Paul Volcker, the cigar smoking former Chairman of the Federal Reserve Bank, literally and figuratively towers over his successors (he is reportedly 6’7”). Mr. Volcker is the the last Chair under whose tenure American savers could earn a decent rate of interest, the last Chair who demonstrated any meaningful political independence (clashing with presidents Carter and Reagan), the last Chair who really hated inflation, and the last Chair who eschewed the technocratic management of monetary policy.

As Brexit negotiations approach their initial deadline, U.K.’s plans to renegotiate a quick trade deal with WTO members once it leaves the EU bloc has been met with disdain by some of their trading partners. U.K.’s shortcut deal proposed “essentially copying the same trade deal that the EU and WTO has and then use the same wording in a document covering the U.K.’s new membership”.

One vexing current problem centers on who becomes the citizen of a given country, since citizenship confers voting rights.

A common talking point among Conservative, Inc. pundits is that JFK would be considered a “conservative” in today’s political climate.

My favorite tradition as a Summer Research Fellow at the Mises Institute is what we affectionately call “Steak Sunday.” Every Sunday evening, we fire up a grill and cook steak (or, for at least one of us, asparagus). In preparation for our weekly tradition, we make the customary trip to Kroger where we can select our preferred cut from a display of meat that is aesthetically lain out for customer inspection.

The annual rate for US non-military capital goods orders excluding aircraft fell to 1.9% in September from 7.8% in August to stand at $69.6 billion.

Observe that after closing at $60.2 billion in December 2015 capital goods orders have been trending up.

On Monday October 15 2018, the US Treasury Department released figures showing that the federal budget deficit had widened by 17% in the 2018 fiscal year, to $779 billion.

Most experts see this widening in the deficit as the result of the tax cuts, which went into effect in January this year.

Note that the corporate tax rate was lowered from 35 percent to 21 percent while the income tax rate was reduced from 39.6 percent to 33 percent.

Two years, four months and a few days ago, on 23rd June 2016, the UK voted to leave the EU. The date of the UK leaving is currently set at 29th March 2019 – almost three years after the vote. It could be postponed further. In the case of a transitional arrangement that could last until at least the end of 2020, possibly even beyond the general election in 2022. That would be an enormous six years after the historic vote.

EU mandarins as well as Whitehall mandarins will tell you it must be this way because the relationship the UK has with the EU is too complex to untangle sooner.