Consensus remains euphorically optimistic about the eurozone.

However, the first data of 2018 are worrisome. While consensus expects a strong 2018 for Europe, the advanced data begins to question the optimistic expectations:

On March 9, 2018, Florida Governor Rick Scott signed Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Act into law.

At the Mises Institute’s upcoming Austrian Economics Research Conference (AERC), there will be a panel commemorating the 30th anniversary of the second debate over socialist calculation. This second debate began with Israel Kirzner’s 1988 Review of Austrian Economics article that analyzed the original debate between Mises, Hayek, and the market socialists, in order to draw lessons for modern Austrians.

Why do individuals on a weight-loss campaign often loudly announce this fact to social media friends, and how does this curious phenomenon shed light on Columbus, Indiana’s world-class architecture collection?

Beautiful Augsburg, city of bronzed doors and glory of the German Renaissance, occupies an unusual and mostly unknown position in the history of capitalism as the ‘birthplace of the modern’ in both in free-market theories and self-made magnates. The gable-roofed imperial city did not seem, at first, destined for such: up through the middle of the high Renaissance it was out-ranked in economic importance by the great Italian city-states; by Vienna and Nuremburg, the Swiss cities of St. Gallen and Berne, to say nothing of the Hanseatic League cities.

According to Ludwig von Mises,

The massive tax breaks, privileges, and subsidies being offered to Amazon by state and local governments across North America for their second headquarters (HQ2) has taken crony capitalism to dizzying heights.

Mark Muro, senior fellow at the Brookings Institution said such offers “speak(s) to the urgency in a lot of places to position themselves in the advanced economy. This looks like a fast way to accelerate one’s entry into the industries of the future.”

Rene Boucher, who attacked Rand Paul at his Kentucky home last year, has pled guilty in Federal court:

At first glance, this appears to be as things should be. Given what information is publicly available, it seems clear that Boucher was the aggressor ,and attacked Paul, although Paul posed no threat to Boucher. 

President Trump’s planned 25 percent tariff on steel imports and 10 percent tariff on aluminum imports may provide a temporary boost for those industries, but the tariffs will do tremendous long-term damage to the American and global economies. Tariffs raise the price of, and reduce demand for, imported goods. Tariffs ensure the preferences of politicians, instead of the preferences of consumers, to determine how resources are allocated. This reduces economic efficiency and living standards.