SNB & CHF

Is the main problem with the US healthcare system that hospitals have gotten too large since the 1990s? That seems to be the remarkable conclusion of two of the nation’s most distinguished health-policy analysts, David Dranove and Lawton R. Burns. Dranove is an economist and Walter J. McNerney Distinguished Professor of Health Industry Management at the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. Burns is a sociologist and James Joo-Jin Kim professor of...

The American Left has decided that the so-called meritocracy is a bad thing. In a typical example from the Los Angeles Times this week, Nicholas Goldberg points to a number of issues exploring how merit is not actually the key to power and riches in America: The United States is supposed to be a meritocracy. The story goes that if you work hard and play by the rules, especially with regard to education, you can compete, rise and succeed here. . . . But Americans are...

In the name of "fighting racism," a number of writers and pundits are making social relationships between people of different races and ethnic groups more contentious. Original Article: "The New Racism of the Elect" This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.  [embedded content] Tags:...

Overview: The US dollar is trading with a firmer bias against nearly all the G10 currencies ahead of Federal Reserve Chairman Powell's semi-annual testimony before Congress. Speaking for the Federal Reserve, the Chair is likely to stay on message which is higher rates are necessary to cool the overheating economy. This comes on the heels of the Reserve Bank of Australia's 25 bp hike and indication that it is not pre-committing to an April hike. The Australian dollar...

Intellectuals and politicians often try to verbally summarize or justify conventional thinking in pithy ways. Milton Friedman (in 1965) and Richard Nixon (in 1971) both said different versions of the phrase “we are all Keynesians now.” . . . Friedman and Nixon were describing the thoughts behind the implementation of Great Society redistribution programs and an inflationary monetary policy designed to offset the cost of those programs. —Brian Wesbury and Robert...

Just like in alpine Switzerland, there is also a ski industry in the high mountains of Kyrgyzstan in Central Asia, and it’s getting some help from the Swiss. Eight years ago, a dedicated ski instructor from the eastern Swiss canton of Graubünden started a winter tourism project in Kyrgyzstan to create jobs in the cold season. Edda Hergarten took fellow instructors with her to teach the Kyrgyz people how to ski. Now about 40 of them are instructors themselves. This is her story....

Relai, die Schweizer Bitcoin-App, gibt eine Investitionsrunde in Höhe von 4,5 Millionen US-Dollar bekannt, die von ego death capital angeführt wird. Weitere Investoren sind Timechain, Cabrit Capital und Lightning Ventures. An der Investitionsrunde beteiligten sich auch der Hauptinvestor von Relai, Redalpine, und der Seed-Stage-Investor Fulgur Ventures, die beide erneut investierten. In Juni 2021 hatte Relai deren Series A (2.5Mio CHF) abgeschlossen und letzten Mai...

Thanks to copyright laws, the estate of Roald Dahl can not only rewrite his books, but can also essentially outlaw the old versions. Only books in the public domain are safe from this. Original Article: "Roald Dahl and James Bond Books Are Getting Woke Rewrites. Copyright Law Ensures You Can't Stop Them." This Audio Mises Wire is generously sponsored by Christopher Condon.  [embedded content]...

Of all the leading libertarian French economists of the mid- and late nineteenth centuries, the most unusual was the Belgian-born Gustave de Molinari (1819-1912). Born in Liege, the son of a Belgian physician and a baron who had been an officer in the Napoleonic army, Molinari spent most of his life in France, where he became a prolific and indefatigable author and editor in lifelong support of pure laissez-faire, of international peace, and in determined and...

The history of transatlantic slavery is riddled with fables and errors. Erroneous claims have been propagated in the media because history is currently perceived as a political project that must justify present sensibilities. History has become so politicized that rigorous research is unable to disabuse activists of inaccuracies. Due to the rampant politicization of academia, noted scholars are usually cajoled into apologizing for defending historical standards....