Financial news is a constant drumbeat of AI this and AI that. But, during the week of October 10, the price of gold  grabbed headlines pushing above $4,000 and silver’s week was eventful as well.

“What do you expect when you sue the president?” Hearing that comment, some people may guess the comment was made by someone addressing one of President Trump’s political opponents who has been targeted for federal prosecution. That quote, though, is much older. It is from an IRS agent addressing officials of a conservative organization that was being audited during Bill Clinton’s presidency. This illustrates that the use of federal agencies to punish presidents’ enemies did not start with President Trump.

Since the Cuban Revolution prevailed in 1959, the American government has employed a wide variety of tactics in an effort to destabilize and destroy Cuba’s socialist regime.

There have been four gold busts under the fiat dollar money regimes since the “freeing” of the gold price in March 1968. If the past is any guide to the future the trigger to the fifth bust will include a key component - optimism on reform, replacement or just sounder management of the contemporary US fiat money regime. Hope is measured relative is relative to prior desperation. Suffice to say, all these previous episodes of supposed fiat dollar monetary renaissance proved to be false dawns, albeit of highly variable length.

“Like every acting man, the entrepreneur is always a speculator. He deals with the uncertain conditions of the future. His success or failure depends on the correctness of his anticipation of uncertain events.”—Ludwig von Mises, Human Action

In his article “Is the Constitution Broken beyond Repair?” David Gordon draws attention to a phenomenon that is often overlooked, namely, the great rejoicing among some constitutional lawyers over the fact that “to establish the new Constitution, Lincoln overthrew the first one… he replaced the old, immoral Constitution with a new one based on equality.” This is indeed one reason why some of Lincoln’s admirers still celebrate the burning of the South by the Union Army—the devastation and destruction

For most economists and commentators, a strong labor market is the key driver of economic growth. The reduction in the number of unemployed people supposedly means that more individuals can afford to increase their spending on goods and services. As a result, according to such thinking, economic growth is likely to follow. This is based on the view that an increase in the demand and spending will trigger an increase in the supply.