Chinese Premier Li Qiang is visiting Switzerland this week. The official state visit by China’s second highest ranking official signals a renewal in Sino-Swiss ties and the kick-off of his “high-level exchange” with Europe. Here’s what you need to know about official Swiss-Chinese relations. Born in London, Simon is a multimedia journalist who has worked for www.swissinfo.ch since 2006. He speaks French, German and Spanish and focuses on science, technology and...
Read More »Introduction to the Chinese Edition of How to Think about the Economy: A Primer
To the Chinese reader: It is safe to say that economics suffers at least as many fallacies and misunderstandings as any other field of study. Had physics suffered the same level of issues, we would not have seen much—if any—of the progress that we have made over the past centuries. Yet, economics—the queen of the social sciences—keeps being misrepresented, if not abused, and we suffer the consequences. Those consequences are primarily in the form of the “unseen,” or...
Read More »The Escalating Tensions in the Red Sea Are a Bad Omen
With the Houthis in Yemen firing on commercial ships in the Red Sea, the US is contemplating yet another Middle East conflict. As we see again, aggression leads to more aggression. Original Article: The Escalating Tensions in the Red Sea Are a Bad Omen [embedded content] Tags: Featured,newsletter
Read More »Privatizing Roads Solves the Problem of Road Closures
All of us have experienced government road closures and the traffic and safety nightmares they create. Private roads may be the answer to solving the problem. Original Article: Privatizing Roads Solves the Problem of Road Closures [embedded content] Tags: Featured,newsletter
Read More »Reflections on the Rothbard Graduate Seminar
The Rothbard Graduate Seminar (RGS) provides an opportunity to learn about Austrian economics at a high level. Original Article: Reflections on the Rothbard Graduate Seminar [embedded content] Tags: Featured,newsletter
Read More »What is a “Fed Pivot,” And When Is It Likely to Happen?
Chairman of the Federal Reserve, Jerome “Jay” Powell, recently sent mysterious shock waves into financial markets with comments that suggested that Fed rate cuts might come sooner than expected. Stock and bond markets took this as a good sign. They were already in a Santa Claus rally and broke out to new highs for the year. The interest rate on ten-year government bonds, which had already fallen by almost 1 percent since October, threatened to break support and go...
Read More »The December Jobs Report Is Mostly Bad News
According to a new report from the federal government's Bureau of Labor Statistics last Friday, the US economy added 216,000 jobs for the month while the unemployment rate held at 3.7%. NBC news was sure to tell us that this "beat expectations." Market estimates suggested total jobs added at 170,000 with the unemployment rate at 3.8%. The media's general consensus on the report is that the jobs economy is "robust" and everything is heading on schedule toward a...
Read More »The Draconian Budget Slashing Act of 2024
On this week's episode, Mark opens the Congressional Political Playbook to examine the proposed Congressional compromise spending legislation—and what they might name it. Be sure to follow Minor Issues at Mises.org/MinorIssues. Get your free copy of Murray Rothbard's Anatomy of the State at Mises.org/IssuesFree. [embedded content]...
Read More »Week Ahead: Real Economy
Given the world's turmoil, including the escalation, and broadening of the conflict in the Middle East and China's continued aerial harassment of Taiwan ahead of the election, the capital and commodity markets have remained firm. February WTI fell about 1.7% last week and March Brent slipped around 0.65%. Shipping costs are rising as the Rea Sea is avoided and supply chain disruptions are threatened. Still the MSCI index of developed equity market rose by nearly...
Read More »Are You an Enemy of the State? Most likely
Donald Trump, Julian Assange, Alex Jones, and Rudy Giuliani are in deep trouble with the US state. How about you? Most likely you feel safe because your voice hasn’t attracted a large following. What would the state’s enforcers gain by attacking a little guy? They’re big-game hunters. Pull the plug on the big guys and their everyday followers float away like bathtub water down a drain. Possibly you believe you aren’t really attacking the state with your social media...
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