Peter Morici

Although optimism about the economy abounds, don’t rule out an election-year recession

Five decades of economics have taught me trouble comes when you least expect it, and the Federal Reserve, Treasury and their brethren abroad are often clueless about what to do.

February 10, 2020

Pete Buttigieg’s Trojan horse for socialism

Former Mayor Pete Buttigieg wants us to believe he is a moderate alternative to Sens. Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren but his $1 trillion infrastructure plan is hardly enough and demonstrates he's a socialist, too.

February 2, 2020

Why Trump deal with China is good for free trade

President Trump's Phase One trade deal may save the World Trade Organization from breakdown and takes international commerce to a better place in a world divided between democratic market and autocratic state-directed economies.

January 24, 2020

Michael Bloomberg’s wrong answer to income inequality

Inequality and economic growth have been central themes in national elections since John Kennedy's campaign. The Clintons, Barack Obama and the latest crop headed by Joe Biden, Bernie Sanders, Elizabeth Warren and Pete Buttigieg want to give us freer access to health care, higher education (and debt forgiveness), child care and the like by taxing the wealthy.

January 19, 2020

Economy needs Middle-class gains to re-elect Trump and deliver a Republican majority

If the election were held on Valentine's Day, President Trump would have good prospects, but next November the story may be different.

January 11, 2020

How American universities create liberal ‘Stepford Students’

American universities are morphing into Orwellian dystopias -- tracking students' movements, regulating faculty thought and actions to the totem of political correctness and molding young citizens to be comfortable with authoritarian state control.

January 7, 2020

U.S. stocks and economy poised for a hot decade

The new decade offers great opportunities for the American economy and investors. After 20 years of slow growth -- bedeviled by halting productivity advances and sluggish labor force participation -- breakthroughs in artificial intelligence (AI) and the Internet are about to turn that around.

January 1, 2020

Forget politics, stick with stocks in 2020

Folks who invested in stocks were richly rewarded this year. The S&P 500 index, which tracks most publicly traded equities, is up about 25 percent. Sadly, too many small investors listened to the left-leaning financial press and economists about President Trump.

December 19, 2019

Giving the Fed better tools to manage a financial crisis

Incentivizing banks to lend by not rewarding passive reserves and the capacity to directly inject money directly into business and consumer checking accounts would give the Fed sharp tools in a crisis.

December 12, 2019

Why Elizabeth Warren’s new health care plan will fail

Health care has been the number one topic in the Democratic debates. President Trump should take heed -- rising health care costs and candidate fitness for leadership will dominate the 2020 campaign.

December 4, 2019

How party loyalty corrupts democracy

My grandfather, a buttonhole maker, had three loyalties -- family, his union and the Democratic Party. His politics were tribal, and he embraced politicians who often worked against his interests.

November 28, 2019

How Britain’s elections could sound the death knell for the European Union

Boris Johnson now has a good shot at winning a workable majority in Parliament to pull the U.K. out of the EU. This will prove a turning point for Europe -- rather than enabling consolidation of the continental bloc, Brexit will provide the contrast that blows it apart.

November 25, 2019

Why the economy will not save Trump

Republicans are counting on a strong economy and energized base to re-elect President Trump. Economists who study such things agree but the major polls and recent off-year elections in Virginia and Kentucky tell a different story.

November 18, 2019

Elizabeth Warren’s wealth tax will hinder economic growth and innovation

Ms. Warren proposes a 2 percent levy on individual fortunes over $50 million and 3 percent on those over $1 billion to raise about $2.75 trillion over 10 years.

November 7, 2019

Getting skyrocketing drug prices back down to earth

Prescription drug prices are rocketing into the stratosphere, and Democrats in Congress have a sensible plan to bring those back down to earth. Currently, pharmaceutical companies can set whatever price they like for new drugs, because Medicare is not permitted to negotiate or set reimbursements.

October 29, 2019