paper money transforms governments from parasites to predators. Once a government can print what it likes,
Governor Newsom Bars Californians from Self-Medicating with Psychedelics
Jeffrey A. Singer When the California legislature passed a bipartisan bill one month ago that would decriminalize possessing and personally using certain plant‐based psychedelic drugs, I welcomed the action as building momentum toward full legalization of a class of drugs with great potential to
Daily demand and supply: olive oil
From the WaPo (Olive oil prices reach record highs as Spain’s harvest is halved): Extreme heat, wildfires and drought have decimated much of the world’s olive oil harvest yet again, driving prices to a record high of $9,000 per metric ton. Most