The state of California is in danger of exacerbating its affordable housing shortage.
According to this Sacramento Bee article, “California voters will get the chance to consider a statewide rent control initiative on the November ballot, just two years after they soundly rejected a similar initiative.”
On February 11, 2020, Federal Reserve chairman Jerome Powell delivered a semiannual report discussing the economy and laying out the good, the bad, and the precautions that the Fed must take in the event of a future economic downturn. Although Powell spoke on a lot of positive features that are occurring in the United States economy, he raised a few risks that the Fed has taken that have put it in a challenging predicament to face the next recession.
The US purports to be the land of free speech, but you can always expect politicians to carve out exceptions. Just look at how government agencies such as the Internal Revenue Service can slither their way into the political affairs of individuals and organizations.
Former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg has been making the headlines in recent weeks due to his surge in the polls. The billionaire businessman has purchased his way toward the Democratic presidential nomination and has benefited greatly from the party’s new debate rules.
An old red barn in London, Ontario was recently given heritage protection by City Council. Two days later, after dark, the barn was demolished.
Owner John McLeod, citing legal advice, wouldn’t comment when asked if he’d demolished the barn but said, “I’m delighted that it’s down.”
March is Women’s History Month. Among the women who have been remembered and honored, however, one who has clearly not received enough attention is Rose Wilder Lane (daughter of Laura Ingalls Wilder). Among the past century’s most ardent proponents of liberty, she developed the inseparable connection between life and liberty and the importance of individuals understanding the implications of their freedom.
The departed Al Davis, who owned the AFL’s and then NFL’s Oakland Raiders, was famous for saying “Just win, baby.” The Raiders are now operated by Al’s progeny, Mark, whose motto must be “Just raid the taxpayers, baby.”
After the City of Oakland wouldn’t kowtow to Davis the younger’s stadium demands, Mr. Davis went east from the East Bay and found a new group of suckers in Nevada’s capital. In 2016 the Nevada legislature approved $750 million in taxpayer funds to build what is now called Allegiant Stadium.
The nearest example in modern history to the present medical emergency supply shock is the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) oil embargo of autumn and winter 1973. That earlier shock was the catalyst to the Federal Reserve leading the world (except for Germany) along the path of intensified monetary inflation. Now, in response to the COVID-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) shock, the US is set to take the world into a new severe phase of fiat money degradation. All of this is subject to the normal proviso that history echoes but does not repeat itself.
Today would have been Murray Rothbard’s ninety-fourth birthday. He was an unforgettable friend, whose immense knowledge of many different fields was unsurpassed in my experience. In a lecture on the Austrian theory of the business cycle, he mentioned the common objection that the expansion of bank credit might have no effect if investors anticipated trouble. After the lecture, I asked whether Mises had answered this point.
