As Houston continues to deal with the devastation of Hurricane Harvey, Florida stands prepared for the impact of Irma. It is during times of crisis like this, when government feels the greatest need to control, that sound economics is most needed. This is why laws on “price gouging,” no matter their intent, bring tragic consequences.
The primary purposes of the incorrectly named “unconventional monetary policies” are to debase the currency, stoke inflation, and make exports more competitive. Printing money aims to solve structural imbalances by making currencies weaker.
In this race to zero in global currency wars, central banks today are “printing” more than $200 billion per month despite that the financial crisis passed a long time ago.
A few weeks ago, Maine Governor Paul LePage signed a Food Sovereignty Bill into law, guaranteeing the rights of Maine towns to regulate food production locally, rather than submitting to federal regulation. Although the press is avoiding describing the bill as such, this is a nullification of federal food regulations.
It would seem that most people on the planet have seen the viral video of Alex Wubbels, the nurse at the University of Utah Medical Center, being arrested by police officer Jeff Payne because she insisted on following state and federal law, along with hospital protocol, regarding Payne’s demand that he be permitted to draw blood from a car accident victim. Not surprisingly, most viewers have reacted with outrage and after the incident became public, the Salt Lake City Police Department placed both Payne and his lieutenant, James Tracy (who ordered the arrest), on paid leave.
In this discussion, Mark Thornon examines how Donald Trump’s new deal with the Democrats on teh debt ceiling will help him bring the GOP into line on issues like tax reform.
As Thornton notes, the debt-ceiling deal only extends the status quo, so is not a really a big win for the Democrats. It is, however, a win for Trump because it illustrates to the GOP leadership in Congress that Trump does not need them as much as the GOP thinks he does.
In August the US unemployment rate closed at 4.4% against 4.3% in the month before. The relatively low unemployment rate seen by some commentators as implying that the US is almost at the so-called natural rate, which believed to be at around 4.5%.
It is held that once the unemployment rate falls below an “optimal” rate —called the Non-Accelerating Inflation Rate of Unemployment (NAIRU) —it sets off an inflationary spiral. This acceleration in the rate of inflation takes place through increases in the demand for goods and services.
Fed vice-chair Stanley Fischer’s surprise announcement of early retirement triggers the obvious question as to whether this could be the fore-runner to a serious market and economic deterioration ahead. Monetary bureaucrats, even if signally bad at counter-cyclical fine tuning, sometimes have a reputation for intuition about how to time their own career moves ahead of crisis. In this case, such suspicion may be wide of the mark given the personal circumstances.
