If there is any group that enjoys Halloween the most, it is the children. Most people can remember back to their own childhoods, ringing doorbells and begging for candy, all adorned in their carefully chosen costumes. Aside from the actual candy that trick-or-treating procures, the process of roaming neighborhood streets and collecting goodies from different houses is itself one of the most fun experiences for youth on Halloween.

[Originally published October 31, 2009 at LewRockwell.com.]

Damian Thompson, writing in the UK’s Telegraph, recently noted that “This is the only time of year when I become seriously anti-American.” The reason? He hates Halloween.

In his essay on the politics of obedience (Discours de la Servitude Volontaire), Etienne La Boétie (1530-1563) asks the vital question of political rule: How come that the majority of a people let itself be ruled by a minority, and sometimes, in the case of an autocrat, falls into the hands of a single person? How is it possible that people permit a small group of men to torture, exploit, and abuse the majority?

Just in time for holiday shopping, Amazon Smile is increasing its donation rate 10x from now until Friday, November 2nd on all eligible items.

The issue of income and wealth inequality has gained public awareness recently, becoming an important economic problem in our time. Unfortunately, the quality of the public debate about this topic remains very poor. In this piece, I would like to point out three main shortcomings of the problem at hand.

“Right wing” Jair Bolsonaro has been elected president of Brazil, which extends a significant shift rightward from the days of Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff. In Latin America — and especially Brazil, which is itself distinct from Hispanophone Latin America — “right wing” can mean many things, and it certainly isn’t the same thing as we mean in the US. Laissez-faire economics — even in rhetoric — isn’t necessarily part of the equation.

Interest on the national debt is quickly becoming one of the largest expenses in the national budget. Based on projections from the OMB, it now appears that growth in interest payments on the national debt will be significantly outpacing any other spending category in coming years.

The OMB’s projections show debt-payment outlays growing a startling 70 percent from 2017 to 2020. The sector with the next-highest growth rate is Defense, but that grows by only 20 percent over the same period:

Perhaps Neel Kashkari is angling for the Fed Chair job, should Donald Trump attempt an Eccles palace coup and oust Jerome Powell for his tightening ways. General Mattis may be sending troops to the border to head off the “caravan” enroute from Guatemala (or was it the middle east?), but he can certainly redirect them to Federal Reserve HQ to suppress President Trump’s “biggest risk.”   

President Donald J. Trump has taken on the Federal Reserve (Fed), saying that Fed chairman Jerome H. Powell is threatening US economic growth by further raising interest rates. Mainstream economists, the financial press and even some politicians react with indignation: the president’s comments undermine the Fed’s political independence, potentially endangering the confidence in the US dollar. Such a public reaction is, at first glance, understandable – as mainstream economists have declared the political independence of the central bank a “golden calf” issue.

A European court has ruled that people can be fined and prosecuted in criminal court for saying things about religious figures. Specifically, saying things about the Muslim prophet Mohammad is verboten, and state punishment is appropriate:

The European Court of Human Rights has ruled a woman convicted by an Austrian court of calling the Prophet Mohammed a paedophile did not have her freedom of speech rights infringed.