When it comes to mindless excess in the war on terror, it is difficult to compete with the 70+ fusion centers bankrolled by the Department of Homeland Security. They began to be set up around the nation shortly after 9/11 as federal-state-local partnerships to better track terrorist threats. But the centers have been a world-class boondoggle from the start.

The New England Patriots’ astonishing come-from-behind Super Bowl victory last night captured the attention of even this decidedly casual fan. The shell-shocked look on Atlanta Falcons coach Dan Quinn at the post-game interview said it all: he couldn’t believe what had happened. 

With last night’s incredible win over the Atlanta Falcons, Bill Belichick won an NFL-record fifth Super Bowl as a head coach. This feat is made all the more incredible by the era in which he won it, with a salary cap and various other mechanisms put in place to make it harder for dynasties to last.  While the hay day of the Steelers and Cowboys were built on a core group of skill players (Franco Harris and Lynn Swann for Pittsburgh, Emmitt Smith and Michael Irvin for Dallas), the Patriots had a different leading receiver every Super Bowl season, and four different leading rushers.

CNBC claims that the Fed has been “crying wolf” and will back off raising interest rates even a tiny bit more. There are reasons why they might want to back off. China is selling US securities, other central banks are selling, and the Fed might be afraid to sell any of their holdings, which would have to accompany a rate increase. It was fear of a collapse in the federal bond market in the first place that brought us all the frantic QE bond buying with newly created money.

The present currency war started with the Great Monetary Experiment under the Obama administration. This triggered a devaluation of the dollar through 2010–12. Since then the launch of similar and in some ways more radical monetary experiments in Europe and Japan have fuelled big devaluations of the euro and the yen. Meanwhile a combination of bubble credit policies and intensified repression has caused the Chinese currency to slide.

[This is the second post in a series. see Part One and Part Three.]

Many Americans who have wrestled with a 1040 form, or who have paid someone to prepare their taxes, no doubt cheered the news that Congress will soon resume working on tax reform. However taxpayers should temper their enthusiasm because, even in the unlikely event tax collection is simplified, tax reform will not reduce the American people’s tax burden.

Nearly four decades ago, political pundits were shocked as voters turned away President Jimmy Carter and voted in Ronald Reagan, who promised to bring fundamental change to Washington and the indwelling political establishment. At the time, unemployment was rising quickly and inflation raged in double-digits, and Reagan had promised to deal with the economic failures by cutting income tax rates, slashing government spending, and reducing the regulatory burden.

Entrepreneurship is a hot new study area in academia, with devotees of the Austrian school Peter Klein and his student Per Bylund extending the work of Ludwig von Mises, Israel Kirzner, and Murray Rothbard.