On this episode of Radio Rothbard, Ryan McMaken and Tho Bishop discuss recent reveals about new lows for the FBI. Ryan discusses new reports about the targeting of traditional Catholic churches and the history of the American Stasi, while Tho highlights new evidence about the role of federal agents in escalating January 6. [embedded content] Recommended Reading "The FBI’s Forgotten Criminal Record" by Jim Bovard: Mises.org/RR_129_A "Abolish the FBI" by Ryan...
Read More »What If the Dollar Falls?
The past few weeks, major countries have been moving away from the US dollar, raising doubts about the dollar’s long-dominant role in the world. Eight weeks ago, it was just pariah nations like Iran or Russia trying to de-dollarize. Now it’s Brazil, France, even Saudi Arabia—the lynchpin of the decades-long “petrodollar” arrangement. If the dollar does lose its position as the global reserve currency, it will be catastrophic for the American economy. Catastrophic for...
Read More »Hawkish ECB Comments Boost Risk of a 50 bp Hike Next Month
Overview: The 0.5% decline in US March producer prices pushed on the door opened by the softer-than-expected CPI on Wednesday. The Fed funds futures market sees the year end rate to a 4.33%, while still pricing in a nearly 70% chance of a hike on May 3 to 5.25%. The dollar tumbled to new lows for the year against the euro, sterling, and Swiss franc. The Dollar Index made a new low for the year today, a few hundredths of an index point below the low set in early...
Read More »Why Do Most Countries Have their Own Currency? Governments Wanted It that Way.
Among the many facts of modern life that are accepted without question by most ordinary people is that it is somehow perfectly natural, expected, and unremarkable that every sovereign state should have its own currency. We see this everywhere in names such as "the U.S. dollar" or "the Chinese yuan" or "the Japanese yen." Indeed, among the 203 sovereign states of the world, there are nearly as many separate national currencies. The euro, of course, is a notable—and...
Read More »Why Do Banks Still Fail?
As we know, Silicon Valley Bank (SVB) was taken over by the Feds after a bank run. Despite assurances from SVB that they were sound, they obviously failed to understand their precarious situation. Based on SVB’s balance sheet, it was technically insolvent. The regulators shut it down and pondered what to do next. A bank run? How could this happen in modern financial America? Doesn’t the government (the Fed and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation [FDIC] in this...
Read More »Peace is Breaking Out in the Middle East…and Washington is Not Happy!
While we were being distracted by the ongoing Russia/Ukraine war – and Washington’s increasing involvement in the war – tremendous developments in the Middle East have all but ended decades of US meddling in the region. Peace is breaking out in the Middle East and Washington is not at all happy about it! Take, for example, the recent mending of relations between Saudi Arabia and formerly bitter adversaries Iran and Syria. A China-brokered deal between the Saudis and...
Read More »US Dollar Slumps and China Surprises with Twice the Expected Trade Surplus
Overview: The market took US short-term rates and the dollar lower after the CPI data, which was largely in line with expectations. On the one hand, the odds of a quarter-point hike next month increased slightly (73.6% vs. 71.6%) to 5.25%, but it reinforced that sense that it is last hike and that the Fed will unwind this hike and more before the end of the year. The year-end implied policy rate fell by about six basis points to 4.33%. The dollar was sold against...
Read More »Facing the World at 18
My grandson will graduate from a public school in May, and my daughter, his mom, asked me to write a senior letter for him. He’s been part of my life since he was born, and we’re all very proud of him. But what do I tell him about the world he’s about to enter? Right off he already knows his life itself has a claim on it by the State. If he fails to register for the draft, he could be sent to prison and fined $250,000. With enlistments falling off and the regime’s...
Read More »Swiss Central Bank Payment Vision Outlining Focus on DLT, Tokenization and Instant Payments
The Swiss National Bank (SNB) has shared how it intends to “future-proof” the domestic payment ecosystem, outlining its ambition to leverage technologies and processes including tokenization and distributed ledger technology (DLT) to establish an “efficient, reliable and secure ecosystem” that’s geared towards “the future of cashless payments in Switzerland,” SNB governing board member, Andréa Maechler, said during an event on March 30, 2023. The payment system is...
Read More »Bitcoin 2023
Come visit the Mises Institute's booth at Bitcoin 2023! Join thousands in Miami Beach, FL for the world's biggest annual celebration of Bitcoin. The conference will start Thursday, May 18 and conclude Saturday, May 20. Buy event tickets here, and be sure to use the discount code MISESB23 at checkout to receive 10% off your registration. [embedded content]...
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