Harvard has been a leader in the economics profession for better or worse. In recent years the economics department has been viewed as relatively free market oriented where human action is seen as rational, research is guided by economic theory, and where markets work most of the time. Symbolically, the introductory undergraduate course was taught for many years by conservative economist Martin Feldstein and since 2005 by Gregory Mankiw, who could be described as a middle of the road Republican.

The state and its evils are but the shadow cast by public opinion, and this is why advocates for freedom and free markets put so much emphasis on education. We focus on spreading the arguments about the workings of the profit motive versus bureaucratic management, state monopolies versus free competition, international trade versus protectionism and so forth. But we also know that a libertarian is not made overnight.

I wrote five years ago about the growing threat of a wealth tax.

Some friends at the time told me I was being paranoid. The crowd in Washington, they assured me, would never be foolish enough to impose such a levy, especially when other nations such as Sweden have repealed wealth taxes because of their harmful impact.

Different members of the ECB state that effects of monetary policy on banks’ profitability have been “broadly neutral”.  Many also refer to papers defending that banks lend more under a negative rate scenario.

Here is a paper they use frequently trying to say that negative rates are good, do not hurt banks and makes them lend more: Why Have Negative Nominal Interest Rates Had Such a Small Effect on Bank Performance? (Lopez et al).

As a reaction to an extremely tight housing market, the government of the German capital of Berlin has introduced price controls on rents which took effect on June 18, 2019. For the next five years, rents cannot be increased. This interventionist measure, made by a coalition of center-left to left-wing parties, is yet another attempt in a series of failed attempts to interfere with the market. The current housing situation is the result of local, federal, and European interventionist policies.

Money supply growth inched up in May, rising slightly above March’s and April’s growth levels. But overall growth levels remain quite low compared to growth rates experienced from 2009 to 2016. March’s growth rate, for examples, was at a 12-year (145-month) low.

In May, year-over-year growth in the money supply was at 2.21 percent. That was up from April’s growth rate of 2.00 percent. May 2019’s growth rate was well down from May 2018’s rate of 4.19 percent.