SNB & CHF

Federal flood insurance was created ostensibly to provide insurance to people who live in flood-prone areas. Not surprisingly, it subsidizes bad home-building decisions and wastes billions of dollars. Original Article: Federal Flood Insurance Drains Taxpayers [embedded content] Tags: Featured,newsletter

​Why are we using state money instead of market money? Put another way, why can’t we select the money we want to use? Cryptocurrencies are a market alternative, but they haven’t put state money out of business yet. If they ever threaten to do so, the state can prohibit them. Market money is sound because of two essential features. First, it represents the market’s choice of a universally accepted medium of exchange, and second, it shackles government to a great...

Overview: The dollar is beginning the new week narrowly mixed against the G10 currencies. Sterling seems largely unaffected by the cabinet reshuffle that has seen former Prime Minister Camron return as the foreign minister, replacing Cleverly who replaces Home Secretary Braverman. The dollar rose to new highs for the year against the Japanese yen (~JPY151.85). The market has shown little reaction to the pre-weekend news that Moody's cut the outlook for US credit to...

In Switzerland, rents for apartments on the market continued to rise in October. However, there were clear differences in the individual cantons. Share Facebook Twitter E-mail Print Copy link Across Switzerland, rents for new and re-rentable apartments – the so-called asking rents – rose by 0.4% in October compared to the previous month, according to the Homegate rent index published on Monday. The index advanced by 0.5 points to 123.8 points. On an annual...

The field of behavior economics downplays the role of purposeful praxeology in economics. Austrian economics does not make that error. Original Article: Reason versus Emotion in Economics: A Praxeological Response [embedded content] Tags: Featured,newsletter

The countries have changed, but the story remains the same. Wealthier countries try to “invest” by lending money to African regimes, where the money disappears. This time, China is the big lender. Original Article: No Monetary or Political Bailouts for Belt-and-Road Initiative Debtors [embedded content] Tags:...

Modern prosperity is astonishing, but it can quickly disappear if our monetary unit fails. We need to keep up the fight for sound money. Original Article: Cut through the Media Noise, and Remember the Economic Priorities [embedded content] Tags: Featured,newsletter

The recent dollar gyrations seem tightly linked to US rates. The FOMC meeting and October jobs report saw the two-year Treasury yield drop 17 bp and the dollar was taken broadly lower. Indeed, against several currency pairs, it approached three standard deviations below its 20-day moving average. What seemed like a mild adjustment to the over-extended technical development turned into a rout after a weak reception to the US 30-year bond auction to finish the...

On this week's episode, Mark looks at the financial condition of the government and of American citizens on the cusp of the next recession. The financial condition of the United States Treasury, the Federal Reserve, and the American citizenry is weak; debt is high and rising, and this is very worrisome in an economic environment of rising interest rates and a weakening global economy. Please share this episode with a curmudgeon. The U.S. Debt Clock: USDebtClock.org...

My grandfather used to sing to me, “Good, better, best / never let them rest / till the good is better / and the better is best.” I appreciated that lesson and have been applying it to try to make sense of a recent bill signed by California governor Gavin Newsom. While the bill may be the result of Newsom’s grandfather singing to him about “bad, worse, and worst,” I have determined it is more likely a case of bad/worse/worst economic thinking. It exposes a level of...