Two more articles, one I read over the weekend and one I read this morning, are too good to miss.
By Jeffrey Rogers Hamel reasonJuly 2024.
Here is a review of William Hogeland by Jeff Hamel. The Hamilton Project: The Epic Story of Money and Power in the Founding of America.
excerpt:
Hamilton was one of the framers of the secretly held Constitutional Convention, where he revealed himself to be a closet monarchist. He praised the British political system as the best in the world and declared that he wanted a president for life with absolute veto power over all legislation. He was appalled that senators were chosen by the states, and in fact wanted the states and their militias to effectively disappear. However, because more centralization was better than none, Hamilton was willing to conceal his true views in his contributions to the Constitutional Convention. The Federalist PapersWhile many historians have dismissed Hamilton’s convention remarks as mere aberrations, Hogeland shows how these extreme oligarchic tendencies informed Hamilton’s approach throughout his career.
and:
By the time Washington mustered 12,000 militiamen (to end the Whiskey Rebellion) and marched under Hamilton’s effective command, open resistance had subsided, mainly due to the pacifying influence of Gallatin, Findley, and even Husband. To buy time, the government sent out commissioners to negotiate, promising amnesty to anyone who signed an oath of loyalty. Many in the area did, but once the militia arrived, it didn’t matter. Hamilton presided over a reign of terror, government men breaking into houses, and many Americans were arrested without charge and held for long periods in squalid conditions. Hamilton was trying to gather evidence to drag the perpetrators back to Philadelphia for trial, in violation of the Bill of Rights’ guarantee that all criminal trials be held in the district where the crime was committed. Hamilton was trying to find enough evidence to hang Gallatin, Findley, and Husband.
Incidentally, when I was a summer intern at the Council of Economic Advisers in 1973, I was walking past the Treasury Building on Pennsylvania Avenue when I noticed a statue and finally asked someone who it was. It was a statue of Albert Gallatin, who became Secretary of the Treasury after Hamilton. Jeff Hamel told me in a personal conversation that Gallatin was a financial genius who dedicated his talents to a noble cause, and Jeff’s review also conveys that.
By Véronique de Ruzy, reasonJune 13, 2024.
excerpt:
Government overspending, which the Biden Administration has taken to new levels, has sent the country into an inflationary spiral. Through trillions of dollars in COVID-19 relief programs, infrastructure spending, vote-buying student loan forgiveness programs, and a politically-driven “Build Back Better” plan, the White House has saturated the economy and depleted consumer purchasing power. We are paying more for everything from energy to food and getting less.
According to the House Budget Committee, the average family of four is paying about $1,143 more per month for the same goods and services compared to the beginning of 2021, including higher gasoline prices. Far from reversing course, President Joe Biden is putting the onus on the private sector and telling voters he has the answers. He is doubling down on that pressure by proposing more stifling, job-killing regulations to “solve” the problem that will inevitably push inflation to new heights.
and:
But once again, the Biden administration has found a convenient scapegoat in the private sector, exerting the Department of Justice’s powers against RealPage, a US software provider that helps landlords determine the market value of rental properties.
The existence of such a company should be uncontroversial. Today, nearly every industry, from grocery stores to airlines, uses similar tools to make better decisions about pricing inventory based on supply and demand. But the administration needs someone to blame, and there aren’t many other suitable targets to attack.
