Inflation and Mercantilism in America: Five Cases

If inflation is the health of the State, how and in what way has government generated inflation in the history of the United States? The following case studies illustrate this process, as well as the important connection between inflation and centralized State control of the economy. They illustrate also the connection of inflation with mercantilism—the use of economic regulation and intervention by the State to create special privileges for a favored group of merchants or businessmen.

Ditch Net Neutrality Now

Anybody who has ever dealt with internet lag should realize that bandwidth is a finite resource. Like any other economically scarce commodity, the price and profit mechanisms of the market serve to direct the allocation of this resource as efficiently as possible. This is why people pay more for faster speeds or larger data caps.

What Do Governments Want from Bitcoin?

Several large regimes have hinted they’ll be looking more favorably on bitcoin, leading to record prices for the digital currency. 

Everett Numbers reports at The Anti-Media

The price of bitcoin just surpassed $1,800, its second all-time high this week. As governments worldwide eye the blockchain technology and ready new cryptocurrency rules, there is no sign bitcoin’s astronomical rise in value, up 81 percent this year, is over

Charles Evans: The Risk of Deflation

Chicago Fed President Charles Evans spoke on Friday, expressing his fear that there was risk to the downside on the inflation outlook. These people! Unlike the Austrians, who define inflation and deflation in terms of the supply of money and fiduciary media, the mainstream defines them in terms prices. Thus, when Evans and others like him consider there being risk of too low inflation, what they are saying us that they fear the cost of living either falling or not rising fast enough (2% annually).

Brexit Has Put EU Politicians in Panic Mode

The EU cannot afford to prevaricate over Brexit because a bad Brexit risks causing it immeasurable harm. Not only does big business in Europe want a Britain with which it can freely trade, but confidence in the European Project is rapidly diminishing. The EU is a mega-state that is fading, and no one knows how to ensure its survival. Inevitably, the failings of the EU are catching up with it, and Britain’s leaving exposes the financial consequences of decades of bad management, capital destruction through wasteful redistribution and the lack of any contingency planning.

Money-Supply Growth Fell to an 8-year Low in March

The supply of US dollars has slowed during early 2017 with March’s year-over-year percentage increase hitting a 103-month low of 5.9 percent. The last time the year-over-year growth rate was lower was during September of 2008, when the growth rate was 5.2 percent. Monthly year-over-year growth rates in the money supply have been falling each month since October. (All the numbers used here were posted in mid-April 2017.)