It now looks like California voters will have the chance to vote on whether or not the state ought to be split up into three pieces. The Los AngelesTimes reports :
If a majority of voters who cast ballots agree, a long and contentious process would begin for three separate states to take the place of California, with one primarily centered around Los Angeles and the other two divvying up the counties to the north and south.
Since Hayek’s time, monetary policy, particularly in America, has evolved away from targeting production and discouraging savings by suppressing interest rates, towards encouraging consumption through expanding consumer finance. American consumers are living beyond their means and have commonly depleted all their liquid savings. But given the variations in the cost of consumer finance (between 0% car loans and 20% credit card and overdraft rates), consumers are generally insensitive to changes in interest rates.
Today Jerome Powell announced another .25% increase in the Federal funds rate, bringing it to a range between 1.75% and 2%. In a corresponding move, interest paid on excess reserves by on 20 basis points, rather than 25. This is a small but significant change to Fed policy, a reaction to the Federal funds rate moving steadily towards the Fed’s upper target range in recent months.
The Justice Department Inspector General is expected to release on Thursday its report on alleged FBI misconduct during the 2016 presidential campaign. Trump supporters and opponents are already pre-spinning the report to vindicate or undercut the president. Unfortunately, the report will not consider fundamental question of whether the FBI’s vast power and secrecy is compatible with American democracy.
Demand for financial engineers rises and falls with asset inflation. So there is nothing odd about these professionals now enjoying a good market for their services. But why is Big Tech such a large recruiter?
Ludwig von Mises and F.A. Hayek’s criticisms of Marxism are among the most famous works within the Austrian school. Less discussed are some of the specifics criticisms of Eugen von Bohm-Bawerk.
G.P. Manish joined the Tom Woods Show to discuss the topic, inspired by a recent Mises Wire article.
In last week’s column comparing median income numbers from country to country, we found that, by the measure the OECD uses, median incomes in the US are the seventh highest in the world (not counting some tiny city states.) Even after including income from welfare programs, the median income of the US is about equal to that of Austria and Denmark.
The $85 billion mega-merger of AT&T with Time Warner appears headed for consummation, which will create another big digital media company with telecom underpinnings. But will this endless scramble for eyeballs and clicks, the quest to determine which platforms finicky content consumers will choose in coming years, actually create any value for shareholders?
“I can’t help but feel a little bit proud that our views, which aren’t mentioned very often, are really being talked about. They are talking about a peace treaty and ending the war. They are talking about bringing troops home. They are talking about spending less money and no more military games over there. Wow. That is very good.” - Ron Paul
