Tag Archives: newsletter

In the dynamic and ever-evolving digital landscape, open protocols have emerged as a powerful force, challenging closed-source models and reshaping industries. Beyond their technical merits, open protocols embody fundamental economic principles that foster innovation, competition, decentralized decision-making, and even censorship resistance. By embracing open protocols, societies can harness the creative energies of individuals and entrepreneurs, empowering them to...

For college football fans, it’s already been a wild August week before the first kickoff. Reminiscent of the Europe of old, and, hopefully, the America of the future, the collegiate athletic landscape in the last several years has witnessed a massive redrawing conference kingdom borders. The most powerful empires are the SEC and the Big Ten, with the former adding the Universities of Texas and Oklahoma and the latter pursuing manifest destiny in the West with the...

Some residents of St. Louis, fed up with the nonprotection from the city's police, have hired private security to deal with the problem. The egalitarian Left, of course, doesn't like that. Original Article: "Egalitarianism as a Revolt against Safety" [embedded content] Tags: Featured,newsletter

Overview: The combination of falling Chinese imports and exports, Moody's downgrade of ten US small and medium-sized banks is serving to squash risk appetites. Equities are weak, but bond markets are strong despite the surprise tax on Italian banks announced yesterday and the kick-off of the US $103 bln refunding today. Outside of Japan and Australia, Asia Pacific equity markets were lower led by a 1.8% drop in the Hang Seng and a nearly 2.2% loss of the mainland...

Government statistics on inflation in the food sector have failed to account for skimpflation and shrinkflation. Original Article: "Shrinkflation and Skimpflation Are Eating Our Lunch" [embedded content] Tags: Featured,newsletter

United States military conscription, or the draft, ended on January 27, 1973, with the winding down of the Vietnam War. The draft law was due to expire at the end of June 1971. But US President Richard Nixon decided it needed to continue and asked Congress to approve a two-year extension. In March 1973, 1974, and 1975, the Selective Service assigned draft priority numbers for all men born in 1954, 1955, and 1956, in case the draft was extended—but it never was. Nixon...

Trump is essentially being prosecuted for questioning the outcome of an election, and federal paranoia about protecting its own aura of legitimacy is entering a new highly aggressive phase.  Original Article: "The United States vs. Donald J. Trump" [embedded content] Tags: Featured,newsletter

One of Ludwig von Mises’s important contributions to economics was demonstrating the impossibility of economic calculation under socialism. He did it by showing three necessary preconditions for the generation of meaningful market prices in the factors of production—private property, freedom of exchange, and sound money. Since socialism would, by definition, socialize the factors of production, there would be no nonarbitrary and meaningful way to calculate the prices...

Overview: The US dollar is recovering today after it was sold following the jobs report before the weekend. It is enjoying a firmer bias against nearly all the G10 currencies. The dollar-bloc is faring best, while the Scandis are off close to 0.5%. Most emerging market currencies are also softer, with only a few Asian currencies edging higher today, including the South Korean won, Indian rupee, and Taiwanese dollar. With a stronger dollar and firmer interest rates,...

David Gordon take a critical look at Markus Gabriel's Moral Progress in Dark Times, and although he finds parts that are disturbing, he also discovers important areas of agreement. Original Article: "Outside the Universe?" [embedded content] Tags: Featured,newsletter