Irwin M. Stelzer
The Weekly Standard
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Past articles by Irwin:
Big Tech Is in Big Trouble
The FAANGs (Facebook, Apple, Amazon, Netflix, and Alphabet) have real problems. → Read More
Trump's Economy Might Not Be Enough to Save the House
With the November congressional elections only 87 days away, Donald Trump has added to his revolutionary use of tweets what might prove to be an outdated reliance on two old-fashioned electoral winners to pull Republican candidates through tough elections: a booming economy and promise-keeping. Most presidents attempt to expand their political base once in office. Not so this unconventional… → Read More
The Road from Paris Might Lead to Lower Emissions
Irwin Stelzer on Trump's Withdrawal from the Climate Accord... → Read More
Obama Takes Havana
With Brussels under attack by Islamic terrorists, it takes a truly self-regarding president to believe that he, not the Islamic terrorists, was orchestrating a world-historic event. If you missed the news while following the doings of terrorists in Belgium or our presidential wannabees scrambling for votes, you might not have noticed that Barack Obama brought the Cold War to an end, which… → Read More
All Property Is Thievable...
In descending order of the magnitude of the theft: The Federal Reserve Board tops the list, having robbed pensioners and small savers of untold billions in earning power by setting interest rates at zero. In the Fed's defense it can be said that it didn't keep the money, but redistributed it to relatively wealthy owners of assets such as shares and houses by driving up the value of those assets.… → Read More
The Economic Muddle
Seymour Lipkin, the pianist/composer who left this world recently, was once asked if he had always wanted to pursue a career in music. I never considered anything else, he said. There was never any … thought that I would be, say, an economist, God forbid. At times like this I can't help feeling that I should not have rejected my mother's insistence that I learn to play the piano. It's somewhere… → Read More
A Deal over Climate Change
The science of climate change may or may not be the certain thing that the president claims it is, but surely certain is the fact that he can push the Constitution only so far before the Supreme Court pushes back. Which is what it has done by granting the request of 29 states and several business groups that it stay the hand of the EPA until the legality of its new rules governing carbon… → Read More
Time to Panic?
Who'd a thunk it? That's what a famous ventriloquist's dumbest dummy was made to ask on a now-gone radio program whenever he confronted anything new and, to him, inexplicable, although obvious to anyone else. It came to mind when the central bankers of Sweden decided to take current interest rates further into negative territory. As share prices here plummeted, as the chair of our Federal… → Read More
A Recession on the Way?
There will certainly be a recession this year. Unless there won’t. That is the consensus view of economists. The bad news is that even the optimists are having difficulty explaining away the reams of incoming data, and that even the cheeriest of the bunch are predicting a no-to-low-growth outlook for the rest of this year. Earlier this week the Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen, speaking for… → Read More
Our Uncertain Economic Future
The final State of the Union address of any president evokes thoughts that vary with his success while in office. For the successful, such as Dwight Eisenhower, Ronald Reagan and Bill Clinton, it is a moment on which to look back with some satisfaction. For President Obama, with only 27 percent of his countrymen believing he leaves a nation that is on the right track, last week’s must evoke in… → Read More
Split-Personality America
Americans are convinced that things are not going well, and are not likely to improve soon. Gerald Seib, who follows these things for the Wall Street Journal, says Republican pollsters report the national mood as “Sour and dour. Nervous, on edge, a feeling of vulnerability and a lack of control. Democratic pollsters use different words to capture the same mood, Anxious, dissatisfied, impatient… → Read More
Of Invalid Historical Analogies
Historical analogies are the last refuge of politicians seeking to justify a policy indefensible on its own merits. Such is the case when it comes to determining policies towards prospective Muslim immigrants. Proponents of allowing these refugees into the country are in difficulty. It seems (1) that the FBI says they cannot be vetted properly because of the destruction of records in Syria and… → Read More
Gleanings & Observations
Ntokozo Qwabe, the student at Oriel College, Oxford, co-founder of Rhodes Must Fall, wants the statue of Cecil Rhodes removed from the campus because Rhodes was a racist, genocidal maniac … as bad as Hitler. Mr. Qwabe is attending Oxford on a Rhodes scholarship. --- Politicians, or at least some, can't imagine life without the trappings of office. A former Labour MP in the UK, after losing his… → Read More
Gleanings and Observations
Ntokozo Qwabe, the student at Oriel College, Oxford, co-founder of Rhodes Must Fall, wants the statue of Cecil Rhodes removed from the campus because Rhodes was a racist, genocidal maniac … as bad as Hitler. Mr. Qwabe is attending Oxford on a Rhodes scholarship. Politicians, or at least some, can't imagine life without the trappings of office. A former Labour MP in the UK, after losing his seat,… → Read More
After the Rise
If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well it were done slowly. That is official Federal Reserve Board going-forward policy. The announcement of the Fed's first interest rate increase in almost a decade, an upward move of 0.25 percent from near zero, says, and twice, that future increases will be gradual. That was chairwoman Janet Yellen's main message – abrupt is bad, gradual adjustment… → Read More
The Economic Consequences of COP21
The international conference on climate change attracted thousands of delegates from almost 200 nations. The Conference of the Parties21, so named for the parties that signed the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change in 1992 and had come to Paris for what was their 21st conference, came to an end with the obligatory self-congratulatory photo op, linked arms raised in victory, cheers from… → Read More
Here Comes the Interest Rates Rise
I'll build a stairway to Paradise, promised songwriter George Gershwin decades ago. Fed chairwoman Janet Yellen is about to try to do the same, taking interest rates up that stairway, from the zero level set during the hellish days of the financial crisis to the Paradise of normality or near-normality. There is almost unanimous agreement – an 85 percent probability according to markets -- that… → Read More
No Good for Americans Seeking Assurance
To understand Donald Trump's surprising ability to remain at the top of the polls, it is necessary to understand why the attacks of his critics misfire. The best place to start is with the continually uncomprehending New York Times. A story on page 1 et seq. levels what its authors must consider devastating criticism of Trump's 95,000 Words, Many of Them Ominous, From Trump's Tongue. Trump, says… → Read More
Christmas Time for the Fed
Christmas came early this year for Janet Yellen and those of her monetary policy committee colleagues eager to begin raising interest rates. Just a tiny bit, but enough to show that they remember how to do that after eight years of holding rates to just about zero. First gift: Santa, disguised as a European Central Banker with a decidedly Italian accent, misjudged the markets. His plan to drive… → Read More
A Tax that Mainly Adds Complexity
There are lots of good reasons for conservatives to cheer when various Republican candidates propose a consumption tax, or a tax on spending as some call it, or, in one of its most used forms, a value-added tax (VAT). Such a tax would, or potentially could, replace some of the taxes now borne by work and risk-taking. Exports could be exempt, providing them with the same subsidy European and… → Read More