As of this writing, at least 110 people are dead with 161 missing as a result of the July 4 catastrophic flooding of the Guadalupe River in Kerr County, Texas. Next door in New Mexico, three people (including two children) were killed on July 8 after a 20-foot wall of water moved through their town of Ruidoso.

ZeroHedge summarizes the debate between David Beckworth and Bob Murphy on whether the Fed should be abolished.

The concept of centralization is generally seen as a consequence of certain political decisions or as the cause of certain societal structures. But centralization and its opposite—decentralization—can also be interpreted as opposing historical processes that should be taken into account in the long struggle for liberty.

The global economy continues to slow and stagnate as GDP numbers in the US, UK, Germany, and Japan all show ongoing economic weakness. 

Today, the US Bureau of Economic Analysis released its third revision for the first quarter, with the US GDP falling by 0.5 percent during the first quarter. According to the BEA press release:

Frankfurt School Marxism is unfortunately still alive and well. Indeed, Jürgen Habermas—the leading philosopher of the School, who is now in his nineties—has published an enormous three-volume history of philosophy. This book has now appeared in English translation under the title Also: A History of Philosophy.

I recently visited Japan for the first time. I am not familiar with its politics, institutional systems, or ideological debates. Therefore, I don’t write this as an expert on Japanese culture or its social dynamics, but simply as a curious observer—a typical tourist—who, from a libertarian perspective shaped by the Austrian School of Economics, couldn’t help but be positively surprised by certain everyday behaviors that quietly embody principles deeply aligned with a philosophy of liberty. Specifically, three ideas stood out.