On this week's episode, Mark addresses how we the people can prevent the government and the Federal Reserve from grabbing more power and implementing their own preferred "solutions" to economic issues. This is the third round of monetary chaos the Fed has subjected us to in recent history—a history from which valuable lessons can be learned. Be sure to follow Minor Issues at Mises.org/MinorIssues. [embedded content]...
Read More »Thinking outside the State
Modern minds are so oriented toward state power that people often fail to understand there is a better way. Instead of “thinking outside the box,” we should think outside the state. Original Article: Thinking outside the State [embedded content] Tags: Featured,newsletter
Read More »Swiss potato harvest expected to drop by a third
read aloud pause X This year's potato harvest has been disappointing with growers expecting a drop of around a third compared with recent years. Share Facebook Twitter E-mail Print Copy link Yields are still difficult to estimate at the moment. The final figures will not be known until early December, Ruedi Fischer, President of the Swiss Potato Growers' Association (USPPT), told press agency Keystone-SDA.+ Switzerland forced to import...
Read More »Week Ahead: Have the Markets Turned?
An inflection point may have been reached last week. Despite, Chair Powell's insistence that the Fed did not adopt an easing bias and confirmed that there is still no talk of a cut, the market knows better. The implied yield of December 2024 Fed funds futures contract is about 4.45%, which is to say, the market is discounting not only the two cuts in the Fed's September projections, but a third cut, and the risk again (~60%), of a fourth cut. The first cut is now...
Read More »Hostage Extraction Needs to be Privatized
Amidst hostage scenarios, like the Hamas situation, it is important to remember why governments should not pay to have their nationals released. Paying for hostages to be released creates a perverse incentive in which more people are taken hostage to receive more payments. This is undoubtedly a subpar outcome. Furthermore, any effort by governments to reclaim hostages makes their country’s nationals more prone to being taken hostage. Payments and alternative methods...
Read More »Contra CATO: COVID-19 Vaccinations Are Not a Free Market Victory
In light of Nobel Prizes being given to two researchers of mRNA covid-19 vaccinations, beltway establishments like that of the Cato Institute have lauded praises onto the decision. To Cato, as evidenced by a blog post by Ian Vásquez, the production of these vaccines was a “victory of globalization!” Whilst it certainly required a vast scale of global resources and networking, it was hardly what one could consider a free market victory. The development of these...
Read More »Will a project to reintroduce European bison into Swiss forests work?
read aloud pause X The European bison, a species that differs slightly from its north American cousin, died out in Europe. Now it is to be reintroduced in Switzerland. Can a densely populated country tolerate such a large wild animal? Christian Raaflaub Radio, TV and online journalist. More from this author | German Department Share Facebook Twitter E-mail Print Copy link Otto Holzgang, a biologist, stretches one arm out and...
Read More »October’s Sobering Jobs Report Adds to Mounting Bad Economic News
The Bureau of Labor Statistic (BLS) released new jobs data on Friday. According to the report, seasonally adjusted total nonfarm jobs rose 150,000 jobs in October, month over month. The unemployment rate rose slightly from 3.8 percent to 3.9 percent over the same period. The headline payroll increase of 150,000, however, was possibly among the best news to be found in today's new jobs data, however. Once we delve more deeply into the numbers, we find substantial...
Read More »Price cuts on 350 medicines in Switzerland
With the ever rising cost of of Swiss healthcare, the government has been hunting for savings. This week it announced that it has ordered price cuts on 350 medicines from 1 December 2023, reported RTS. © Francisco Javier Zea Lara | Dreamstime.comOn average the drugs on the list will cost 10% less and deliver an overall expected saving of CHF 120 million a year. This comes out at around CHF 14 per resident, not a particularly significant sum when set against an...
Read More »Macro: Employment Report
Wall street cheered the fact that we added fewer jobs (150,000) than expected (179,000) in October. This was a welcome relief after the hot September number that was revised down from 336,000 to 279,000. The Goods economy actually lost 11,000 jobs. The culprit here was motor vehicles and parts which was -33,000 on the month. The Services economy gained 110,000 jobs. 77,000 were in Health Care and Social Services. 10,000 were added to perming arts and spectator...
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