The “too many” Treasury argument which ignited early in 2018 never made a whole lot of sense. It first showed up, believe it or not, in 2016. The idea in both cases was fiscal debt; Uncle Sam’s deficit monster displayed a voracious appetite never in danger of slowing down even though – Economists and central bankers claimed – it would’ve been wise to heed looming inflationary pressures to cut back first. Combined, fiscal and monetary policy was, they said,...
Read More »Free Meng Wanzhou
Reminder: Our online conference “The National Security State and the Kennedy Assassination” continues today, Wednesday, March 10, at 7 pm Eastern time. We now have 650 registrations. This week’s speaker is Michael Swanson, author of the book The War State: The Cold War Origins Of The Military-Industrial Complex And The Power Elite, 1945-1963 and his newly released book Why the Vietnam War? When it comes to Chinese business executive Meng Wanzhou, President Biden...
Read More »Per Bylund and Mark Packard: Radically Reshaping Business Thinking via Subjective Value
In a recently published paper titled “Subjective Value In Entrepreneurship,” Professors Bylund and Packard apply the principle of subjective value to generate significant new avenues of thinking for entrepreneurial businesses to pursue. Watch the “Value Generation Business Model” video at Mises.org/E4B_108_Video. value-generation-business-model:7?r=69GquufdquhHCfynHaaJizQfhSz8R87h [embedded content] Key Takeaways and Actionable Insights Re-think value....
Read More »Why a Green New Deal Is More Expensive Than Joe Biden Realizes
One of President Biden’s first executive actions was to declare January 27 “Climate Day.” This ad hoc holiday provided an opportunity for his administration to celebrate the latest rationale for economic central planning. The day’s festivities began with three executive orders on climate change, science, and technology. In his remarks, Biden bundled his environmental agenda with a jobs program, along with a broader policy to address social inequality and...
Read More »Credit Suisse Launches Probe Into Collapsed Greensill Trade-Finance Funds
Roughly a weekand a-half has passed since Credit Suisse gated funds containing $10BN in assets packaged by Greensill, the troubled financial innovator that suckered in former British PM David Cameron, SoftBank and legions of clients and investors with its stated mission to “democratize” supply-chain finance. Now that the trade finance emperor has fallen (having filed for administration earlier this week), Credit Suisse is starting the arduous process of convincing...
Read More »No more free rides in free trade deals
The Swiss narrowly voted in favour of a free trade deal with Indonesia on Sunday. Will future agreements also have to win popular support? It’s rare that the people get to decide the fate of a free trade deal – it’s only happened twice in the last half century in Switzerland. The vote was less about trade and more about palm oil, which has become synonymous with deforestation and the decimation of wildlife like the Orangutan. I asked my colleague Anand...
Read More »FX Daily, March 10: Markets are not Yet Convinced that Yesterday’s Move Signaled a Trend Change
Swiss Franc The Euro has risen by 0.39% to 1.1078 EUR/CHF and USD/CHF, March 10(see more posts on EUR/CHF, USD/CHF, ) Source: markets.ft.com - Click to enlarge FX Rates Overview: Fear that yesterday’s reversals represent little more than one-day wonders is contributing to the overall consolidative tone today. Most equity markets in the Asia Pacific region and Europe edged higher. China’s stocks tumbled yesterday, despite reports of official assistance, were...
Read More »4 Social Security Planning Steps BEFORE You’re Ready to Retire
Social Security is an important part of almost every retirement plan, whether you’ve saved enough or not. That’s why it’s important to know as much about your Social Security situation as possible. And you don’t want to wait until you’re about to retire to gather the facts and take appropriate steps. Social Security planning needs to start 5 years before your target retirement date. Check your estimated benefit amount The easiest way to check Social Security’s...
Read More »Deja Vu: Treasury Shorts Meet Treasury Shortages
Investors like to short bonds, even Treasuries, as much as they might stocks and their ilk. It should be no surprise that profit-maximizing speculators will seek the best risk-adjusted returns wherever and whenever they might perceive them. If one, or a whole bunch, has to first “borrow” a security the one doesn’t own in order to sell something at a high price betting the price to go down, you can likewise bet there’s someone out there in the financial landscape more...
Read More »Antal Fekete, Gold, and Central Banks
On the fourteenth of October 2020, Antal E. Fekete, the Hungarian-Canadian economist who saw himself as a monetary theorist following the tradition of Carl Menger, died in Budapest. Behind him was an eventful and fruitful life which was quite typical of the crazy last century. His experiences eventually filled Fekete with dark forebodings for the current century. We can only hope that this crazy year won’t become characteristic of an entire era, as his year of birth...
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