- Against Discouragement (Lew Rockwell, LRC): “The biggest enemy liberty faces is demoralization and discouragement among its friends. This has always been true. It is also true that there has always been a good case to be made for demoralization and discouragement. The founding fathers felt it before 1776. The opponents of communism in Russia felt it from the 1920s through the 1980s. In the US, the Jeffersonians felt it before their revolution of 1800, as did the opponents of prohibition in the 1920s. We feel it in our own time, when Washington has never been more overt in its displays of hegemonic power. Yet all over the world, in Europe, Latin America, and Asia too, as well as North America, intellectuals and political organizations hold to a libertarian worldview, and each has been influenced to some extent by the Austrian School of economics of which the premier exponent is the Mises Institute.”
- Deflation Fears No More (NYT): “As the Federal Reserve prepares to meet about interest rates on Tuesday, recent fears about price deflation have in large part abated. Three months after the Fed began hinting about its readiness to nip any trend toward declining prices before it started, even if it meant reducing short-term interest rates almost to zero, officials have made it clear they are now less worried than they were before and more reluctant to jump in with unconventional tactics.”
- UK Inflation Shows Unexpected Rise (Reuters): “The inflation rate rose unexpectedly in July, boosted by clothing and footwear prices after retailers enjoyed bumper sales in the month before, official data show. The Office for National Statistics said retail prices excluding the cost of home loans (RPIX), fell 0.1 percent in July bringing the annual rate up to 2.9 percent from 2.8 percent compared with analysts forecasts of a small fall. This is the ninth month in a row that inflation has been above the Bank of England’s 2.5 percent target rate and the news that it is rising again will further support expectations that the next move in interest rates will be up.”
- Martha Stewart Posts Big Drop (USAToday): “Martha Stewart Living Omnimedia (MSO), reeling over a scandal surrounding its namesake founder and former chief executive, posted an 86% drop in earnings in the second quarter as revenue fell 16.3%.”
- The Ebay Economy (BusinessWeek): “Maybe the folks at eBay Inc.’s annual analyst conference in late 2001 were simply too dazzled by the Web marketplace’s blockbuster financial results. Or maybe they had heard one too many dot-com platitudes to heed yet another one. Whatever the reason, when Chief Executive Margaret C. Whitman had the audacity to describe eBay as a “dynamic self-regulating economy,” no one in the room even blinked. This overgrown flea market -- an economy?”
- Postwar Iraq Costs: $600 Billion (USAToday): “Private analysts have estimated that the cost of U.S. military and nation-building operations in Iraq could reach $600 billion. But the closest the administration has come to estimating America’s postwar burden was when Paul Bremer, the U.S. administrator of occupied Iraq, said last month that “getting the country up and running again” could cost $100 billion and take three years.” (thanks www.antiwar.com)
Posted by Mises.org News
