Capital Record

David responds to his National Review colleague Michael Brendan Dougherty's recent attack on free trade. David tries to be far more charitable in tone and content than protectionists appear willing to be, but seeks to hold the anti-free-trade crowd to the same thing all engaged in public argument ought to be held to, especially in an economic way of thinking: first principles, a limiting principle, and, most of all, the accountability of real life.

David takes a look at certain efforts to undermine the spirit of the law, whether or not the letter of the law is followed, and what it means for our financial markets. This is a golden issue for Capital Record, an optimal application of where freedom and virtue must be juxtaposed. 

This week, David unpacks some really important lessons on the current state of U.S. manufacturing: why the electoral and the political cannot be confused with the economic, and why neither should be confused with the cultural. There is something in here for everyone to be bothered by, so jump on in to a reality check about U.S. manufacturing.

Audio clip from FLVOICENEWS.COM

How should we think about people who make billions of dollars managing the capital of others? Does a hedge fund manager like Bill Ackman add any value to society? Why would someone worth $50-100 million hate someone worth $9 billion? This week's Capital Record doesn't have time to get into dog-whistle antisemitism, but it does have time to get into class envy, the embarrassing error of believing capital allocation is a valueless exercise, and the merit of achievement embodied by someone like Bill Ackman.

The One Big Beautiful Bill Act has been criticized for not doing enough to rein in deficits. It has been praised for extending tax cuts. And it is underrated for some of the pro-growth business measures the bill includes intended to promote supply-side business incentives. But what about the “promises kept:” In the new tax bill -- the “no tax on tips” and “no tax on overtime wages” -- are these pro-growth? What about the deduction for interest expense on auto loans? Or the special bonus standard deduction for senior citizens? David does a refresher in today's podcast on the principles of the supply side tax movement that have been front and center for almost 50 years. Tax cuts that incentivize production and tax cuts that appeal to a very specific voting block are rarely the same thing!Show Notes:A Referee's Take on the One, Big, Beautiful Bill

The Biden administration spent $42 billion of taxpayer funds to bring broadband access to rural America, and people are shocked, shocked, that nothing has been done. As people on both sides of the aisle scream for government to “do more,” perhaps there is a lesson in this failure to create connectivity, and perhaps that lesson ought to be that incentives and knowledge matter.Show notes:https://x.com/geiger_capital/status/1905591976876990670?s=61https://www.ntia.gov/45-year-anniversary

The media may have obsessed over the extravagant Jeff Bezos wedding in Venice last weekend, but most regular people with jobs and a family probably couldn't care less. But in this week's episode, David takes note of who does seem to care about such things, and what principles can be learned from the whole affair that impact our understanding of economics in the 21st century. This is a seriously contrarian episode of the Capital Record!

David walks through the new Barry Diller autobiography and extracts some key business lessons that speak to our own objectives here on the Capital Record. Barry may have been a Hollywood and media industry giant, and he may not care much for all of our ideological commitments, but he has a lot to offer in this week's episode.Show Notes:"Business Lessons from the New Barry Diller Book"

The YIMBY Movement Is for Conservatives, TooAbundant Housing Creates Abundant Opportunities

Does prosperity make for a good life? If not, does it stand to reason that prosperity works against a good life? Why is this issue so problematic for people still today, when the answers embedded in the alleged tension were so apparent to men and women of wisdom so long ago? In this foundational episode, David discusses the recipe for the good life, where prosperity fits in, where it does not, and how stupidity can work to undermine both prosperity, and the good life so many claim to aspire to.

Is the U.S. bond market rejecting the fiscal state of the country? Is it declaring doom and gloom? Is it begging us not to do this “big, beautiful bill”? Or, is the fiscal state of the country deeply troubled? Is the new bill a big disappointment, but the bond market is saying no such thing (for reasons you deserve to understand)? In this very important Capital Record, David makes the argument that those wrongly declaring some form of bond market revolt are hurting the cause of fiscal reform, undermining credibility, and making it harder for the real needs we have to be addressed. This rejection of crying wolf comes at a very important time for this woefully managed country!

Financial innovations are demonized all the time, and perhaps David should be grateful because a low regard for capital markets is what motivated the creation of this podcast. But today he looks at SPACs and the criticisms of them as an example of how fallacious defense of central planning works. He makes the case that protection against fraud is one thing, but protection against loss is another. And ultimately, he makes the case that a system of robust financial markets has gains and losses, and that is a good thing.

There was a time conservatives all knew this, but the new right's fatal flaw is not just in the application -- the perpetual desire for more state intervention -- but rather in the very nature of things that they get wrong. Markets are not created by the state, but rather by voluntary, organic human interaction. David unpacks the relevance of this basic creational, economic, and yes, moral message, in today's Capital Record.

Populism seems to be the driving force of the new right's economic philosophy. The new right has said that they want to take on “libertarian” economics and “free market orthodoxy.” Others have said that “libertarian economics is the same thing as conservative economics” (i.e., laissez-faire, low tax, low regulation, etc.). David suggests the need of the hour is not just more precise definitions, but a truly robust understanding of conservative economics -- one that goes where libertarianism didn't, and goes where populism simply can't.

David takes on the idea that protectionism and globalization are chief rivals, and instead suggests that the chief rival of protectionism is free enterprise itself. He critiques Joe Nocera's recent Free Press article suggesting that the protectionists have been vindicated, and instead suggests that the entire protectionist agenda is essentially the plight of the central planner. A careful critique of the tariff dogma, combined with a non-revisionist view of what has transpired in trade and culture over the last few decades!

