Victor C. Bolles
October 24, 2024
Everybody has ideas on how to run the American economy but nobody seems to be very happy about the results. The Economist magazine across the Atlantic doesn’t think our economy is so bad. In fact, they think it is the envy of the world. Is our economy the envy of the world because our political leadership? In this commentary we will look at why the rest of the world thinks our economy is so good.
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Besides, the stock market thinks that the Fed is running the economy anyway. But the Fed’s actions seem to perversely affect how markets are supposed to work. Good economic news, like more jobs and lower unemployment, drives the market down on fears that the Fed will have to raise interest rates. Bad economic news, that means the Fed may have to cut rates, sends the market up.
The Inevitable Progression of Inequality
Victor C. Bolles
October 18, 2024
Income inequality seems to be getting worse every day in America, but whose fault is it? Greedy capitalists? Someone or something else? Or maybe inequality is inevitable? If we can’t identify the causes of inequality there is little we can do to prevent it. In this commentary we look at some steps that we could take to slow the inevitable progression of inequality.
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But income inequality has always been with us. Not only that, but as Walter Scheidel writes in his book, The Great Leveler, over thousands of years in all types of polities, income inequality and the wealth gap tend to increase over time. Elites throughout history have entrenched themselves and then enriched themselves.
Victor C. Bolles
October 11, 2024
Have you ever thought about what would really make America great again? While there are people that believe that America was never great in the first place, most of us patriotically think America was pretty great. But most Americans don’t really know what would make America great again, primarily because they don’t know what made America great in the first place. In this commentary, Victor Bolles explains what he believes would really make America great again.
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Just as America has reached its peak of power it has been riven by internal dissent. Our belief in American exceptionalism is now doubted by our own people. Were the Founders wrong?
Victor C. Bolles
October 4, 2024
A strike by the International Longshoremen’s Association on East Coast of the United States is creating shortages and rising prices as ships wait in the harbor to unload their goods. The Longshoremen are asking for a wage increase of 77% over six years and have rejected counteroffers of forty and then fifty percent. However in this commentary we are going to look at another demand of the ILA, a freeze on automation of port services.
Quote from the commentary:
“The US is the wealthiest country in the world and is the largest importing and second-largest exporting nation in the world. We need to have world class ports. Inefficient ports are like a tariff on imported goods paid by American manufacturers and consumers for the benefit of the dockworkers.”
Inflation is Not Done with Us
Victor C. Bolles
September 26, 2024
We may think that the worst of inflation is over, but a changing world order means that inflation will be sticking with us. Globalization of international trade since the collapse of the Soviet Union has kept prices low for decades, but at a cost. But now that globalization is receding Americans must be ready to pay more. In this commentary we look at why prices will go up and also how we should spend our money to protect our future.
Quote from the commentary:
“If the changing global security situation means that we must change our economic relations it also means that we can no longer afford the profligate fiscal policies of the past. Six percent deficits and skyrocketing public debt do not enhance our security, especially if debts and deficits are directed to social welfare instead of defense or productive investment.”
Victor C. Bolles
September 19, 2024
The Framers of the US Constitution conceived of a government that prevented the development of excessive power in any one individual or group. They created three branches of government with separate powers that acted as a check against the development of excessive power in any one branch. These checks and balances have frustrated the progressive left from implementing much of their agenda and they intend to change that. In this commentary we look at how the left wants to change the nature of our democratic republic that has lasted almost 250 years.
Quote from the commentary:
“But with an ineffective Congress unable to approve their agenda, the progressive left desperately wants to bring the Supreme Court to heel. They see the Supreme Court as the last hurdle blocking their majoritarianist vision of the future.”
My Take on the So-called Debate
Victor C. Bolles
September 11, 2024
This so-called presidential debate was not as consequential as Mr. Trump’s previous confrontation with Mr. Biden but there was still consequences. Here’s my take on the so-called debate.
