January was the winter of our discontented stock market. It was the worst January since 2008, when the Great Recession officially began. It was, in fact, the worst January in the history of the New York Stock Exchange. According to Citigroup, Inc., it was also the worst January ever for credit markets.

One of the nice things about Bernie Sanders is that he seems to be honestly saying flat-out that he plans to massively increase the size of government.

The other candidates are probably lying either to themselves or to us  — or to both — about what they likely will do in office.

Of course, it’s been so long since any president oversaw a federal government that actually cut spending, we’d have to go back to the immediate post-war years to remember any of that.

Of course the Super Bowl Indicator—the idea that the football league that wins the Super Bowl predicts the direction of the stock market—is a fallacy. 

When it was discovered in the 1970s it had a nearly perfect record for predicting whether the stock market would experience a positive or negative year. The indicator’s record has since fallen to the low 80% level. Over the last 16 years it’s record has been 50%, or what you would expect at random. 

If you thought the Soviet Union’s collapse meant the end of central planning, you were wrong. Central planning is alive and well. In fact, it’s even stronger now than it was during the Soviet Union’s heyday. What’s even more disturbing is that many who would strongly oppose Soviet-style central planning and who consider themselves to be defenders of free markets fail to recognize their acceptance of central planning and see no contradiction between their acceptance of central planning and their alleged support of the market economy.

In the latest issue of The Austrian, Ron Paul identifies reasons for optimism in the cause for liberty, and outlines where the movement should go from here.

Also in this issue, David Gordon reviews the much talked about Phishing for Phools from George A. Akerlof and Robert J. Shiller. Dr. Gordon picks apart the offering from the pair of Nobel Laureates, describing it as “a radical attack both on the free market and a key part of standard economic theory.”

Apparently Quicken Loans is thinking like John Maynard Keynes and Paul Krugman. They can create their own bubble and multiplier effect. It’s magic!

The fact that the commercial was widely panned is probably a good thing.

Although making loans easier by reducing red tape imposed by Dodd-Frank Act legislation is a good thing.