Peter's Blog

Antitrust on Trial: Why the FTC is an Arbitrary Threat to Fair Business

While primarily motivated by a desire to promote consumer welfare, antitrust has become a witch hunt which endangers the ability of businesses in general to effectively operate. Antitrust regulation was created on the idea that businesses can effectively collude to keep prices high, and that the emergence of monopolies will create a stable threat to […]

Educating a Nation: Democracy, Defense, and the Federal Hand

 Harvard faces an unprecedented threat to its scale and role in the life of the Nation. Its lack of compliance with the President has made it face the potential of losing billions of dollars of federal funds. As well endowed as the university is, a significant portion of its operating budget comes from federal grants […]

Treasury Yields Running Amok Amidst Tariff Madness

The Trump administration wanted to get bond yields down, but yields have skyrocketed more than in over four decades. Investors are jittery about holding US debt in response to Trump’s trade wars and, possibly, the idea of a president who is pushing a Strategic Bitcoin Reserve in what would amount to a bid against the […]

The Fed’s April Fool’s: Pretending to Control Inflation

This year’s April Fools joke from the Federal Reserve is the same this year as every other:  Pretending that a small group of unelected academics can micromanage the economy to create an ideal balance between employment, inflation, and cost of borrowing. The Fed wants to control the economy, but all it achieves is distortion. And […]

Doomsday Policy and Dirty Ticket Pricing

What can dubious pricing strategies of airlines in the 1990s teach us about the dynamics of the U.S. government? The Airline Tariff Publishing Company (ATPCO) allowed airlines to post their prices online long before the airlines actually had to commit to offering those prices to consumers. This was supposed to allow freedom of information on […]

 Liberty’s Strongest Defender

Whether it is industry or immigration, both parties emphasize the freedoms they protect, wishing to paint themselves as the true party of liberty. Their focuses are both quite different yet they rely on telling their base that the other party is coming for their most fundamental freedoms. This argument works because it plays upon one […]

Consumer Confidence Plunges as Recession Signs Multiply

U.S. consumer confidence suffered a sharp blow yesterday, plummeting 7.2 points to 92.9, according to the latest data from the Conference Board Consumer Confidence Index. Alarmingly, the Expectations Index, which measures consumers’ short-term outlook on the economy, tumbled to 65.2—its lowest level in 12 years—breaking well below the critical 80-point threshold that traditionally signals an […]

Can Tariffs and DOGE Eliminate the Income Tax?

Freshly-confirmed U.S. Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick recently appeared on CBS News, declaring that President Trump aims to eliminate income taxes for Americans earning less than $150,000 per year. Lutnick touted Trump’s vision for tariffs to replace the revenue lost from this massive tax cut.

Flash PMI Data: Manufacturing Struggles

The latest S&P Global Flash US PMI Composite Output Index for March signaled a mixed economic outlook, rising to 53.5 from February’s 51.6. Stronger performance in services gave optimism, as the Flash US Services PMI Business Activity Index surged notably to 54.3, up from the prior month’s 51.0. However, manufacturing painted a different, troubling picture: […]

Fed Holds Rates Steady, Signals Cuts Amid Rising Inflation 

In a widely anticipated move, the Federal Reserve kept its benchmark interest rate unchanged at around 4.3% on Wednesday but signaled potential rate cuts later this year, highlighting policymakers’ growing concerns over slowing economic growth and persistent inflation pressures. Fed Chair Jerome Powell acknowledged that external economists have revised upward their estimates of a recession […]