How One Family Aims to Break Liberals' Corporate Voting Power

As the Trump administration and Amazon/Bezos almost duked it out over the “shocking” idea of disclosing the impact to prices from taxes on imports, those of us seeking to understand economic application out of cogent economic theory were given a great chance to relearn some lessons from master himself, Friedrich Hayek. It turns out price discovery is important in economics for the same reason transparency is important in political theory -- and this ought to be a very non-partisan belief!

Veronique De Rugy's phenomenal article

If our goal is a monetary policy that minimizes interventions and distortions in the marketplace and most optimally allows capital to find its most efficient use, the last thing we should want is a Fed that is less independent and more captive to political whims and desires. David explains his various criticisms of Jerome Powell this week, but points out how we make things much worse, not better, if we believe it a good idea for the Fed to be a pawn of the president. In this case, it is counterproductive; for future precedent, it is downright dangerous.

With so much talk circulating that Americans need to be deathly afraid of a “strong dollar,” David takes on recent comments from Stephen Miran, chair of the Council of Economic Advisers, suggesting that a strong dollar is really unfair to Americans. Underlying some of these recent allegations about dollar supremacy is a familiar crisis of responsibility. It is time to set the record straight.

David talks about all the things that are right in the dichotomy between the “stock market” and the “real economy,” but then goes into all the things that are wrong – namely, that 99% of the time someone is making this distinction, they are doing it wrong, for the wrong reasons, in the wrong way. Understanding what public equity prices measure versus what broad economic data measures is a good thing, but pitting capital against labor is called “Marxism” – and it can be deadly wrong.

David looks at the wildest week in global financial markets in the last five years in the context of first principles – how the administration's choice to lump allies in with adversaries hurt their cause – and how the need to properly define terms and understand basic economic concepts matters.

David unpacks the economic message of President Trump on so-called Liberation Day.

David takes on tariffs today in advance of the big April 2 announcements everyone is expecting from the Trump administration. David's expectations? No clarity at all -- an ongoing chaos -- and a fever swamp dream for lobbyists.

Time for businesses to return to their essential purpose

"How the Right Sold Out"

David chimes in this week on the U.K. tribunal ruling that an employee was constructively terminated by having their desk moved, but more importantly, on the absurdity of the whole thing. When we ask disinterested third parties like the state to mediate disputes over furniture between employees and employers, we are doing great damage to another party not involved in chair-gate -- and that party is the subject of today's Capital Record.

Be Good Bankers: The Economic Interpretation of Matthew's Gospel, with a Fresh Translation

David makes the case that there are some arguments that are better than others for protectionist economic policy, even if none of them are persuasive, but there are none so counterproductive and misguided as merely calling your ideological opponents “globalists.” If the argument in classical economics against government intervention via protective tariffs is that they hurt American exporters, they hurt American importers, and they hurt American consumers, then the vocalizing of opposition can hardly be connected to “globalism.” For those who play this game, the intent is not to make a coherent argument at all, but to obfuscate, poison the well, and substitute innuendo in place of argument. For those who care for the American worker, we must do better.

Does one need to convert their business success to charitable endeavors to create a “lasting Kingdom legacy”? Or can we say with conviction that our efforts in the marketplace are lasting, are meaningful, and, in fact, are vitally important? David goes after a well-intentioned but deeply misguided sentiment about business vs. philanthropy, and in so doing lays out a vision for economics that gets to the heart of what this podcast is about.

David sounds off on class warfare targeted at private equity firms daring to buy 0.06 percent of homes, and how counterproductive it is to the cause of a free and virtuous society to be going after the wrong people, for the wrong things, all the time.

David wants the CFPB dismantled, and he thinks Russ Vought's philosophy at OMB about deregulation is the right one. But did Vought use a really bad example of “weaponization” this weekend, and are some bad actors bad examples for good deregulation? David unpacks this dilemma of freedom and virtuousness in a quick, needed diatribe.

This is a remedial course in how banking works, the tension between deposit rates and borrowing rates, and the way in which freedom and virtue are cultivated by true relationship banking. An episode you won't want to miss!

https://www.reuters.com/business/finance/jpmorgan-ceo-dimon-derides-in-office-work-pushback-demands-efficiency-2025-02-13/https://www.barrons.com/articles/jamie-dimon-leaked-audio-jpmorgan-return-to-office-7064ee64

LFG (Looking for gamers): CFPB wants to hear about your video game loot

It is amazing how, these days, the word “bipartisan” is always attached to Republicans doing something leftist in economic policy, and never Democrats doing something pro-market. And the bipartisanship of the Hawley-Sanders bill to cap credit card interest rates is a wonderful reason to not be yearning for bipartisanship. In this episode of Capital Record, David provides principle-based reasons for opposing this federal overreach, and it is a set of principles that have held up very well over time. A must listen!

How can we have an honest conversation about tariffs as public policy, let alone one rooted in first principles, if the conversation changes every five minutes? David uses this podcast to focus the attention where it belongs, to separate categories, and to encourage thoughtful and siloed analysis about the American worker, about tax revenue, about trade deficits, about human rights, and about negotiating tactics -- in a coherent and sensible manner. One may just find that the right policy decision on a given matter is easier to come by with good faith, logic, and conversation than bouncing around without focus or purpose.

With the RFK confirmation hearings in the news, could it be that “health and human services” is not just a story about vaccines, snack foods, and the controversy around Robert Kennedy, but is actually an economic story, with a lesson for us all about the reason people use words like “big pharma” and “big business”?

"When Engagement Works"

'Gary Stevenson claims to have been the best trader in the world. His old colleagues disagree'

David heard someone say recently, “All I do is help rich people get richer” (this person, like David, works in wealth management), and this inspired David to do this podcast on how incredibly wrong that sentiment is.