GROVE CITY, PA — September 24, 2020 —In Friedrich Hayek’s 1954 book Capitalism and the Historians, the late French philosopher and political economist Bertrand de Jouvenel noted a baffling historical trend: “Strangely enough, the fall from favor of the money-maker coincides with an increase in his social usefulness.” In surveying the history of capitalism from its inception in the late …
By MARK W. HENDRICKSON
Jimmy Lai, The Billionaire Freedom Fighter
By Dr. MARK W. HENDRICKSON
GROVE CITY, PA — August 23, 2020. — Hong Kong police arrested billionaire publisher Jimmy Lai on August 10, releasing him two days later. His “crime” was to express opposition to the mainland Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP) aggression against Hong Kong – both in person and through the newspapers and magazines that he owns. According to the 1997 treaty returning …
By Dr. MARK W. HENDRICKSON
Why Has Three Percent Economic Growth Been So Elusive?
By Dr. MARK W. HENDRICKSON
GROVE CITY, PA — June 29, 2020. — Here is an economic riddle that has been puzzling many people: Why has economic growth in the United States remained below three percent for so long? The growth of US gross domestic product (GDP) going all the way back to 1790 has averaged less than three percent in only three decades: the …
By Dr. MARK W. HENDRICKSON
Minor Legislation With Massive Implications
By Dr. MARK W. HENDRICKSON
Government shutdowns in recent years have greatly inconvenienced innocent citizens and government employees. Recently, Senator Ron Johnson promoted the “Prevent Government Shutdown Act” which aims to prevent the disruptive actions of the past. But is this a common sense bill or is it an admission of defeat for fiscal conservatism? In this article, Dr. Mark Hendrickson looks at Johnson’s proposal …
By Dr. MARK W. HENDRICKSON
Is the Federal Reserve Apolitical?
By Dr. MARK W. HENDRICKSON
President Donald Trump has had (what else?) a publicly tempestuous relationship with the Federal Reserve System. Fed Chairman Jerome Powell has adhered to the Fed’s official traditional position of being apolitical. Typical of Powell’s statements is the unequivocal assertion, “Political considerations play no role whatsoever in our discussions or decisions about monetary policy.” Unfortunately for Chairman Powell, William Dudley, the previous …
By Dr. MARK W. HENDRICKSON
Brexit: What Is At Stake?
By Dr. MARK W. HENDRICKSON
I feel badly for the people of the United Kingdom. Brexit – the move to withdraw the UK from the European Union – has left the United Kingdom anything but united. Even families are being ripped apart. The most notable involves Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s own family. His brother Jo (a fine fellow whom I met several years ago) resigned …
By Dr. MARK W. HENDRICKSON
1967 and “The Summer of Love:” A Half-Century Later
By Dr. MARK W. HENDRICKSON
For the baby-boomer generation (or at least the counterculture segment within it) the summer of 1967 became known as “The Summer of Love”. Actually, most of us boomers never experienced it. Certainly, 1967 wasn’t a blissful, carefree summer of love for the hundreds of thousands of Americans serving in Vietnam. It didn’t feel much like love in my hometown of …
By Dr. MARK W. HENDRICKSON