Author Archive: Burt Abrams

Burt Abrams is a Research Fellow at the Independent Institute and Director of MyGovCost.org.
Full biography and recent publications

De-Capitalization in the 21st Century


Tuesday May 6th, 2014   •   Posted by Burt Abrams at 10:52am PDT   •   0 Comments

A cartoon, like a picture, is worth a thousand words. Nonetheless, I’ll risk adding a few more to this one. In case you haven’t heard, French economist Thomas Piketty’s book, “Capital in the Twenty-First Century,” is a runaway best seller. In Professor Piketty’s view, under capitalism, the rich get richer (because they own the…
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The Great Liberator


Monday February 24th, 2014   •   Posted by Burt Abrams at 12:44pm PST   •   0 Comments

Obamacare, so says the Congressional Budget Office, will lead some 2.5 million workers to drop out of the labor force. But the White House sees the silver lining: “Over the longer run, CBO finds that because of this law [Obamacare], individuals will be empowered to make choices about their own lives and livelihoods like…
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America the Busybody


Friday November 1st, 2013   •   Posted by Burt Abrams at 10:54am PDT   •   0 Comments

The Urban Dictionary defines busybody as… “the kind of person you just want to punch in the mouth for being so damb [sic] annoying. They have no life and way too much time on their hands. They frequently use their excessive amount of time to annoy and monitor others, taddletale [sic] for small meaningless…
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Dateline Beijing


Sunday October 6th, 2013   •   Posted by Burt Abrams at 8:53pm PDT   •   0 Comments

China Daily, China’s English language newspaper, is not the most objective of sources, but a pairing of recent headlines on October 3 tells much. “Xi [China’s President] pledges to boost ties with Indonesia. Countries ink deals on fisheries, defense as well as aerospace,” was next to “Obama cancels trip to Malaysia. U.S. President trims…
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Obamacare: Designed to Fail?


Friday September 27th, 2013   •   Posted by Burt Abrams at 1:54pm PDT   •   0 Comments

There are so many problems raised by Obamacare that one wonders if it was designed deliberately to fail. You don’t need a course in economics to have predicted two of the biggest problems: 1) the provision requiring any employer with 50 or more employees to provide healthcare. This has spawned an epidemic of companies called “49ers” with 49 or fewer employees; and,…
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The Parable of the Tulips


Thursday September 19th, 2013   •   Posted by Burt Abrams at 12:19pm PDT   •   0 Comments

Once upon a time in a far off land, a beautiful flower was discovered. Its bulbs became highly prized and their prices rose steadily. Word of the rising prices for the bulbs spread across the land and virtually everyone, rich and poor, began to buy bulbs for investment. The price of bulbs soared adding to the…
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A Shortage of Confidence


Saturday August 3rd, 2013   •   Posted by Burt Abrams at 11:42am PDT   •   2 Comments

Imagine the following scenario. Unemployment remains stubbornly high as the Chairman of the Federal Reserve enters the Oval Office. The President urges the Chairman to pump more money into the economy to stimulate economic growth before his reelection bid. The Chairman responds: “In my view, the monetary authority has laid the foundation for recovery. What is holding back the economy now is…
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Keynesian Economics, R.I.P.


Monday May 27th, 2013   •   Posted by Burt Abrams at 10:59am PDT   •   8 Comments

In 2009, Keynesian economists in the Obama administration were downright giddy with excitement. The American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) passed by congress was the “biggest peacetime fiscal stimulus in U.S. history” that promised to return the economy to full employment in short order. The Act’s $787 billion (equivalent to about 5% of our national output) in…
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What, Me Worry?


Sunday April 7th, 2013   •   Posted by Burt Abrams at 6:01am PDT   •   17 Comments

There are two disparate views of our large and growing public debt. Nobel Laureate Paul Krugman, in a recent International Herald Tribune editorial “Cheating America’s Children” (March 30-31, 2013), considers those who have been worrying about our burgeoning public debt as “Chicken Littles.” Chicken Little, you may recall, is hit in the head by an acorn and subsequently runs about…
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I’m Forever Blowing Bubbles


Monday January 21st, 2013   •   Posted by Burt Abrams at 11:13am PST   •   1 Comment

Ben Bernanke and his Federal Reserve Bank seem to be determined to reinflate the real estate bubble. Ben was blind-sided by the bursting of the bubble in 2006 as evidenced by his earlier CNBC interview: “Well, I guess I don’t buy your premise [that there is a real estate bubble]. It’s a pretty unlikely…
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