In a global perspective, there is no clear relationship between obesity and wealth. At middle- and high-income levels, diverse countries often display varying levels of obesity.  At the very lowest levels of wealth, of course, there is a clear relationship between wealth and weight gain:  extremely poor or war torn countries tend to have very low incidence of obesity because there simply is not enough food, or the economic supply chains have been destroyed and are unable to deliver food where it is demanded.

During the press conferences of recent FOMC meetings, millions of well-educated investment professionals have been sitting in front of their screens, chewing their fingernails, listening as if spellbound to what Janet Yellen has to tell them. Will she finally raise the federal funds rate that has been zero bound for over six years?

UPDATE: The fact that marijuana legalization ballot measure (Issue #3) failed in Ohio is not an indication that legalization is not supported by the people. It was because they rejected government monopoly of pot growing as shown in the victory in the passage of Issue #2 which bans such monopolies. Its a great libertarian victory overall.

From reading the commentaries you might have imagined that the process of a currency winning international reserve status depends on getting the IMF seal of approval. At least that seems to be the story with China.

In Toronto this weekend, Mises Canada will be hosting its fourth International Conference of Prices & Markets. 

Last week, Matt Zwolinski, a philosopher from the University of San Diego, argued on the Tom Woods show that libertarians ought to support a basic income guarantee. Woods, genial but sharp and relentless in his questions, brought out the full extent to which Zwolinski’s proposal differs from libertarianism as commonly understood.

According to the Organization of Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), “social expenditures” are expenditures that occur with the purpose of redistributing resources from one group to another, in order to benefit a lower-income or presumably disadvantaged population.

Social Security in the US is one example, and would be considered a “public expenditure” because it involves direct spending by a government agency.

Listen here.

Bob Murphy is our returning guest this weekend, as we wrap up a three-part series on the lousy, anti-market healthcare system in the US.

He’s co-authored a terrific new book called The Primal Prescription, which may well be the first thorough analysis of the modern American healthcare system by an Austrian economist.

On Wednesday, the Federal Reserve once again reaffirmed its zero-interest rate policy.