I recently thought of a new way to measure the burden of the national debt, though I'm sure I'm not the first. When we measure the national debt, we typically take either gross federal debt, or federal debt held by the public as a share of gross domestic product. When we do that, we come … Continue reading Another Way To Analyze The National Debt
Introduced as part of Franklin Roosevelt's New Deal, Social Security redefined the role of the government in American life in an almost revolutionary way, similar to the widespread adoption of public education. Despite it's out-sized impact, Old Age and Survivors Insurance (what most people refer to when they speak of Social Security) continues to be … Continue reading Investigating OASI Privatization
I was thinking about the stock market and how decade after decade it's able to deliver high rates of return and ended up formulating a primitive hypothesis based on the data I gathered. Corporate stock capitalization is cumulative sum of net stock flow, so stock market growth should be determined by the source of net … Continue reading Capital Accumulation and Rates of Return
The pace of economic progress in America has been just shy of miserable over these past few years. Sure, the stock market is booming, unemployment (until COVID) had reached a half-century low, and most Americans were satisfied with the state of the economy and their personal financial and material well being. None of this is … Continue reading Why Slow Economic Growth Is Not Endemic
Many people are accustomed to the idea that banks magically print money and cause inflation. People wonder, "Hey, why can't I do that?" Well, the answer is you can't because nobody can, not even commercial banks. In a fractional reserve banking system like the one we have, commercial banks can only lend an amount equal … Continue reading Fractional Reserve Banking 101
