At the moment, post-pandemic America is drunk on credit—but the piper will soon demand his pay. And then comes: recession, the inevitable way economies purge excesses and get back on track. Who’s ready for the pain? READ MORE »

The Midas Paradox Financial Markets, Government Policy Shocks, and the Great Depression By Scott Sumner

Back in 1987, Deng Xiaoping asserted that “the Middle East has oil; China has rare earths.” China is tightening its chokehold on the dissemination of those materials. Whither then, green energy, which depends on them? READ MORE »

Re-Thinking Green Alternatives to Environmental Bureaucracy Edited by Robert Higgs, Carl P. Close

Following Bruen, last year’s landmark gun-rights case, several lower courts have been getting it right. Others, however, have retained an air of defiance to the Supreme Court. It needs to step in and stop the nonsense. READ MORE »

The Founders’ Second Amendment Origins of the Right to Bear Arms By Stephen P. Halbrook

What does the failure of First Republic Bank and its government-ordered rescue by JP Morgan Chase portend? A landscape littered with more failed banks—and lots of rescued bankers battening on taxpayer dollars. How do we prevent this? (Let the author hear your thoughts!) READ MORE »

Political Affiliations of Federal Reserve Economists The Independent Review, Fall 2022