The primary psychological driver behind socialist policies isn't altruism for the poor but a desire to penalize the wealthy. Understanding this distinction is key to predicting their political actions, as they will oppose policies that benefit everyone if they also benefit the rich.
Accepting a government salary fundamentally changes an advisor's role into that of an employee, creating an obligation of loyalty that compromises intellectual honesty. To provide unvarnished, objective advice to leaders, an advisor must remain financially independent from the government.
Despite emotional rhetoric, human behavior is fundamentally driven by incentives. Even the most ardent socialists will act as capitalists when presented with direct personal gain, revealing that incentive-based economics is a core part of human nature.
Macroeconomics can be understood by evaluating a leader's performance across five core domains: taxation, government spending, monetary policy, regulations, and international trade. This framework provides a clear scorecard for assessing economic policy effectiveness.
Contrary to popular belief, Trump's trade strategy isn't protectionism. He uses reciprocity, leverage, and executive flexibility to force other countries to lower their own trade barriers, ultimately aiming for a world with freer trade for the U.S.
Cryptocurrencies serve two distinct economic functions. Bitcoin's fixed supply makes its price volatile, positioning it as a store of value like digital gold. True currency replacements are stablecoins, which have a fixed value and variable supply, making them suitable for everyday transactions.
The stock market is not overvalued based on historical metrics; it's a forward-looking mechanism pricing in massive future productivity gains from AI and deregulation. Investors are betting on a fundamentally more efficient economy, justifying valuations that seem detached from today's reality.
Trump's seemingly chaotic approach is best understood as a CEO's leadership style. He tells his staff what to do rather than asking for opinions, uses disruption as a negotiation tactic, and prioritizes long-term outcomes over short-term public opinion or procedural harmony.
A future Federal Reserve could abandon interest rate manipulation and adopt a "price rule" to stabilize the dollar's value. This approach, similar to Paul Volcker's strategy, would involve adjusting the money supply based on a basket of commodity prices to achieve near-zero inflation.