Wealth & Poverty Review | Page 2

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“When ‘Free Trade’ Does More Harm Than Good” with Robert Lighthizer

Click here to watch the interview. For regular listeners, you know I like to take on complicated subjects, and try to make clear what’s at stake for all of us.   Thanks for reading The Bill Walton Show! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. Pledge your support In this episode the Bill Walton Show we take a another deep dive into one of the most complicated and contentious areas of economic policy:  International trade.  International trade negotiations are incredibly complex multilevel games—there are negotiations not just with America’s trading partners, but with Congress, domestic constituencies, and rival factions within the executive branch.  There are sharp – almost theological – differences in how trade policy ought Read More ›

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Financial Regulation: Boring, or Terrifying? with Chris Iacovella and Norbert Michel

Watch the episode on YouTube. A slew of financial crises that stretch all the way back to the banking Panic of 1907 have been exploited to justify erecting a financial regulatory system that has vastly centralized and expanded federal power over our money.  The irony is that these crises were largely caused, or at least exacerbated, by poorly designed government regulations.  What we have now is an unholy alliance of regulators, mega banks and entrenched special interests who are the chief beneficiaries our system of opaque and complex financial regulation. Adding to this mix is the progressive Left who are now using our financial system to push its DEI and climate change agendas.  Joining me on this episode to explore Read More ›

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the interior metal manufacturing the view from the top
the interior metal manufacturing the view from the top

George Will: Progressive Gloom Ignores a Marvelous Historical Economic Measure

In “Life After Capitalism,” George Gilder, citing Marian L. Tupy and Gale L. Pooley in the Cato Institute’s volume “Superabundance,” writes that “between 1980 and 2022, workers have been able to buy some 300 percent more goods and services with their hours and minutes.” The secret sauce is applied knowledge. Read More ›
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Stack of Gold Coin on Black Background.
Stack of Gold Coin on Black Background.

The BRICs Go For Gold

After months of debate about various currency and commodity baskets, a Russia- and China-led consortium has apparently settled on using gold as the basis of a planned new international currency system separate from the US dollar and euro. Read More ›
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Manhattan, New York. USA
Manhattan, New York. USA

Book Review: George Gilder’s Brilliant ‘Life After Capitalism’

It was probably fifteen years ago that I was at lunch with Banknote Capital’s Jim Fitzgerald. We were finishing up when the conversation shifted to tax rates, at which point Fitzgerald dismissed the notion that lower rates stimulate more work. To be clear, Fitzgerald was not saying that he opposed lower tax rates. He was and is very much for them. But he was expressing his disdain for the theory that lower rates cause people to work more. In his case, Fitzgerald would work a great deal precisely because there was joy in it. Still, what he said at the time was jarring. It called into question so much that was accepted wisdom. Gradually it made lots of sense. Tax Read More ›

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Close up Franklin's face  on a one hundred dollar. American, US Dollars Cash Money background.
Close up Franklin's face on a one hundred dollar. American, US Dollars Cash Money background.

Reserve Currency?  We Don’t Need No Stinkin’ Reserve Currency

A hot question among economic pundits of late is, “What will replace the US dollar (USD) as the world’s reserve currency?” Perhaps a better question is, “Does there need to be an actual replacement?” Currently, the USD plays several major roles: There would appear to be no current alternative that completely contains every one of these attributes.  But recently, there has been a plethora of bi-lateral and multi-lateral trade agreements, particularly among the BRICS nations (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa), which provide the ability to settle trade transactions in local currency or other acceptable payment mechanisms, thus satisfying the USD role number one cited above.  Simply put, if a country can settle much of its trade liabilities without requiring the Read More ›

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Spend budget money. Hand opens the tap with money. money flows.
Spend budget money. Hand opens the tap with money. money flows.

A Limitless Limit

The National debt now stands $32 trillion, a literally incomprehensible number. President Biden and Speaker McCarthy have yet to engage in the meaningless ritual referred to in Washington D.C. as Federal Budget Negotiations, necessary to reach a compromise enabling the nation to increase its debt ceiling. Read More ›
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The facade of the Federal Reserve Bank.

Fed Transfers Risk from Banks to You and Me

The Federal Reserve (i.e. the “Fed”) recently shifted a huge risk from the banking system to the taxpayer through something called the Bank Term Funding Program (BTFP).  The negative consequences of this historic action were lost on many because of the complex nature of the banking system. Read More ›