In this week’s The Reason Roundtable, editors Matt Welch, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Nick Gillespie, and Peter Suderman consider the recent announcement from former President Donald Trump that he expects to be arrested this week in New York City. 0:32: Impending Trump indictment 17:05: The continued fallout from the banking system bailout 31:16: Weekly Listener Question 43:58: […]
“We have learned over the last few days that many small and mid-sized banks in this country are Zombies,” writes Arnold Kling, a senior scholar at the Mercatus Center at George Mason University and former economist for the Federal Reserve system and Freddie Mac. Following the run on Silicon Valley Bank, former U.S. Treasury Secretary […]
Prices continued their upwards climb in February, as core inflation rose by 0.5 percent—the highest monthly increase since September of last year. Though Tuesday’s consumer price index report was in line with expectations, the Department of Labor’s data seemed once again to dash any hopes for a quick resolution to the inflation crisis that has […]
When COVID-19 sent waves through our financial markets in March 2020, I was the regulator overseeing most of America’s mortgage market. When the usual calls for Wall Street bailouts came, others, such as the Federal Reserve, responded generously with the public’s money. I was an exception. Despite the dire warnings that our mortgage market would […]
In this week’s The Reason Roundtable, editors Matt Welch, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Nick Gillespie, and Peter Suderman analyze the fallout from the historic failure of Silicon Valley Bank and deride a recent congressional hearing concerning the reporting of independent journalists Matt Taibbi and Michael Shellenberger on the Twitter Files. 0:52: Silicon Valley Bank collapse 26:30: President […]
The Federal Reserve is in the unenviable position of achieving its mandate by crashing the economy. It’s not something it wants to do, as Fed Chair Jerome Powell meekly admitted in his exchange with Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D–Mass.) last week. But it’s something that happens as an unavoidable outcome of slowing down an economy littered […]
Yes, it’s a bailout—and yes, it’s unwise. The U.S. government will guarantee all customer funds in Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) after a series of bad decisions and a run on deposits led to the bank’s collapse. The decision creates bad incentives for financial institutions and their customers. The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) is supposed […]
Welcome to our regime of political capitalism, where merit matters but political connections matter even more. In an unalloyed capitalist system, money flows to those who offer goods and services of value to consumers. In a political capitalism system, money flows to special interest groups with friends in high places. In his 2018 book Political […]
In this week’s The Reason Roundtable, editors Peter Suderman, Katherine Mangu-Ward, Nick Gillespie, and special guest Zach Weissmueller consider President Joe Biden’s surprise visit to Ukraine and the developing list of 2024 Republican presidential candidates. 0:23: Joe Biden’s visit to Ukraine 17:51: Nikki Haley and the developing 2024 presidential race 34:43: Weekly Listener Question 46:28: […]