Canadian Dollar gives away gains as USD bounces up following strong Retail Sales data. Investors’ concern that Middle East conflict might escalate provides additional support to the safe-haven US Dollar. Oil prices have depreciated nearly 3.5% from early April highs, adding negative pressure to CAD. The Canadian Dollar (CAD) recovery attempt seen during Monday’s European session has been short-lived. The US Dollar has resumed its bullish...
Read More »End the Drug War in Oregon, Both State and Federal
Three years ago, in a citizen’s initiation approved by 3/4 of voters, Oregon decriminalized the possession of small amounts of illicit drugs. Last month, the Oregon governor signed into law a measure that undid what the people of Oregon had decided. The reason for this change in direction was that there were severe problems that arose with decriminalization. Two of the biggest problems were (1) Drug addiction and deaths from drug overdoses had soared; and (2)...
Read More »Pound Sterling falls back as upbeat US Retail Sales strengthen US Dollar
The Pound Sterling faces pressure as geopolitical tensions improve the appeal for safe-haven assets. UK’s employment and inflation data will influence speculation over BoE rate cuts. The UK economy is on track to come out of a technical recession. The Pound Sterling (GBP) remains on the backfoot against the US Dollar in Monday’s early New York session. The near-term demand of the GBP/USD pair remains downbeat due to deepening Middle East...
Read More »Human Action on Its 75th Anniversary Helps Us Understand How Statism Has Decimated Argentina
The seventy-fifth anniversary of Ludwig von Mises’s Human Action invites us to ponder on Mises’s scholarly achievements and how the economic mainstream has not yet caught up to his advances in economics. Like Jesus Huerta de Soto points out in his preliminary study to the Spanish version of the thirteenth edition of Human Action: few are the treatises on the side of the mainstream that even try to match what Mises does in Human Action.Mises’s work is not only...
Read More »How Statism Destroyed Argentina
The seventy-fifth anniversary of Ludwig von Mises’s Human Action invites us to ponder on Mises’s scholarly achievements and how the economic mainstream has not yet caught up to his advances in economics. Like Jesus Huerta de Soto points out in his preliminary study to the Spanish version of the thirteenth edition of Human Action: few are the treatises on the side of the mainstream that even try to match what Mises does in Human Action.Mises’s work is not only...
Read More »Switzerland braced for wave of bank staff layoffs
Redundancies at Switzerland's largest bank will test the capacity of the financial sector to absorb jobs. Keystone A year ago Credit Suisse staff were stunned by the sudden demise of their bank. Many are now fighting for their careers with 3,000 Swiss posts set to be axed by their new employer UBS, starting this year....
Read More »Producer and Import Price Index rose by 0.1% in March
15.04.2024 - The Producer and Import Price Index rose in March 2024 by 0.1% compared with the previous month, reaching 106.9 points (December 2020 = 100). In particular, petroleum products saw higher prices. Compared with March 2023, the price level of the whole range of domestic and imported products fell by 2.1%. These are the results from the Federal...
Read More »The War on Poverty Makes Poverty Worse
The city of San Antonio’s Status on Poverty Report was released recently, and the response was predictable. “I just want . . . some sort of an action plan.” Council should “better direct” taxpayer dollars “toward helping all San Antonians thrive.”If officials had a decent grasp of history, they’d know the likely outcomes from such efforts: more of the same.Poverty is the natural, initial state. Society wasn’t just born into affluence; it had to be created. As new...
Read More »“Don’t Do Something! Just Stand There!”
The city of San Antonio’s Status on Poverty Report was released recently, and the response was predictable. “I just want . . . some sort of an action plan.” Council should “better direct” taxpayer dollars “toward helping all San Antonians thrive.”If officials had a decent grasp of history, they’d know the likely outcomes from such efforts: more of the same.Poverty is the natural, initial state. Society wasn’t just born into affluence; it had to be created. As new...
Read More »Weekly Market Pulse: Are Higher Interest Rates Good For The Economy?
Interest rates surged last week on the back of a hotter-than-expected inflation report that wasn’t actually that bad (see below). Not that my – or your – opinion about these things matters all that much to the market. In the short run, all that matters is what the majority believes is the truth. What they believed last week was that inflation isn’t falling fast enough and the Fed will not be cutting rates anytime soon. That was enough to send the bond market into a...
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