With a large regional market and youthful population, Africa should be on the cusp of greatness. Yet instead, it remains the poorest continent on earth. Analysts are conceding that Africa’s outlook is gloomy because the region is on track to miss poverty reduction goals. Successive African administrations have consulted multiple strategies to tackle the scourge of poverty with varying degrees of success; however, the plague of poverty has been persistent. Combatting...
Read More »Remembering the Great Henry Hazlitt on His Birthday
Henry Hazlitt, a great champion of liberty and Austrian economics, was born on November 28, 1894. His most famous book, Economics in One Lesson, remains a best seller thirty years after his death. Original Article: Remembering the Great Henry Hazlitt on His Birthday [embedded content] Tags: Featured,newsletter
Read More »The Immorality of COP28
For the last two weeks, delegates from the world’s governments have met in the United Arab Emirates for COP28, the United Nation’s annual climate change conference. Over one hundred thousand attendees, ranging from heads of state to climate bureaucrats, corporate leaders, nongovernmental organization representatives, and activists, descended on the lavish Dubai venue to hash out new policies for governments to force on their citizens in the name of fighting climate...
Read More »Fed to Express More Confidence that Policy is Sufficiently Restrictive Despite the Easing of Financial Conditions
Commentary will resume with a 2024 outlook on December 29. Overview: The dollar is trading with a firmer bias today ahead of the outcome of the FOMC meeting. Standing pat for two meetings was framed as a pause, but given the decline in price pressures, being unchanged for a third meeting is understood as the end of the historically aggressive tightening cycle. Fed Chair Powell is expected to express greater confidence that policy is sufficiently restrictive to bring...
Read More »Overcoming Chinese Communist GDP Myths
While China achieved strong economic growth in the post-Mao years by allowing free markets to work, the Communist leadership wants to return the economy to its old socialist ways. However, while the government can give fake growth numbers, it cannot reverse socialist failures. Original Article: Overcoming Chinese Communist GDP Myths [embedded content]...
Read More »Can a Libertarian Find Hope in Prison? Maybe
Contrary to popular assertions, Ancapistan is a real place and is conventionally referred to as prison. In all seriousness, I have been living in the US federal prison system for four years now, and in many ways, prison society actually is fairly anarchic. Considering these societies (plural because prison culture is heterogeneous across geography and across institutions’ security levels) seriously should dispel any notions of humanity that could be categorized as...
Read More »Bourne Again
David Gordon reviews Only a Voice, by George Scialabba, dealing with the author's comments on antiwar progressives Randolph Bourne and Dwight Macdonald. Original Article: Bourne Again [embedded content] Tags: Featured,newsletter
Read More »The Anatomy of the Statist
The statist is a complex creature, composed of many parts, some of which are more obvious than others. No two statists are exactly the same, but many of them share a set of common elements. Studying these elements can shed light on why the statist is so wedded to their statism, and it can also shed light on what can be done to transform them into a civilized human being. The following list of elements is by no means accurate or complete. This is, after all, still a...
Read More »Soft US CPI Today Paves Way for Fed Pivot Tomorrow
Overview: The US dollar is trading softer against all the G10 currencies ahead of what is expected to be a soft November CPI report, which paves the way for a pivot by the FOMC tomorrow. It is expected to signal that policy may be sufficiently restrictive and anticipate being able to cut rates next year more than it thought in September, even if not as much as is priced into the market. Among emerging market currencies, central European currencies are leading the...
Read More »Napoleon: Europe’s First Egalitarian Despot
For those who value self-determination, free markets, peace, and freedom, Napoleon provides little to be admired. He was a despot, a warmonger, a centralist, and a hypocrite who claimed to spread freedom to justify his own lust for conquest and power. Original Article: Napoleon: Europe's First Egalitarian Despot [embedded content]...
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