Straight out of the movie ‘Groundhog Day,’ Japan wants another stimulus package.

In 1950, the average corporate CEO earned 30 times as much as the ordinary worker. Today, it’s 300 times as much. No one is worth 300 times the average worker.

If you wonder why the economy is stagnating, one reason is crony capitalism whereby businesses align with the government to create policies that are favorable to their industries. Usually benefits such as tax breaks or government contracts are awarded to these government favored industries. Capital is thereby diverted to enterprises that, but for the favors, wouldn’t be economically viable. Thus capital which is needed by businesses that are profitable is reduced, which reduces economic growth. Crony capitalists use rhetoric that is often high-toned and talk in generalities about certain “essential” industries and ”national goals” that “we” need in America or otherwise “America” will lose out. They favor government handouts because it is in their benefit and because they can’t compete in the open market.

I am reminded of the words of the English philosopher Herbert Spencer, who said: “The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is to fill the world with fools.”

Whenever unions and politicians conspire to raise your taxes, you know the taxpayer is going to get the short end of the stick. This happens because politician are willing to buy the votes of union members who vote in big blocks.

The resistance to using digital media to distribute scholarly works reminds me of the early resistance to the printing press by the highly-educated and skilled guild of the scribes.

Contrary to popular thinking, the Fed and government policies that are aiming at lowering unemployment don’t improve people’s living standards, but on the contrary they undermine the process of real-wealth generation and thus set in motion an economic impoverishment.

This paper investigates the institutional causes of China’s Great Famine. It presents two empirical findings: 1) in 1959, when the famine began, food production was almost three times more than population subsistence needs; and 2) regions with higher per capita food production that year suffered higher famine mortality rates, a surprising reversal of a typically negative correlation. A simple model based on historical institutional details shows that these patterns are consistent with the policy outcomes in a centrally planned economy in which the government is unable to easily collect and respond to new information in the presence of an aggregate shock to production.

With everyone once again screaming and yelling about China’s currency policies, it’s another good time to take a deep breath and look at what’s actually happening in global trade and currency markets to test whether any of the policies being proposed has any grounds in, you know, reality. (Crazy thought, I know.)

When you price workers out of the labor market, a black market will emerge to hire them - especially if they have no other means of support. And the black labor market, like other black markets, will develop extralegal commitment devices to enforce contracts and stymie legal punishment - reputation, ostracism, and - of course - violence.