Richard J Grant

Published in The Tennessean , Sunday, September 26, 2010 Majority of voters in 2008 made a hiring mistake by Richard J. Grant The head of a very large corporation, who is described as a “die-hard Obama fan,” was recently quoted as saying that “the president could have used some executive experience on his all-academic economics team.” Noting that there is no former business executive in the Obama cabinet or among the top economic advisers, he opined, “I think it was a hiring mistake for the administration.” Who else made a hiring mistake? Was this business leader not also a voter and, possibly, a campaign supporter and contributor? Are the skills needed to run a major corporation not transferable to one’s judgment at the ballot box? Was it terribly difficult to notice that one of the leading presidential candidates was a man in his 40s who had not yet outgrown his schoolboy Marxism? This top business executive has subsequently discovered that his political actions have imperiled the we...

Published in The Tennessean , Sunday, September 19, 2010 Attempts at control merely show how little we know by Richard J. Grant In their attempts to understand economic matters, people commonly make two big errors. One is to think of various types of relationships as if they were discrete and durable objects. An example is employment relationships. In this case, we not only speak of “saving” or “creating” jobs, we even think of them as being ends in themselves rather than remembering that any particular job exists to help create those things that we really want. The other big error is to presume to have knowledge that we cannot possibly have. When there is a disruption in the supply of any good, such as gasoline, the price tends to rise. Such price rises can trigger outrage in people who see the increases as “price gouging.” The question for which these people have no defensible answer is, “What is the correct price?” They do not know the answer now, just as they did not know it before...

Published in The Tennessean , Sunday, September 12, 2010 Obama continues to gamble with the economy By Richard J. Grant The Obama administration continues to throw “stimulus” mud on the wall with the hope that some of it will eventually stick. The next splat to hit the wall will be $50 billion of spending on infrastructure projects that were, apparently, not of a sufficiently high priority to be included in the previous flurries of stimulus spending. Any attempt to explain this new spending proposal in terms of the “national interest” will result in bewilderment. It makes sense only from the perspective of the people who are pushing it and stand to gain from it. That would be the politicians and staffers whose futures depend on swaying voters’ minds before the November elections. It would also be those businesses and workers who expect to be the first recipients of the anticipated government spending. In politics, it is often said that “perception is reality.” It is also said that in c...

Published in The Tennessean , Sunday, September 5, 2010 Effects of national debt felt in all aspects of life by Richard J. Grant On a recent speaking tour, Admiral Michael Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told audiences, “The most significant threat to our national security is our debt.” His point was that a sound economy would be essential to provide the resources needed to maintain a strong defense. This, he believes, is threatened by the increasing interest burden of our national debt. Admiral Mullen is rightly concerned. New government debt is rarely incurred to finance important, long-term capital investments. Most often it covers only transfers and current consumption. As a percentage of the budget, defense spending has fallen from over 50 percent in 1960, to just over 20 percent in recent times. Now, more than half the budget is taken up by Social Security, Medicare, other health-related spending, and the various income security programs. Interest payments have hov...