According to popular thinking, a key factor in the foreign currency exchange rate determination is the state of the balance of payments. Following this logic, an increase in imports gives rise to an increase in the demand for foreign currency. To obtain the foreign currency importers sell the domestic currency for it. As a result, this causes a strengthening in the exchange rate of the foreign currency against the domestic currency i.e. more domestic currency per unit of a foreign currency.

Listen to Ryan McMaken’s commentary on the Radio Rothbard podcast.

One of the more persistent myths about capitalism is that wealth and resources are “wasted” when spent on luxuries.

But now this waste has reached a new level. Thanks to our abundant wealth in the developed world, we’re no longer just spending money on luxuries for ourselves. We’re “wasting” it on our pets, too.

The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2018 was awarded October 8 to Paul Romer, Professor at New York University, “for integrating technological innovations into long-run macroeconomic analysis,” specifically for what is sometimes called “New Growth Theory.” He shared the Prize with Professor William Nordhaus, Professor at Yale University (and a Bonesman), who received it “for integrating climate change into long-run macroeconomic analysis.” The Romer Prize had been predicted for a long time.

Last week, the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a sizable new report titled “Global Warming of 1.5°C.“

The basic premise of the report is that if the governments of the world do what the UN tells them to do, then global temperature rise will be limited to 1.5°C.

In my previous IER post, I pointed out the huge contradiction in the major media treatment of climate change policy. The same day William Nordhaus shared the Nobel Prize in economics, the United Nations’s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released its latest report.

Last week my hometown of Panama City was devastated by Hurricane Michael, the most powerful storm to make landfall in over 50 years. The aftermath on the ground is impossible to comprehend without seeing first hand: buildings destroyed, trees scattered, basic infrastructure like water and power remain down for most of the county. To the east, the city of Mexico Beach has few structures that remain standing after receiving the brunt of wind and storm surge.

Aram Roston reports on how Mideast dictatorships now hire former US military personnel to form what are essentially death squads designed to eliminate the regimes’ enemies:

After the votes are counted following Monday’s election, Paul Cheng, Ed Holder, Paul Paolatto, or Tanya Park will be the new mayor in London, Ontario. All of them express concern about the lack of affordable housing, and all of them propose solutions which fail to address the root causes of the problem. Their concerns may be genuine, but this does not excuse their proposals to throw more tax dollars at a problem created by the government itself.