Europe is experiencing a significant escalation in the price of fuel as a result of the ongoing conflict in Iran, prompting notable discontentment and unrest among the population. This sentiment has reached a tipping point in Ireland, where numerous protests have been taking place for the past week. Farmers and hauliers have been blockading main arteries in big cities and also the only oil refinery in the country, causing severe disruptions and also a shortage of fuel in filling stations.

Here’s an existential fear regarding AI: companies in the economy will invest in AI to such an extent that the result will be massive layoffs of highly-skilled, high-wage technical employees and a severe reduction in demand for routine, repetitive jobs. In addition, new college graduates and less-educated high school graduates will find a job market that isn’t looking for entry-level employees. So, while the unemployment rate rises and then soars, output will grow exponentially as automation improves efficiency.

With regard to the long-running debate between Rothbardians and modern free bankers, most prominently Lawrence White and George Selgin, the question is less a matter of technical disagreements than one regarding fundamentally divergent conceptions of money, law, and the nature of banking itself. At stake is not merely the historical interpretation of Scottish or British banking, but the deeper question of whether fractional-reserve banking can ever be reconciled with a genuinely free and non-fraudulent market order.

According to Tehran Times ... 1,460 of the victims were identified as civilians.