Paul Ehrlich, the leading false prophet of inevitable environmental doom and author of the infamous The Population Bomb, has died at age 93.

According to much popular economic thinking, there are three factors determining the market interest rates. The first is liquidity, the second factor is economic activity, and the third factor is inflationary expectations. Milton Friedman held that whenever the central bank raises the growth rate in money supply by buying financial assets such as Treasuries this pushes the prices of Treasuries higher and its yields lower.

“Humanitarian intervention” sells itself as a moral shortcut: bypass the messy politics, send in the troops, stop the monster. Many libertarians respond with a familiar reply: non-intervention, because aggression against another nation is wrong.

When a monster military like the US circles its prey for possible attack, very little can go wrong. Painful lessons of past wars have taught state leadership how to avoid mistakes that can drag the country into interminable conflict. If the order to pounce is given, the outcome will soon be decided and the winner never in doubt. The foregoing is offered as the naive view of US foreign policy.