We live in a world of euphemism. Undertakers have become “morticians,” press agents are now “public relations counselors” and janitors have all been transformed into “superintendents.” In every walk of life, plain facts have been wrapped in cloudy camouflage.

No less has this been true of economics. In the old days, we used to suffer nearly periodic economic crises, the sudden onset of which was called a “panic,” and the lingering trough period after the panic was called “depression.”

The US Federal Reserve is playing with the idea of raising interest rates, possibly as early as September this year. After a six-year period of virtually zero interest rates, a ramping up of borrowing costs will certainly have tremendous consequences. It will be like taking away the punch bowl on which all the party fun rests.

The complete archive for The Freeman 33, no1. 1–12 (1983), published by the Foundation for Economic Education.

It’s great to see that mises.org and The Austrian contributor James Bovard has joined the Board of Contributors of USA Today. Bovard is known for his numerous books covering government corruption, waste, and downright malifecence. His most recent book is Public Policy Hooligan.

In this CNBC video, Ron Paul notes that almost all economists consider price manipulation to be a problem when it comes to consumer goods, oil, and more. But for some reason, it’s perfectly fine among the same economists to defend price manipulation when it comes to manipulating exchange rates among currencies. Also, the Fed is afraid to raise interest rates because it knows a recession will likely result:

One of the trickiest needles for libertarians to thread in public policy discussions is what I call the rudeness rebuttal. And today’s explosion in microaggression accusations just makes it trickier.

The rudeness rebuttal arises from logic.

In this article by economist Jeffrey Sachs, pharmaceutical company Gilead is taken to task for selling its hepatitis C cure, Sofosbuvir (sold as Sovaldi), at a price of $84,000 per course of treatment. Sachs says that the actual production cost of Sofosbuvir is about $100.

China has devalued the Yuan for the third day in a row. For many, this has aroused fears of a currency war. But, as Paul-Martin Foss explains below, its a bit hypocritical of Americans or Europeans to regard the Chinese as mean and nasty and currency warriors because they’re letting their currency adjust against a constantly-devaluing dollar and euro.