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She was able to get under his very thin skin by needling him about Hannibal Lecter and people leaving his rallies sending him off on tangents about immigrants eating peoples’ pets in Ohio. I don’t know how Ms. Harris would do against Vladimir Putin or Xi Jinping, but she handled Mr. Trump pretty easily (makes me wonder how Putin and Xi handled Mr. Trump).
The So-called Presidential Debate
Victor C. Bolles
September 9, 2024
These confrontations between presidential candidates aren’t really debates. But they are informative and can be consequential. Here’s what to look for.
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But they are not debates. The moderator asks a question and the candidate answers with a stump speech talking point that seems to be at least tangentially related to the question. The opposing candidate responds, not by addressing the points made by the speaker, but by claiming the speaker is a liar or delusional.
Victor C. Bolles
September 3, 2024
Today we are going to discuss taxes. I could go on and on about taxes but today we will just investigate some broad concepts and not the specific proposals of the presidential candidates. That comes later. In this commentary we outline some of the problems with American tax policies and compare them to the Nordic welfare state policies.
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Presidential candidate Kamala Harris’ economic plan, announced a couple of weeks ago, is also packed with mandatory programs and tax expenditures at a cost estimated by the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget to be close to $2.0 trillion over ten years. But don’t worry. You won’t have to pay for it. Ms. Harris is going to make somebody else pay for it.
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Victor C. Bolles
August 28, 2024
Replacing Joe Biden with Kamala Harris has not really improved the options we voters have in the 2024 presidential elections. The campaign promises of Trump and Harris run the gamut from dopey to scary. Most Americans do not support their radical agendas. Come this November we must vote wisely to protect America. In this commentary we explain why we recommend a vote for divided government to keep these radical policies at bay.
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The problem we face is that it is not enough to block Donald Trump’s MAGA Republicans from sweeping to power if they can control both the executive and legislative branches. We also need to block Kamala Harris’ progressive Democrats from doing the same thing. And the only way we can do that is through divided government.
Victor C. Bolles
August 23, 2024
In her economic policy speech, Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris blamed inflation on price gouging by greedy corporations. But Nobel prize winner Milton Friedman is famous for saying, “Inflation is made by Government and no one else.” Why does Ms. Harris and other progressives doubt that inflation is caused by government? In this commentary we will investigate what is behind this belief.
Quote from the commentary:
“So why do our progressive friends always blame inflation on greedy corporations and price gouging (other than it is always easy to blame someone else for something you did. We all learned that as a kid.). It all comes down to Marxist thinking. Marx said that profits are derived by the exploitation of the workers, so profits – any profits – are bad.”
Victor C. Bolles
January 9, 2024
Once again, while our so-called political leaders are completely absorbed by their campaigns for reelection, they ignore the urgent national priorities that need to be addressed, or worse, use those issues as political levers to galvanize their base at the expense of the American people. In this commentary we revisit those priorities that have become even more urgent as we enter a tumultuous election year.
Quote for the Commentary:
“Critics on the left will moan that meritocracy would worsen inequality. But equality of outcomes in education would mean driving all children down to the lowest common denominator (which you would understand unless you had been taught the new “equitable” math). But meritocracy will provide equality of opportunity. In fact, you cannot have equality of opportunity without meritocracy.”
Victor C. Bolles
January 12, 2023
Last year I published a commentary (Urgent Priorities, December 30, 2021) on the urgent priorities that America had to confront in the year 2022. Since many of those priorities were addressed very ineffectively or were not addressed at all, I was tempted to simply republish that commentary again this year. But the world is dynamic, and conditions change so I felt that America’s urgent priorities had to be updated to reflect those changes. In this commentary we will discuss the unfinished business of 2022 and the priorities of 2023 and beyond.
Quote from the Commentary:
“There are priorities that affect all Americans, rich and poor, black and white, young and old, whatever. We live in a complex and dangerous world. While our country is rich and powerful, it is not invulnerable. We cannot ignore the events happening around us and we need to be able to influence those events or be prepared to suffer the consequences.”