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Gerald O’Driscoll

  • Don’t Stay Home

    •

    Don’t Stay Home

    “As further research into the actual effects of the widespread, coercive policies implemented in the wake of the pandemic appears, one hopes there could be a dispassionate reassessment of the policies.” ~ Gerald P. O’Driscoll, Jr.

  • Covid Policy and Outcomes

    •

    Covid Policy and Outcomes

    “Science was repeatedly invoked, but at least the actions I examined here were not supported by science. The reason for this may have been identified by Lord Acton in the 19th century. ‘Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.'” ~ Gerald P. O’Driscoll, Jr.

  • Limited Purpose Banking?

    •

    Limited Purpose Banking?

    by Jerry O’Driscoll The following is a book review from the Cato Journal, Vol. 30, No. 3 (Fall 2010). Jimmy Stewart Is Dead: Ending the World’s Ongoing Financial Plague with Limited Purpose Banking Laurence J. Kotlikoff (Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons, 2010, 241 pp.) Chapter 1 of the book is titled “It’s a Horrible…

  • •

    The Fed Can’t Solve Our Economic Woes

    A policy of low interest rates is a textbook response of monetary authorities to the economic weakness brought on by deficient aggregate demand. The policy is justified by pointing to various ways in which money can promote economic activity—including by stimulating investment, discouraging savings, encouraging consumption spending, and allowing individuals to lower their debt burdens…

  • •

    Summer Reading III

    According to Reinhart and Rogoff, “for the advanced economies during 1800-2008, the picture that emerges is one of serial banking crises.” In This Time is Different, the authors bring us up to the present by examining the history of banking crises. Banking crises are not only frequent , but often accompanied by other kind of…

  • •

    Summer Reading II

    Summer reading is eclectic and before getting to my second installment of notes on This Time is Different, I want to recommend a non-economics book. A Chance in Hell by Jim Michaels is a riveting account of how the military and political situation turned in Anbar province in Western Iraq. It is first and foremost…

  • •

    Keynes vs. Hayek: The Great Debate Continues

    The debates raging over what policies will pull the U.S. economy out of its Great Recession replicate one that occurred during the Great Depression. Thanks to the efforts of Richard Ebeling, a professor of economics at Northwood University, we have compelling and concise documentary evidence. He has unearthed letters to the Times of London from…

  • •

    The Gulf Spill, the Financial Crisis and Government Failure

    The Gulf oil spill and the global financial crisis both demonstrate the failings of big government. Partisan politics obscures the linkage, with the consequence that each political party repeats the mistakes of the other as its turn to govern arrives. First, consider the oil spill. BP and its contractors are surely responsible for the accident.…

  • •

    An Economy of Liars

    Free markets depend on truth telling. Prices must reflect the valuations of consumers; interest rates must be reliable guides to entrepreneurs allocating capital across time; and a firm’s accounts must reflect the true value of the business. Rather than truth telling, we are becoming an economy of liars. The cause is straightforward: crony capitalism. Thomas…

  • Don’t Stay Home

    •

    Don’t Stay Home

    “As further research into the actual effects of the widespread, coercive policies implemented in the wake of the pandemic appears, one hopes there could be a dispassionate reassessment of the policies.” ~ Gerald P. O’Driscoll, Jr.

  • Covid Policy and Outcomes

    •

    Covid Policy and Outcomes

    “Science was repeatedly invoked, but at least the actions I examined here were not supported by science. The reason for this may have been identified by Lord Acton in the 19th century. ‘Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power corrupts absolutely.'” ~ Gerald P. O’Driscoll, Jr.

  • Limited Purpose Banking?

    •

    Limited Purpose Banking?

    by Jerry O’Driscoll The following is a book review from the Cato Journal, Vol. 30, No. 3 (Fall 2010). Jimmy Stewart Is Dead: Ending the World’s Ongoing Financial Plague with Limited Purpose Banking Laurence J. Kotlikoff (Hoboken, N.J.: John Wiley & Sons, 2010, 241 pp.) Chapter 1 of the book is titled “It’s a Horrible…

  • •

    The Fed Can’t Solve Our Economic Woes

    A policy of low interest rates is a textbook response of monetary authorities to the economic weakness brought on by deficient aggregate demand. The policy is justified by pointing to various ways in which money can promote economic activity—including by stimulating investment, discouraging savings, encouraging consumption spending, and allowing individuals to lower their debt burdens…

  • •

    Summer Reading III

    According to Reinhart and Rogoff, “for the advanced economies during 1800-2008, the picture that emerges is one of serial banking crises.” In This Time is Different, the authors bring us up to the present by examining the history of banking crises. Banking crises are not only frequent , but often accompanied by other kind of…

  • •

    Summer Reading II

    Summer reading is eclectic and before getting to my second installment of notes on This Time is Different, I want to recommend a non-economics book. A Chance in Hell by Jim Michaels is a riveting account of how the military and political situation turned in Anbar province in Western Iraq. It is first and foremost…

  • •

    Keynes vs. Hayek: The Great Debate Continues

    The debates raging over what policies will pull the U.S. economy out of its Great Recession replicate one that occurred during the Great Depression. Thanks to the efforts of Richard Ebeling, a professor of economics at Northwood University, we have compelling and concise documentary evidence. He has unearthed letters to the Times of London from…

  • •

    The Gulf Spill, the Financial Crisis and Government Failure

    The Gulf oil spill and the global financial crisis both demonstrate the failings of big government. Partisan politics obscures the linkage, with the consequence that each political party repeats the mistakes of the other as its turn to govern arrives. First, consider the oil spill. BP and its contractors are surely responsible for the accident.…

  • •

    An Economy of Liars

    Free markets depend on truth telling. Prices must reflect the valuations of consumers; interest rates must be reliable guides to entrepreneurs allocating capital across time; and a firm’s accounts must reflect the true value of the business. Rather than truth telling, we are becoming an economy of liars. The cause is straightforward: crony capitalism. Thomas…