[This is an excerpt from Richard von Strigl’s 1937 textbook Einführung in die Grundlagen der Nationalökonomie, as found in chapter 3, part 5: “Die Lehre vom wirtschaftlichen Werte.” It is here presented in the English language for the first time. The translator, Pedro Almeida Jorge, from Instituto Mises Portugal, would like to thank Dr. Eduard Braun, from Technische Universitat Clausthal, for his very kind revision of a previous draft, comparing it to the original German edition.

Brazilians were told the way to reducing poverty and curbing social inequality was enlarging the government’s role in the economy through the expansion of public services and public works. And the voters believed it. Social democrats were elected with the hope that they would bring a more prosperous and egalitarian society.

But then, things didn’t go as planned.

If there is something that is evident, it is that the United States does not need a rate cut.

With the economy growing at 2.1%, unemployment at 3.6%, creating 170,000 jobs per month, and estimated underlying core inflation of 2%, no objective data justifies cutting rates that are already artificially low. Wages are rising by 3% and credit growth for companies and families is solid.

I recently returned from two weeks abroad in Russia, I did the usual sightseeing, but my main objective was to climb the highest peak in Europe, Mount Elbrus, which happens to be in Southern Russia. This is the fourth of the seven highest peaks on each continent I’ve had the opportunity to climb. What I find most interesting about climbing these peaks is their international allure. The base camps of these peaks are always international melting pots, people from all over the world travel to these remote areas with the same goal in mind.

The Hell o Good Intentions: America’s Foreign Policy Elite and the Decline of U.S. Primacy
by Stephen M. Walt
Farrar, Straus, and Giroux, 2018
xii + 384 pages

The US financial markets have redcently experienced two milestones as the S&P 500 reached 3,000 on July 10th and the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) crossed 27,000 the next day. The immense rise in the equity market is a remarkable feat from its lows following the mortgage crisis where the DJIA hit 6,507, and the S&P 500 fell to 676.53 on March 9, 2009, but Donald Trump has yet to be satisfied with this growth.