In recent months, Americans were treated to a particularly cheap political spectacle: negotiations over the debt ceiling. “Extreme right-wing Republicans have hijacked the debt ceiling process,” said Vermont senator Bernie Sanders. “The fight over the debt ceiling could sink the economy,” intoned National Public Radio. Florida representative Matt Gaetz said that when it comes to the debt ceiling, he sees no need to parlay with the Republicans’ “hostage.” The...
Read More »Is the Banking Crisis Being Orchestrated?
With each iteration of the banking crisis, the Federal Reserve System and federal regulators gain in power and authority. Maybe the banking crisis isn’t an accident. Original Article: "Is the Banking Crisis Being Orchestrated?" [embedded content] Tags: Featured,newsletter
Read More »Bidenomics Is Yet Another Version of Failed Industrial Policy
On June 28, President Joe Biden took to the stage in Chicago to drum up support for his economic agenda, which his own team has taken to calling “Bidenomics.” The speech was part of a broader publicity tour, “Investing in America,” with the president and his cabinet traveling the country trying to get the American people to see Biden’s economic policies as successful and popular. In his speech, the president attacked so-called trickle-down economics, which he painted...
Read More »How Capitalism Redefined Masculine Virtue
In the pre-industrial world, aggression and physical domination were often labeled as "masculine" virtues because they were useful for survival. The rise of the cooperative market economy changed all that. Original Article: "How Capitalism Redefined Masculine Virtue" [embedded content] Tags: Featured,newsletter
Read More »After the Debt Ceiling Deal: Look for Liquidity Problems in the Markets
Everything seems to be lining up perfectly for individual investors with Joe Biden and Kevin McCarthy making a debt ceiling deal. In fact, a sentiment poll reflects an ebullient investor class. According to an Investors Intelligence article titled "Assume the Positioning" (reprinted in Almost Daily Grant’s, June 1, 2023), “Just 23.3 percent of respondents are bearish on stocks, the lowest since January 2022, [when] the market scaled the summit of the everything...
Read More »We Need a Peace President
Most people agree that we are closer to nuclear war than at any time since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis. Some would even argue that we are closer now than we were in those fateful days, when Soviet missiles in Cuba almost triggered a nuclear war between the US and the USSR. In those days we were told that we were in a life-or-death struggle with Communism and thus could not cede a square foot of territory or the dominoes would fall one-by-one until the “Reds” ruled...
Read More »Technology Is Meaningless without Entrepreneurship
While many believe that technology is key to a growing economy, technology is useless without entrepreneurship, which develops uses for technology. Original Article: "Technology Is Meaningless without Entrepreneurship" [embedded content] Tags: Featured,newsletter
Read More »Demonizing Men with False Data on Sexual Abuse
There is a sea change in how society views false accusations of sexual abuse. And it’s about time. The lawsuit John C. Depp, II v. Amber Laura Heard (2022) points to this transformation. Depp and Heard sued each other for defamation with “actual malice” over public accusations of domestic violence (DV) during their marriage; Heard also sued Depp’s attorney for making false statements. Unlike an earlier case brought by Depp in the United Kingdom, the American jury...
Read More »US Trade Deficits Are Growing Larger. Or Are They?
US trade deficits seem to be expanding, placing pressure on the dollar. However, central banks around the world are just as irresponsible as the Fed, masking the relative devaluation of US money. Original Article: "US Trade Deficits Are Growing Larger. Or Are They?" [embedded content] Tags: Featured,newsletter
Read More »Leviathan Is on the Menu
I put for the general inclination of all mankind, a perpetual and restless desire of power after power, that ceaseth only in death.—Thomas Hobbes, The Leviathan California continues to attack businesses and entrepreneurial freedom. Leviathan has awakened, this time with Assembly Bill 257, promoting a state-controlled trade union for all restaurant workers. Current United States secretary of labor Marty Walsh has left and become head of the National Hockey League’s...
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