From Monday’s Foreign Policy:

Americans pay ritual obeisance to liberty. But daily, they say “there ought to be a law” that restricts it. They have only the dimmest awareness of our founders’ views on this central issue and no knowledge of friends of freedom beyond our shores. That is a pity, because such investigation would yield much insight.

Two weeks ago, Frank Hollenbeck wondered in Mises Daily what the Greek government will do to keep paying its bills while keeping cash flowing to its banking system which is facing a slow-motion bank run:

A fashionable approach to monetary policy these days, even in free-market circles, involves “NGDP targeting.”  Joseph Salerno talks with Tom Woods about why it’s all wrong. Joe and Tom also discuss the new book in honor of Joe. 

The Fed, the ECB, and the Bank of England repeatedly tell us that deflation is extremely dangerous for an economy. Central bankers, most economists, and the media speak of deflation as one of the greatest disasters that can strike an economy.

Here’s a back-of-the-envelope calculation on how much the mandate to require ethanol in motor fuel costs consumers, and benefits farmers.

This article notes that in 2000 about 5% of the corn crop went to the production of ethanol, and by 2013, 40% of the corn crop was devoted to ethanol production. The increased demand for corn resulted in a doubling of the per bushel price of corn.

“So let us not talk falsely now, the hour is getting late.”  (Bob Dylan, All Along the Watchtower, 1967)

The Fed’s FOMC has affirmed that it may raise interest rates as some point in the future if conditions warrant. In other words, the Fed has said nothing at all. In its press release from today, the Commitee noted: 

We’re eight episodes into the new Netflix series Marco Polo before we see the titular character’s first serious moral crisis over matters of state. While preparing to lay siege to their enemy’s capital city, the Mongolian troops, whom Marco Polo serves, begin butchering alive captured enemy troops so their fat can be rendered into boiling oil to be used as a weapon.

Marco is horrified. “They are our captives,” he protests “This is sin.” The quaint excuse he is given is still commonly heard today: “This is war.”