The Constitution’s framers feared large, permanent and professional armies. James Madison wrote, “Armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few.”
China’s economic growth over the last 40 years has been spectacular, making China the “workshop of the world.”
These stories remind us that modern corporations, where shareholders are granted limited liability, reflect a classic legal and economic trade-off.
The top-line story is that the Fitch downgrade emerged from its perception that there “has been a steady deterioration in standards of governance over the last 20 years, including on fiscal and debt matters” in the United States.
Nevertheless, this and other studies find that attending an elite school has little to no effect on future earnings, as higher test scores alone predict higher earnings regardless of where one attends college.
Of course, people have different opinions about how hard constitutional change ought to be.
Over 90% of the El Salvadoran public approves of the government led by Nayib Bukele, who calls himself the “world’s coolest dictator.”
Forty years ago, if you said, “Go Google it,” or, “Let’s meet up by Zoom,” the expressions would have been incomprehensible, and your friends might have wondered what was wrong with you. Yet today, they are commonly understood.
Economics considers individuals who cooperate with others through networks such as markets and institutions to achieve common goals.
High-profile disasters focus attention on those dangers, and that focused attention makes people work to reduce those dangers.
Invest $10,000 in a five-year TIPS today, and if the CPI rises 20% over the period, the bond’s payout at maturity will be $12,000.
At latest count, some 38 households with 144 people from Afghanistan have settled in Muncie.
In the United States, pollution emitted by manufacturers has steadily declined over the last several decades while output has increased.
While the recent debt-limit bill did not solve the United States’ long-running fiscal problem, its process gives us a glimmer of hope.
A nation is ill-advised to depend on a potential military adversary for its entire supply of military-related goods.
In February 2022, Bill spoke to the student-led Ball State Economics Club. Bill gave us an inside view into the growth, challenges and ultimate triumph of Angie’s List (now called Angi), the company he co-founded.
Neither China nor Russia are liberal democracies, and India is backtracking on its democratic leanings.
For over 100 years, water has been an asset subject to the rule of use-it-or-lose-it. Western water laws ensure that unused water is forfeited back to the common pool.
Open-market operations are when the Fed increases or reduces the nation’s money supply by buying or selling government bonds.
The word economics, however, traces to the Greek word oikonomia, which, in ancient Greece, meant estate management.
