If you’re looking for a short introduction to socialism that rewards rereading, Thomas DiLorenzo’s The Problem With Socialism is it.

Perhaps your son or daughter has returned from college talking about collective control of the means of production and sporting Bernie Sanders t-shirts. Perhaps you’re a political novice looking for informed guidance.

With the games of the 31st Olympiad winding down at the end of this week, the medal standings tell an interesting story about the results of government investment programs. As many have pointed out, the Chinese government has heavily invested in its sportsmen since the 2008 Beijing Olympics—with the largest mass recruitment program of about 400,000 children in special Olympic schools.

The Foundation for Economic Education The Freeman 1995

USA Today recently released findings from an investigation it had been conducting on the Drug Enforcement Agency’s (DEA) use of civil forfeiture in airports around the country.

[From the July-August issue of The Austrian.] 

The problem with presidential candidates is not so much what they say and believe, but rather what they don’t say and believe. Behind the lying and dissembling and obfuscation there is a palpable suspension of disbelief. Our would-be political rulers simply ignore — or fail to grasp — the gravity of our economic situation.

The tongue is a discerning instrument; in the hands of a traveled soda aficionado, it is capable of leading to insightful truths about politics. To the drinker who has imbibed foreign sodas, this truth stems from the peculiar, yet incontrovertible fact that American soda is not so hot.

“We are all Keynesians now, so let’s get fiscal.” This is one view according to Ambrose Evans-Pritchard from The Telegraph who believes the time is right for the UK government to loosen its fiscal stance. He suggests that the “Bank of England has done everything possible under the constraints of monetary orthodoxy to cushion the Brexit shock.

Many central banks around the world aim to achieve some “inflation target” either as a single explicit policy goal — as in the case of the South African Reserve Bank — or part of a set of policy goals as pursued by the US Federal Reserve. But far from maintaining economic stability and fostering prosperity, consumer price inflation targeting practically guarantees a pernicious wealth transfer year in and year out, a perpetual duping of unsuspecting employees and companies, and a permanent blind spot to hidden inflation.