How to Run Wars: A Confidential Playbook for the National Security Eliteby Christopher J. Coyne and Abigail R. HallIndependent Institute, 2024; xvii + 198 pp.This is an excellent book, but I should like to begin, characteristically, with a complaint. Christopher Coyne and Abigail Hall, who are both economists favorable to the free market, present an excellent criticism of America’s pursuit of global hegemony, ably showing the immense costs of this policy. They do so...
Read More »Japan Confirms Intervention, China’s PMI Disappoints, EMU CPI Firms, Ahead of US PCE Deflator
Overview: The dollar is mostly consolidating yesterday's losses ahead of month-end and the US income and consumption data. The PCE core deflator may have risen by 0.2%, the least this, year, but the year-over-year rate is expected to be steady at 2.8%. The dollar is recovering from a five-day low against the yen recorded yesterday near JPY156.40 and is near JPY157.30 in the late European morning turnover. The yen's retreat and a disappointing Chinese PMI have...
Read More »The Mises Institute’s Concern Trolls
There is no shortage of former hangers-on at the Mises Institute who now claim to have deep insights into the inner workings of the Institute and its staff. Among these people, one will often find a certain group of people who never miss an opportunity to tell you all about how tight they once were with the Institute staff, and how now they can no longer support the Institute because “it changed.” The latest writer that checks the usual boxes of the...
Read More »Is Israeli Society as Sick as the Regime?
In teasing out right from wrong, discriminate we must between acts that are criminal only because The State has criminalized them (mala prohibita), as opposed to acts which are universally evil (malum in se). Israel’s sacking of Gaza is malum in se, universally evil. Gaza is clearly an easy case in ethics. It’s not as though the genocide underway in Gaza could ever be finessed or gussied up.Yet in Israel, no atrocity perpetrated by the IDF (Israel Defense Forces) in...
Read More »The West Needs Radical Political Change Towards Freedom
It should not have escaped the politically aware that the threats to freedom in Western societies are now unprecedented. This goes far beyond the interventionist pressures that over time have been slowly throttling most Western economies. The Western oligarchic elite are now dead set on implementing what one influential blogger described as “a society hermetically sealed against any form of rebellion, dissidence, or questioning of the ruling class-imposed power...
Read More »Big Loans, Big Risks, Big Problems
Construction lending juggernaut Bank OZK made news when its shares fell 17% after Citigroup analyst Benjamin Gerlinger wrote in a report that cut his rating to “sell.” Bloomberg reported “Bank OZK faces ‘largely idiosyncratic’ exposure to life sciences relative to peer banks,” with a $915 million loan on the Research and Development District on San Diego’s waterfront, developed by IQHQ Inc..“RaDD has been in development for more than 4 years and we believe 0% of the...
Read More »We Have Standards
Tuesday at Power & Market I described a certain type of soft and wobbly Mises Institute “supporter” who believes that the Mises Institute is not allowed to have standards. In the minds of these people, the Institute must publish articles that contradict the Institute’s core editorial positions in the name of “debate” and avoiding “dogmatism.” Apparently, it’s not enough that nearly the entire edifice of the American regime—along with academia and the legacy...
Read More »Learning democracy through games in Taiwanese schools
Taiwan’s secondary schools come top of global rankings in civic education, leaving Swiss schools in the shade. Northern Europe correspondent Bruno Kaufmann visits schools in Taiwan to find out what makes it different? --- swissinfo.ch is the international branch of the Swiss Broadcasting Corporation (SBC). Its role is to report on Switzerland and to provide a Swiss perspective on international events. For more articles, interviews and videos visit swissinfo.ch or subscribe to our...
Read More »Special announcement: Please Join us for a Live Recording in Geneva!
Send us a Text Message. (https://www.buzzsprout.com/twilio/text_messages/915097/open_sms) Save the Date for a live recording We’d like to invite you to a live recording session of our Inside Geneva podcast about the role of the Geneva Conventions and international law. Mark your calendars – June 5, 2024, from 12:30 to 1:30 pm – at the Geneva Graduate Institute. Registration is required to secure your spot here....
Read More »Smugglers: True Heroes of Liberty
In the shadows of society, where legality meets defiance, lies a realm inhabited by those often deemed outlaws: smugglers. To some, they are criminals, evaders of the law; to others, they are the unsung heroes of the market, navigating the murky waters of prohibition and regulation to fulfill the demands of consumers and preserve individual freedoms. In this exploration, we unveil the clandestine world of smuggling and illuminate its role as a beacon of resistance...
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