Normal folks rejoiced when the Federal Reserve lowered the only interest rate it controls, Fed Funds, by a surprise 50 basis points. However, since then, the rate on 10-year bonds has increased 70 basis points. Focusing on the positive, Almost Daily Grant’s (ADG) reports “An outbreak of optimism has taken hold across the land, as the Conference Board’s monthly gauge of consumer sentiment painted a pretty picture for the economy and asset prices alike.”

In “The Terror of Reconstruction,” Lew Rockwell highlights the dangers of governments seeking to suppress their political opponents by an assault on citizens’ liberties. He draws upon the experience of the South under military dictatorship during the Reconstruction years as an example of what happens when governments embark on social revolution. One tactic described by Rockwell is denying the vote to those who supported their opponents:

Many misconceptions about the nature of the free market system stem from an ignorance of who ultimately benefits from the market process. That the significant number of those who would benefit the most from the operations of the market—consumers—tend to also harbor much of the antagonisms against logically necessary features of the market highlights the unfortunate reality that the majority of people have yet to rightly understand how their best interests could be served by the mechanism of the market.

According to the most recent report from the federal government’s Bureau of Labor Statistics, the US economy added only 12,000 payroll jobs during October. This was the smallest month-to-month employment gain in nearly four years. Moreover, total private jobs fell in October by 28,000.

Prepping is a very small industry in the United States, with annual spending specifically on “prepping” less than what government will spend in the time it took me to prepare this episode of the podcast.

The amount of spending is an interesting issue, so is the purpose and efficiency of prepping. However, the mainstream media demeans preppers as irrational and out of touch with reality. Note that, from a scientific point of view, however, prepping is rational, efficient, and very normal.

Social Justice and the Indian Rope Trick

by Anthony de Jasay. Liberty Fund, 2014; 200 pp. 

The political theorist and economist Anthony de Jasay has given us a large number of interesting arguments in his book and in what follows I’d like to discuss a few of these.