Wealth & Poverty Review

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US dollar bills floating in front of the Capitol building, creating a metaphorical image about politics, money, and power.
Image Credit: VK Studio - Adobe Stock

After Countries Go Broke

For a country like the United States, with debt denominated in a local currency, "going broke" normally means that continued deficit spending can't be financed by the bond market. Governments could, at this moment, reduce spending dramatically and basically balance their budgets. Of course this never happens. Read More ›
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Young asian father and daughter open refrigerator at home looking for some food
Image Credit: Odua Images - Adobe Stock

Innovation or Longevity?

On a recent flight from Utah to Washington DC I made a new friend when I told him that I was going to give a presentation on how our planet was infinitely bountiful. Most people are shocked when you tell them that resources will be fine but that there’re not enough people. They’ve been told all their lives that we live on a finite planet with finite resources and that if life left is “unchecked” life will cease to exist. We had a great discussion for four hours, during which he made an important observation: products today don’t seem like they last as long as they used to. Read More ›
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A stack of gold coins with stock market graphs in the background on a digital screen
Image Credit: WINGGOD - Adobe Stock

Gold Stablecoins Coming Soon

The main advantage of a USD stablecoin is that it integrates seamlessly with the USD-based monetary economy of today. The main disadvantage is that its value is fixed to the dollar; and that value can be expected to decline over time, slowly or quickly. A better solution, and the one that the US used in 1913, is multiple private issuers of gold-based stablecoins. Read More ›
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Large modern warehouse with forklifts and stack of car tires
Image Credit: sirisakboakaew - Adobe Stock

Tire Abundance

Walmart sells the Goodyear Reliant 195/60R15 88V All-Season Tire for $77. Unskilled workers today are earning around $17.17 an hour, indicating a time price of 4.46 hours. For the time it took to earn the money to buy a single tire in 1920, you get 20 of them today. Read More ›
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Printing US dollar bills. Concept of United States economy, buying and selling banknotes in the worldwide. Global finance and business.
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Lawrence Lepard Predicts “The Big Print”

The 2020 period, in which central banks around the world engaged in unprecedented monetary expansion, showed their increasing willingness to essentially “run the printing presses” whenever things got tough. Unfortunately, along the way, they also showed Congress (and other governments worldwide) that no real discipline is needed, because every problem can ultimately be solved with the central bank printing press. Read More ›
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Ride the Amtrak passenger train through lush Michigan landscapes from Chicago, Illinois to Detroit, Michigan.
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The Failure of Subsidizing AMTRAK and How to Make Passenger Trains Profitable Again

We are publishing this paper volunteered by J.D. Wong, a Georgia businessman, that makes a strong, well-researched case that government subsidies for Amtrak should be terminated. In his opinion, only a couple of long distance train routes are potentially sustainable, and that a reliance on standard rail cars, rather than sleeper cars, is a business mistake that mainly reflects political influence. Read More ›
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Piles Of Rare Earth Elements Mined And Refined
Image Credit: Ruby Stock - Adobe Stock

With Sovereign Wealth Fund, Trump Seeks to Strengthen Nation

There is no greater betrayal by the U.S. government than failing to protect the safety and security of the American people. But this, in fact, was the case prior to Trump, because Washington abdicated its responsibility to protect and develop all-important rare earth elements that are critically necessary in the production of high-tech military weapons systems, like F-16, F-22 and F-35 jet fighters, drones, and AI-driven systems. Rather, the U.S. has become dependent on China. Read More ›
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Investment strategies illuminating financial growth with coins and light bulbs
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Information Economics: George Gilder’s “Life After Capitalism”

What underpins this understanding of economics is what George Gilder calls the "materialist superstition." From the capitalism of Adam Smith and David Ricardo to the socialism of Karl Marx, classical economics to socialist economics rest on the assumed pillar of Newtonian determinism and static materialism. There is also only so much matter to go around, the materialist superstition has us believe, therefore, no amount of incentives and technological innovation can avoid the fact that we will run out of material goods. Read More ›
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brexit concept - double exposure of flag and Westminster Palace with Big Ben
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On Free Trade, Let’s Go All the Way with the U.K.

The trade deal with Great Britain, unveiled last Thursday, was a definite step in the right direction, but the next steps for the U.S. should take us closer to going all the way to full free trade with the U.K. Dr. Stephen Meyer, Director of Discovery Institute's Center for Science and Culture, has been arguing for this for decades, going back to when he was a graduate student in the philosophy of science at Cambridge University Read More ›
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Piles of refined rare earth elements from mining activities: mining techniques, mineral refinement, aggregation of elements, industry procedures
Image Credit: Livinskiy - Adobe Stock

How Trump Can Simultaneously Strengthen America’s Financials and Its National Security

As with the production of lithium and cobalt, which power electric vehicles, China also controls most of the global rare earth supply chain, including mining, processing, and refining. At present, the U.S. has only one operational rare earths mine. But we can't process heavy rare earths, so we send the mine's ore to China for processing. Read More ›