Author: Thomas L. Knapp

Source: Paul Krugman

“Why the U.S. is the ‘last big petrostate’ and why that’s bad for everyone.” (03/29/26)

https://paulkrugman.substack.com/p/is-america-suffering-from-the-resource

Source: Foundation for Economic Education
by Deborah Palma

“In the mid-19th century, the town of Peoria, Illinois, originally established as a French outpost in the 18th century, underwent a period of rapid expansion. Although not a newly founded settlement, its transformation during this period reflects a broader pattern seen across the American frontier. Within a few decades, it evolved into a regional agricultural and commercial hub. This was not the result of luck or central planning. The decisive factor was clear, recognized, and transferable property titles. Farmers knew that the land they cultivated belonged to them. Merchants felt secure investing in warehouses, mills, and river transportation. Families built homes with the expectation that their children would inherit the fruits of that effort. Where property was clearly defined, the future made sense.” (03/29/26)

https://fee.org/articles/how-clear-property-rights-built-the-american-frontier/

Source: Washington Post
by Megan McArdle

“Economist John Maynard Keynes once remarked, ‘Practical men, who believe themselves to be quite exempt from any intellectual influences, are usually the slaves of some defunct economist.’ The wry commentary eventually curdled into ironic prophecy, as Keynes became one of those defunct economists. His prescription for countercyclical stimulus mutated into a belief that government spending was a kind of perpetual motion machine: Since spending creates jobs and jobs create spending, you could fuel an increasingly virtuous cycle with ever-expanding outlays. This garble led to unnecessary stimulus during post-pandemic recovery and then some unnecessary inflation. Alas, this is common in public policy fights. Expert debates grounded in the conditions of a particular time get filed down to sound bites in media reports. Years later, half-remembered versions inspire policies that are at best inappropriate to the current moment and, at worst, counterproductive.” (03/29/26)

https://archive.is/ckww9

Source: Liberal Currents
by Ryan C Smith

“Donald Trump, it seems, has managed to outdo his first term’s mismanagement of COVID-19 with an economic crisis of extraordinary scope and scale, entirely of his making. In a recent interview, International Energy Agency (IEA) Chief Fatih Birol asserted the present energy crisis was already on track to be ‘worse than the 1970s.’ How bad is that exactly? The answer, unfortunately, is that this has the potential to be the worst economic downturn since the Great Depression” (03/29/26)

https://www.liberalcurrents.com/worse-than-the-1970s/

Source: Adam Smith Institute
by Tim Worstall

“No one living in Britain can be compensated for that past existence of slavery or the slave trade. This assertion depends upon a previous assertion, obviously. But, as is often so fun, we can take someone’s assertion and take it to be true and then see where that leads us. So, one assertion out there is that it was slavery — or the slave trade perhaps — which made Britain rich. … So, anyone living in a society made rich by slavery is themselves a beneficiary of slavery. For they’re gaining the high wages that come from living in a rich place. … It is wholly impossible to compensate, with money, someone for having made them rich.” (03/29/26)

https://www.adamsmith.org/blog/thinking-logically-about-slavery-reparations