Peter Morici
Columns by Peter Morici
The existential crisis posed by mass immigration
Western civilization faces an existential crisis. Mass immigration, low birth rates and China's rise pose challenges our political institutions and economies appear ill-equipped to confront. Published July 17, 2019
Libra, a Facebook plan for digital currency, poses challenges for the Federal Reserve
Facebook recently announced it plans to launch a digital currency — Libra. It could deliver on Bitcoin's failed promise to create digital money that supplants many of the international functions of the dollar and the monopolies the Federal Reserve and other central banks enjoy creating and controlling widely accepted means of exchange and stores of wealth. Published July 8, 2019
Why breaking up Google or Facebook won’t solve anything
Democrats in Congress with help from a few Republicans are eager to abuse antitrust enforcement to curb Big Tech — Facebook, Apple, Google and Amazon (FAGA). This would be a terrible abuse of the law for problems where bigness contributes little and breaking them up won't solve much. Published June 24, 2019
How the Trump tariffs tarnish America’s brand
Tariffs are crude instruments. These can raise profits and employment in protected industries but the United States and other western democracies have worked hard to lower those — and other trade barriers like subsidies, preferences in procurement for domestic suppliers and lax protection for intellectual property — because those make us poorer by frustrating the efficient global allocation of industry based on skills and natural resources and discourage R&D. Published June 18, 2019
How Trump is the statesman on immigration reform
America needs skilled immigrants but competes badly with other industrialized nations facing similar challenges. President Trump is championing reforms to help fix that. Published June 10, 2019
Globalizing the Federal Reserve and monetary policy
The Federal Reserve's principal tools — adjusting short term interest rates and quantitative easing for accomplishing 2 percent inflation and low unemployment — are radically out of sync with a global economy that relies on the dollar. It's high time U.S. monetary policy be realigned to reflect the reality of managing the global currency. Published June 4, 2019
Trump must run against ‘Bernie Care’ and the GOP in 2020
President Trump is the victim of his own success. Voters now rank health care above the economy as the top issue for Washington to address, and the president must run against his own party to win in 2020. Published May 28, 2019
China, the renegade state, won’t play by the trade rules
President Trump enjoys bipartisan support for his tough stand on China, but Democrats and farm state Republicans indicate they could desert him if he fails to bring home an agreement that ends China's piracy of American technology and finally opens its markets to U.S. products. Published May 19, 2019
What Trump naysayers miss is that the economy is growing in different ways than in the past
Welcome to the Trump prosperity — the 3 percent GDP growth accomplished since the recent tax cuts and assault on abusive government regulation took hold are just a prelude of what could be accomplished if the endless Democratic attacks don't bring down the administration and the organized left — the mainstream media, radical feminists and socialists — don't highjack our personal liberties and destroy American capitalism. Published May 14, 2019
Policy rooted in flawed economic theories
After years of frustration, the Federal Reserve believes it has accomplished its goal of 2 percent inflation. In reality, international oil markets did much more than its interest rate policies to raise prices and the Fed should abandon that target altogether. Published May 7, 2019
Toward a more democratic Federal Reserve
The Federal Reserve — frustrated by its inability to consistently accomplish strong growth and 2 percent inflation — is reviewing strategies. Maybe it should simply hand out money to ordinary folks, helicopter money, instead of just to banks. Published April 30, 2019
Bernie Sanders’ Medicare numbers don’t work
Democratic presidential hopefuls are at it again — promising free college tuition, forgiveness of student debt and to dramatically lower what individuals pay for health care. Like President Obama, if any lands in the Oval Office, the country could be saddled with another albatross — the Affordable Care Act has not tamed health care costs but it has so radically altered the marketplace that voters are afraid to dismember it. Published April 23, 2019
Stress testing your retirement plans
If you are planning to retire sometime in the next several years, then you should stress test your plans — living arrangements, retirement portfolio and income and anticipated leisure pursuits — because retirement is like your first days in kindergarten, full of surprises. Published April 16, 2019
China’s ascent to global dominance is predicated on its authoritarian government, socialist economy
President Xi Jinping believes China's ascent to global dominance is inevitable, because its authoritarian government and socialist-market economy can better deliver technological progress and prosperity than decadent Western democracies. Established elites in the West may be proving him correct. Published April 11, 2019
Building taller cities to cope with climate change is less costly than the Green New Deal
Humans are unique in our ability to change the environment and unlock the secrets of nature. Erecting shelters, building aqueducts and mining the Earth, we moved from the temperate plains of Africa and caves of Chauvet-Pont d'Arc to harness agriculture, establish great cities and create technological wonders. Fossil fuels accelerated the ascent of man but according to the architects of the 2016 Paris Agreement, we must curb our appetite or global warming will make uninhabitable vast settlements. Published April 2, 2019
Global appetite for dollars permits the U.S. to run the printing presses, but it’s not unlimited
The bounty of oil has made many developing countries initially rich but undemocratic and corrupt, and now the growing global reliance on the dollar threatens the same for America. Published March 26, 2019
Beyond the admissions scandal: $1.6 trillion in student debt slows the economy
The college admissions scandal lays bare the true weaknesses in American higher education — its obsession with athletics and liberal prejudices that subvert academic standards. Published March 19, 2019
Why America should go cashless
Most folks purchasing a Curry Chickpea Bowl at Sweetgreen or a Nora Roberts novel at an Amazon brick-and-mortar store reflexively pay with a credit or debit card or an app -- they might be surprised if they try a 20-dollar bill. Published March 14, 2019
Trump should call out Congress to boost the economy
President Trump's economy has been good so far, but to sustain the momentum and raise his re-election prospects he should champion policies that many Republican or Democratic members of Congress don't like, are inclined to obstruct but could be persuaded to accept. Published March 11, 2019
