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Smoking causes around 9,500 deaths in Switzerland every year and 8 million worldwide. Keystone / Anthony Anex Listen to the article Listening the article Toggle language...

Most readers of my weekly column already favor a libertarian society, with either a strictly limited government or no government at all. They realize what a disaster the state has been. What are the philosophical foundations of this outlook? There are many possible answers, but in this column, I’m going to discuss three of the most important of these, the way Ludwig von Mises, Murray Rothbard, and Hans-Hermann Hoppe address this issue. I’m not going to take a stand...

A definition of “projection” is when one baselessly accuses others of doing something unsavory, immoral, or illegal that he is actually doing. For example, a thief who, without proof, accuses others of being thieves. This is what socialists do when they call their intellectual and political opponents “fascists” or compare them to Hitler. Fascism is socialism, as Lew Rockwell recently reminded us in an essay entitled “National Socialism Was Socialist.” Socialists...

Holcim acquires insulation materials company OX Engineered Products Keystone-SDA Listen to the article Listening the article Toggle language selector...

“[L]iberty…is an act of faith in God and in His works.”This is how Frédéric Bastiat—a French economist known for his pioneering libertarian economic thought—concludes The Law, his most famous work. Reading his various writings and pamphlets, we can very often notice a recurring mention of God, or at least of a Creator, and of the morality that today we call “Judeo-Christian”; however, this faith found in his works can be found just as often in his life. This article...

Overview: The US dollar is mixed but is mostly consolidating. The Australian dollar is a notable exception. The lack of new fiscal initiatives from China weighed on the Aussie, which is off for the fourth consecutive session. The other dollar-bloc currencies have also seen the recent losses extended. On the other hand, the Japanese yen and euro enjoy a firmer bias. After a dreadful drop in factory order, German industrial production surprised to the upside (2.9% vs....

When most people hear the word “risk,” they think about wild market swings, scary headlines, and losing money overnight, but Howard Marks, Co-Chairman and Co-Founder of Oaktree Capital Management, takes a different approach. In his new video series How to Think About Risk, Marks digs deep into what risk is and how investors should handle it. Spoiler alert: It’s not just about volatility. The CFA Institute recently summarized the video stream, but I wanted to...

Recently, EdChoice published its 2024 iteration of its annual Schooling in America report that surveys thousands of American adults and school parents regarding dozens of school-related topics and preferences. Within this report are numerous interesting results but also consistent reminders of disconnects between reality and belief, between public- and private-school parents, and between people’s words and actions.On the Wrong TrackThankfully, over 64 percent of...

Last Friday’s employment report from the Bureau of Labor statistics was labeled “shockingly good” by MSNBC, and as a “blowout” report by Reuters. According to the BLS, the US economy added 254,000 jobs in September, seasonally adjusted. That’s the biggest increase in six months.Defenders of the status quo seized upon this latest number as evidence that the US economy is in great shape. Uber-establishment economist Mark Zandi, for example, declared “One couldn’t paint...

The Japanese Yen recovers further from a two-month trough touched against the USD on Monday. Geopolitical tensions benefit the safe-haven JPY and exert downward pressure on the USD/JPY pair.  The BoJ rate hike uncertainty caps gains for the JPY and should limit any further losses for the major.  The Japanese Yen (JPY) remains on the front foot against its American counterpart for the second successive day on Tuesday, albeit it lacks bullish...