Shipping container rates have been dropping since early March – right around the time when we had just experienced our “collateral days” and then stood by to witness chaotic financial fireworks, inversions, the whole thing. The bane of the logistical supply-side snafu-ing, it has been container redistribution mucking the goods economy up.The recent and sharp decline in container rates, according to Freightos, is because China’s been closed down by Xi’s pursuit of...
Read More »Christianity and the Development of Human Capital: Challenging the Narratives
While the standard secular narrative is that Christianity held back science and human development, history tells a different story, one of literacy and the development of human capital. Original Article: “Christianity and the Development of Human Capital: Challenging the Narratives” Undeniably, the advent of Christianity has fundamentally transformed the world. But this startling fact has been obscured by thinkers eager to depict Christianity as a backward religion...
Read More »China sorgt für Crash des Altcoins STEPN
Innerhalb weniger Stunden verloren zwei Cryptocoins genannt GMT und Green Satoshi etwa die Hälfte ihres Werts. Die Ursache für den Crash zeigt, wie staatliche Eingriffe den Markt zum Glückspiel machen können. Crypto News: China sorgt für Crash des Altcoins STEPNGreen Satoshi fiel von knapp über 2 US-Dollar auf etwas mehr als einen Dollar. GMT fiel von 1,38 US-Dollar auf ungefähr 0,80 US-Dollar. Was war passiert?Beide Altcoins sind über das Projekt STEPN verbunden....
Read More »Public Healthcare Threatens Liberty in the U.S.
Despite higher healthcare costs, Americans receive better healthcare, provided by the individually tailored healthcare plans, courtesy of the private sector. There is no such thing as a free lunch. Whether you pay with your time or someone else’s money, Milton Freedman hit the nail on the head. Nothing in life is ever free; healthcare included. Many Americans argue that a universal healthcare system such as the ones implemented in Europe is the most...
Read More »Hong Kong Stocks Pivot Euro$ #5
The stock market hasn’t been moneyed; well, US equities, anyway. What do I mean by “moneyed?” Common perceptions (myth) link the Federal Reserve’s so-called money printing (bank reserves) with share prices. Everyone still thinks there’s a direct monetary injection in this case by the central monetary agency which causes stocks to rise for no good reason. While we don’t have to argue the Fed’s bank reserves here, the truth of the matter is stocks have been severed...
Read More »Police Botched the Uvalde Standoff. Now Gun Controllers Want to Give Police More Power.
First it was Columbine. Then it was Parkland. Now, we learn that at Robb Elementary School, police officers again stood around outside a school while the killer was inside with children. NPR reports today: Frustrated onlookers urged police officers to charge into the Texas elementary school where a gunman’s rampage killed 19 children and two teachers, witnesses said Wednesday, as investigators worked to track the massacre that lasted upwards of 40 minutes and ended...
Read More »Peace through Strength? Excessive US Military Spending Encourages More War
The Russian invasion of Ukraine has brought America’s foreign policy interventions under the limelight once again. Ryan McMaken argues that the US administration’s claim that countries should not have the right to a sphere of influence, implicitly addressing Russia, is hypocritical. The US opposes a sphere of influence for Russia and other regional powers, while at the same time has steadily expanded its own global outreach. Among other, one can judge how true this...
Read More »Economic divide: how equal is Switzerland’s wealth distribution?
In canton Zug in central Switzerland, the richest 10% earn almost half of all income and provide 88% of all cantonal tax revenue. Keystone / Urs Flueeler While the gap between rich and poor has been steadily widening in many countries, the situation in Switzerland has remained stable over the past decades, according to recent statistics. Yet while income distribution in the Alpine nation is relatively egalitarian, wealth is more concentrated in the hands of the...
Read More »Noninterventionism Is Not Isolationism: The US Government Should Stop Arming Ukraine
Proponents of arming Ukraine against Russia call critics “isolationists” as a pejorative term. But these “entangling alliances” have a history of sad endings with tragic results. Original Article: “Noninterventionism Is Not Isolationism: The US Government Should Stop Arming Ukraine” Libertarians, liberty-wing Republicans, and other opponents of nondefensive wars are popularly misconceived as having an “every man for himself” approach to both economics and...
Read More »Crude Contradictions Therefore Uncertainty And Big Volatility
This one took some real, well, talent. It was late morning on April 11, the crude oil market was in some distress. The price was falling faster, already down sharply over just the preceding two weeks. Going from $115 per barrel to suddenly less than $95, there was some real fear there. But what really caught my attention was the flattening WTI futures curve. Up in the liquid front, it was closing in on contango and had it achieved that reshaping it would have been,...
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