Tag Archives: Featured

Planes belonging to SWISS and Helvetic Airways at Zurich Airport last month Keystone / Michael Buholzer The Covid pandemic has hit Zurich Airport, one of the biggest employers in the region, hard. But CEO Stephan Widrig says there are sufficient financial resources to get through the crisis, including the Omicron variant. “We don’t need any state aid even in a difficult 2022, apart from the short-time work compensation,” Widrig told newspaper Blick in an...

On December 15, the Federal Reserve announced numerous quantitative tightening measures that have the intended goal of combating the rising inflation that has been bogging down the American economy. As of November 2021, the rate of inflation has reached 6.8 percent, the highest since 1982, and is unlikely to have peaked yet. Despite Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell originally proclaiming this inflation spiral to be transitory, the Federal Reserve has announced...

What seemed so permanent for 13 long years will be revealed as shifting sand and what seemed so real for 13 long years will be revealed as illusion. Magical thinking isn’t optimism, it is folly. Predictions are hard, especially about the future, but let’s look at what we already know about 2022. Viewed from Earth orbit, 2022 is Year 14 of extend and pretend and too big to fail, too big to jail and Year 2 of global supply chains break and energy shortages. The essence...

Economics is haunted by more fallacies than any other study known to man. This is no accident. The inherent difficulties of the subject would be great enough in any case, but they are multiplied a thousandfold by a factor that is insignificant in, say, physics, mathematics, or medicine—the special pleading of selfish interests. While every group has certain economic interests identical with those of all groups, every group has also, as we shall see, interests...

According to Ayn Rand’s ethics, the only basis for value is an individual’s survival as a rational being. In order to live as a rational being, you must respect the rights of others as rational beings each aiming at his own survival. As Harry Binswanger, a leading follower of Rand, explains, The basic political principle of the Objectivist ethics is: no man may initiate the use of physical force against others. No man—or group or society or government—has the right...

First, we must define inflation: it is the increase in the quantity of money, currency, and credit. It is not an increase in prices. Changes in the general price level is the consequence of a combination in changes of the quantity of deposit currency and changes in the level of the public’s retention of deposit currency relative to their possession of goods. We can record deposits statistically, but cannot quantify human behaviour. The effect of this inflation on...

At the heart of the Christmas story rests some important lessons concerning free enterprise, government, and the role of wealth in society. Let’s begin with one of the most famous phrases: “There’s no room at the inn.” This phrase is often invoked as if it were a cruel and heartless dismissal of the tired travelers Joseph and Mary. Many renditions of the story conjure up images of the couple going from inn to inn only to have the owner barking at them to go away and...

Das Jahr 2021 war definitiv das Jahr der Meme-Coins. So werden Altcoins genannt, die eigentlich keinen wirklichen Wert haben, aber dennoch durch Hypes und virales Marketing im Internet zu lukrativen Spekulationsobjekten werden. Crypto News: Noch vor Bitcoin wird Shiba Inu meistgefragter Cryptocoin des Jahres 2021 CoinMarketCap hat kürzlich eine Liste der Cryptocoins veröffentlicht, die im Jahr 2021 am häufigsten auf der populären Seite aufgerufen worden sind. Nachdem...

One of the things people tend to appreciate throughout the year, and especially during the Christmas season, is statutory holidays. These days off are taken for granted by many, and few people stop to think about whether they have any drawbacks. But as any good economist will tell you, everything comes with tradeoffs, and holidays are no exception. The trick, then, is to figure out where the cost lies, and who, ultimately, is paying it. The True Cost of Statutory...

Chinese run media, the Global Times, blatantly tweeted an homage to China’s late leader Mao Zedong commemorating his 128th birthday. Fully understanding the storm of controversy this would create, with the Communist government’s full approval, such a provocation has been taken in the West as if just one more chess piece played in its geopolitical game against the United States in particular. No. The Communists really mean it. Mao’s their guy again. No. Let’s recall...