A Crisis of Global Statism

September 25, 2008 7:46 AM by Pierre Lemieux

A false confidence in the power of the state to guarantee stability has developed. Some investors have come to believe that, whatever mistake they make, they have a right to their profits, and the authorities will enforce it. The rescue of Bear Stearns, the two GSEs and AIG will only fuel this belief. But if some people have made bad investments and are relieved from their responsibility for their own mistakes, it only means that the cost will be transferred to others, probably through a worse crisis.

Guaranteeing large financial firms from failure will bring calls for regulating them still more tightly. This is an old story: past political interventions create the reasons for new ones.The present financial turmoil is really a failure of global statism. Socialism has failed once again. Let's try capitalism. FULL ARTICLE

The Oil Price Mirage

August 23, 2005 4:58 AM by Pierre Lemieux

The recent run-up in oil prices drew interesting reactions, writes Pierre Lemieux. Some analysts have tried to explain how reductions of crude demand by refineries can push crude prices up! An opinion poll at the end of last year already revealed that 40% of Texans thought that corporate greed was behind high gasoline prices, as if, to paraphrase Adam Smith, we should expect to obtain our gasoline from the oil merchants’ benevolence instead of their self-interest. FULL ARTICLE

Oil Price Mirage

August 19, 2005 12:24 PM by Pierre Lemieux

My piece in the Financial Post today included a mistake that appeared in the editing process, so I'm pleased to offer the corrected version here in ancipation of an erratum in the next edition of the FP.

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