On Saturday, protests supporting Julian Assange will occur around the world. In London, Assange supporters will link arms around the parliament building. Protests will also occur outside the Justice Department headquarters in Washington (I’ll be one of the speakers), D.C., and in San Francisco, Tulsa, Denver, and Seattle, as well as in Australia.
For many commentators, a change in the shape of the differential between the long-term interest rate and the short-term interest rate—i.e., the yield spread provides an indication of the likely direction of the economy in the months ahead. Thus, an increase in the yield spread raises the likelihood of a possible strengthening in economic activity in the months to come. Conversely, a decline in the yield spread is seen as indicative of a possible economic downturn ahead.
[This article was adapted from a talk delivered at the 2022 Supporters Summit in Phoenix, Arizona.]
Media reports claim this debt prevents economic recovery. Chuck Schumer would erase it with the flick of a pen. Elizabeth Warren would remove it to free students’ ability to buy a house and form a family. Janet Yellen opines paying off student loan debt (SLD) will free up venture capital.
In his book The Case against the Fed, Murray Rothbard writes a section on deposit insurance, which was instituted under FDR’s New Deal in 1933 at $2,500 per account and over time raised, reaching $250,000 during the banking crisis of 2008. As Rothbard explains, the term insurance “properly applies to risks of future calamity that are not readily subject to the control of the individual beneficiary, and where the incidence can be predicted accurately in advance.”
“The Earth speaks to us through the elements of nature. In every natural thing, we can find a hidden, powerful message.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson
Every natural element with which the earth has been endowed has a usefulness—a purpose. If we listen to gold, its message is loud and clear—gold is money. To serve as natural money is gold’s highest purpose.
