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...
Read More »More Federal Debt Means More Taxes, Less Growth, and Weaker Real Wages
Since 1960, Congress has raised the debt ceiling 78 times, according to Bloomberg. The process of increasing the debt limit has become so regular that markets barely worry about it. Furthermore, as the 2011 debt ceiling crisis showed, the impact on asset prices happened mostly in emerging economies. In 2011, Turkish and Indian debt were the most negatively impacted, while Treasuries rose. Politicians believe that raising the debt ceiling is a social policy and that...
Read More »The Market Process Is Not a Knowledge Problem
While F.A. Hayek's famous 1945 essay effectively critiques the "perfect information" hypothesis, it is an inadequate explanation of the issue of economic calculation. Original Article: "The Market Process Is Not a Knowledge Problem" [embedded content] Tags: Featured,newsletter
Read More »Why Do We Act against Our Self-Interest?
After reading a few blog entries (see the Defending the Republic series), I have wondered why people who do not seem to benefit from social justice efforts support and endorse them. Why would a male push an agenda designed to deny his rights? Why do companies embrace the environmental, social, and governance agenda when it potentially makes them less competitive through lowered standards, higher costs, and policies that prevent talent from reaching its highest state?...
Read More »Rise of the Effete Authoritarians
Political leaders of the so-called liberal Western regimes are engaging in authoritarian tactics to quell legitimate dissent. But leftists who riot and burn get a free pass. Original Article: "Rise of the Effete Authoritarians" [embedded content] Tags: Featured,newsletter
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