The Henry Hazlitt Memorial Lecture, March 18, 20221 Many thanks to the Mises Institute and to sponsor Yousif Almoayyed for this opportunity to be with you all today as we consider one of the truly remarkable developments in the history of American central banking, money printing, and credit inflation. On a personal note, “the pursuit of clarity” has long been a goal of mine, and it’s a particular pleasure to present a lecture in honor of Henry Hazlitt, whose work is...
Read More »And Now for a Really Bad Response to Political Calamity: Autarky
The invasion of Ukraine, the spike in inflation and the risks of supply shortages have made some politicians dust off some of the worst economic ideas in history: autarky and protectionism. Some believe that if our nation produced everything we needed we would all be better off because we would not depend on others. The idea comes from a deep lack of understanding of economics. There is no such thing as autarky. There is no such thing as covering all the needs of a...
Read More »Money Supply Growth Heads Back Up: February Growth Up to 7 Percent
Money supply growth rose for the third month in a row in February, continuing ongoing growth from October’s twenty-one-month low. Even with February’s rise, though, money supply growth remains far below the unprecedented highs experienced during much of the past two years. During thirteen months between April 2020 and April 2021, money supply growth in the United States often climbed above 35 percent, well above even the “high” levels experienced from 2009 to 2013....
Read More »Putin’s Inflation? Homegrown Modern Monetary Theory Is to Blame
Prices of goods and services in the economy seem to be going through the roof, and both consumers and producers suffer from the falling value of their money. Unfortunately, the public turns to politicians in Washington and economists around the world for answers. While president Joe Biden and his administration call it Putin’s price hike, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that over the last twelve months, the all items index increased 7.9 percent before...
Read More »If Ukraine Joins the EU, It Will Be the Poorest Member by Far
Within days of the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Ukrainian regime applied for membership in the European Union. This is understandable from the perspective of Kyiv. If Ukraine is going to be denied membership in NATO—as increasingly looks to be the case—The Ukraine regime could nonetheless increase its geopolitical connections to the West by joining in the EU. Moreover, given the fact the EU is moving toward creating its own EU military...
Read More »European Environmentalists Have Made Energy Independence Impossible
Europe is not going to achieve a competitive energy transition with the current interventionist policies. Europe does not depend on Russian gas due to a coincidence, but because of a chain of mistaken policies: banning nuclear in Germany, prohibiting the development of domestic natural gas resources throughout the European Union, added to a massive and expensive renewable rollout without building a reliable backup. Solar and wind do not reduce dependency on Russian...
Read More »Central Banks: Who Needs Them? No One
As the Federal Reserve hikes its lending rate to a range of 0.25–0.50 percent, murmurs are heard around the world, with financial pundits predicting doom due to the increased pressures imposed on the cost structures of firms that are recovering from the pandemic lockdowns. The Federal Reserve is leader of the group of central banks around the world that are ostensibly directed by their respective countries to pursue stability and smooth functioning of their...
Read More »No, More Bureaucracy Would NOT Have Saved Trump’s Paycheck Protection Program
Sorry, I've looked everywhere but I can't find the page you're looking for. If you follow the link from another website, I may have removed or renamed the page some time ago. You may want to try searching for the page: Search Searching for the terms %3Futm+source%3Drss%26utm+medium%3Drss%26utm+campaign%3Dgrassmueck+more+bureaucracy+trump+paycheck+protection+program ...
Read More »Will Biden Sanction Half the World to Isolate Russia?
The United States is no longer in any position to remake the world in its image. It’s not 1945 or even 1970. Yet the US seems to be gearing up to bully half the world into compliance with the US Russia sanctions. Original Article: “Will Biden Sanction Half the World to Isolate Russia?” It is becoming increasingly apparent that isolating Russia and totally cutting it off from the global economy is not going to be easy. As I discussed last week, from Mexico to...
Read More »Why Saudi Arabia Won’t Abandon Dollars for Yuan
There are numerous articles mentioning that Saudi Arabia may use the yuan, China’s domestic currency, for its oil exports. How much does Saudi Arabia export to China? According to the Organisation of Economic Co-operation and Development, the kingdom’s main exports are to China ($45.8B), India ($25.1B), Japan ($24.5B), South Korea ($19.5B), and the United States ($12.2B). Exports of crude oil reached $145 billion in total. Saudi Arabia is the world’s largest oil...
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