Economy

A water drop and ripples

The origin of inflation matters.

By Justin Katz | July 3, 2024 |

This tweet reminds us, incidentally, that it makes a difference where inflation enters the economy, particularly in whom it benefits: If inflation results from an increase in the monetary supply, there’s more money floating around for the same goods and services, and the benefit tilts from the top down (starting with investor types), and effect is…

Special interests tug on a fraying rope in tug of war

Politics This Week: Special Interest Tug of War

By Justin Katz | June 24, 2024 |

John DePetro and Justin Katz look for the hidden dynamics of local politics.

A zombie politician speechifies

Politics This Week: Governed by Corruption

By Justin Katz | June 4, 2024 |

John DePetro and Justin Katz marvel at the built-in corruption at the state and federal levels.

Men shake hands in a dark alley

Freedom has no noncompete with propaganda.

By Justin Katz | May 23, 2024 |

Many people would likely see it as an obscure topic reported in a minor venue, but Christian Winthrop’s recent article in The Newport Buzz about the Federal Trade Commission’s (FTC’s) move against noncompete agreements hits three distinct notes that fire me up. The first is that it is unambiguous propaganda: In a landmark decision aimed…

A threatening nanny glowers with a switch

The assumption seems to be we’re all either children or slaves.

By Justin Katz | May 22, 2024 |

Civility and compassion are important traits we should, as a society, strive to inculcate in our children and uphold ourselves.  However, big-state nannyism has reached the point that well-meaning people no longer appreciate the distinction between how we should act as responsible people and what we should be forced or forbidden to do by an…

A water drop and ripples

I’m getting worried about how obvious it is our monetary system is largely fictional.

By Justin Katz | May 13, 2024 |

It’s bad enough that the Biden administration has convinced a generation of young Americans that tens of billions of dollars of their debt can just disappear with no effect because the debt didn’t really exist, anyway, but the Chair of Biden’s Council of Economic Advisor’s being unable to sound coherent when asked why the government borrows…

Parents have a picnic with their alien children

Politics This Week: The Twilight Generation of Political Normalcy in Rhode Island

By Justin Katz | May 6, 2024 |

John DePetro and Justin Katz worry about the significance of creeping lunacy in RI politics.

A water drop and ripples

I’ve wondered how Americans are getting by in this economy.

By Justin Katz | May 2, 2024 |

This may be part of the answer, and certainly corresponds with my experience:

A mechanic stares down a destroyed machine

Interest rates have become like rent control.

By Justin Katz | April 25, 2024 |

And they’re both artificial thresholds created by interventionist policies.  realEstateTrent makes a great point, here:   Progressive policies, which shift decision-making to the blunt tool of government, create these unhealthy thresholds everywhere.  People stay on the public dole because they’d have to earn so much money for a job to be worthwhile that no job…

A water drop and ripples

The people leaving Massachusetts are no surprise.

By Justin Katz | April 23, 2024 |

Here’s the Boston Globe’s description of the people leaving Massachusetts: Boston Indicators, the research arm of the Boston Foundation, published an analysis exploring trends in so-called domestic outmigration in Massachusetts, or people leaving for elsewhere in the United States. Looking at a two-year average across 2021 and 2022, the analysis found that the people moving…