Author Archives: Michael Brun

What’s With All That Socialism in South America?

The past twenty or so years in South America have seen several powerful electoral victories of socialist-aligned candidates and parties, followed by years of reform. Eventually the momentum for change slowed, however, to be followed by disappointment and defeat. This … Continue reading

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The Proposed Constitutional Amendment on the Ballot for a “Fair Tax”

Right now, the Illinois State Constitution forbids progressive taxation on income. In other words, it forbids doing what the IRS does on your federal income tax—taxing you at a rate that depends on your income. On your federal income tax, … Continue reading

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CAPITALISM IS NOT IN CRISIS

Though many suffer, the crash of 2008 was not as system threatening as in 1929. The financial turmoil of the past five years reminds many of the crash of 1929, which led into the Great Depression of the 1930s.  That … Continue reading

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Credit as a Cover for Cutbacks Over the Past Thirty Years

By Michael Brün Two facts are important for understanding our current economic situation and how we got here. The first is that the finance industry has grown from comprising less than one tenth of our economy in the 80s to … Continue reading

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Our World Economy: Three Facts, Two Problems, and Two Solutions

Three Facts & Two Problems: 1. Growth, as defined by the capacity to produce goods and services is greater than ever before, and continues to increase. This is what we expect of the economy. Often this is all that seems … Continue reading

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Cinching Our Belts With No Economic Recovery

LOUD VOICES FROM the worlds of business and government have called for people to pay a larger share of the costs of their maintenance. These voices call for cutting back on payments to working people in wages, healthcare, retirement pensions, … Continue reading

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The Aging of America: Is It an Economic Problem?

For decades, environmentalists concerned about overpopulation and social workers concerned about families have both advocated family planning, and by that they mostly mean having fewer children. And indeed, throughout the world, including both developed and underdeveloped countries in every continent, … Continue reading

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Money is Not a Natural Resource

Can money be wasted in a global sense? No, not like fuel is wasted. Money is neither a natural resource nor a manufactured product. There are no resource limits, though there are social limits to its quantity, and there are … Continue reading

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Global Crisis, Recession, and Wages: What Happened and What Now?

When Gordon Brown, the current Prime Minister of Great Britain, announced that his government’s response to the financial crisis was to “recapitalize” British banks by buying shares in them, while at the same time extending deposit guarantees, it amounted to … Continue reading

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Causes and Consequences of Increasing Commodity Prices

Food costs more. Fuel costs more. Metals and other raw materials cost more as well. But this is no traditional inflation. Labor doesn’t cost more; wage rates are not rising, at least not in the US, in the rest of … Continue reading

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THE GROSS RECEIPTS TAX: A GREAT TAX FOR A GLOBAL ECONOMY

Pick a tax, and you pick who pays directly, and also who pays indirectly when the cost of the tax is passed along to others in the current of buying and selling. Pick a program on which to spend tax … Continue reading

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