Western media painted a rosy picture of the transition away from the apartheid system in South Africa. South Africa was widely described as a country with a promising and hopeful future. Unfortunately, 35 years later, reality is telling a different story. Lackluster economic growth has led GDP per capita to lag dramatically. Having previously been almost double the average GDP per capita of other so-called “emerging markets,” South Africa now falls below their average.

[The Liberal Mind by Kenneth R. Minogue. (Liberty Fund, 2008[1963]; 207 pp.)]

The topics of socialism, communism, and capitalism can be hard to describe to most people because of their complexities, definitive terms, and the purposeful vagueness that is attached to each. The simplest and yet profound way of describing each I found is what I call the “Two Cow Method.” The theory goes like this.

“In the weeks immediately after the bombing [in Lebanon], I believed the last thing that we should do was turn tail and leave. Yet the irrationality of Middle East politics forced us to rethink our policy there. If there would be some rethinking of policy before our men die, we would be a lot better off.”—Ronald Reagan, An American Life, pp. 466-467

Epstein’s case exemplifies how federal law doesn’t apply to the financial elite.

On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve’s Federal Open Market Committee cut the target policy rate by 0.25 percent, bringing the target down to 4.25 percent. This cut is the first since the Fed implemented a cutting cycle last year that reduced the target rate from 5.5 percent to 4.5 percent. That series of cuts began with a 50 basis-point cut in September of last year, ending with a 25 basis-point cut in December. 

[America First: Roosevelt vs. Lindbergh in the Shadow of War by H.W. Brands (Doubleday Books, 2024; 444 pp.)]