Per Bylund writes for Observer.com:
Nearly 80 years ago — during the height of the Great Depression — economist Simon Kuznets envisioned a system capable of measuring productivity and economic activity. In a report to Congress, Kuznets proposed charting all economic production with a single measurement that would decrease when the economy struggled and increase when it thrived. He called it gross domestic product, or GDP.
After weeks of speculation, Donald Trump has announced Steve Mnuchin as his nominee for Treasury Secretary. Though Mnuchin can currently be seen in movie theaters playing a banker in Warren Beatty’s new film Rules Don’t Apply, he has a lower profile than most tapped to head the Treasury department. Probably to his credit, he has no experience with public policy and has made relatively few public statements on policy. Perhaps his best qualification for the position was that he was an early supporter of Trump’s campaign, serving as its fundraising director.
Now that the presidential election is finally over, can we talk about something that actually matters?
The ongoing protest over the Dakota Access Pipeline near Standing Rock Indian Reservation makes for some good theater, but the protesters have as yet been unable to demonstrate that the pipeline actually trespasses on Indian lands or that it will likely lead to groundwater pollution.
Both trespassing and water pollution are serious issues that would rightly open up the owners — in this case, Energy Transfer Partners — to crippling lawsuits.
Most economists hold that, since the early 1980s, correlations between various definitions of money and national income have broken down. The reason for this breakdown, it is held, is that financial deregulation has made the demand for money unstable. As a result it is held the usefulness of money as a predictor of economic events has significantly diminished.
To fix the instability of the demand for money, economists have introduced a gauge of the money supply known as the Divisia monetary indicator. (The indicator is named after its originator, François Divisia).
Over the weekend, the world bid farewell to brutal Cuban dictator and poster-child for western communism, Fidel Castro. Those who suffered under Castro’s regime, and were fortunate enough to escape to America, have taken to the streets to celebrate the end of his dictatorship with the hope that his passing will bring a sense of peace and restitution to their community. However, in spite of his long track record of human rights violations, there are still those who view Castro as a hero.
The BBC series Planet Earth II is one of the most beautiful nature documentaries ever produced. Yet although the world it captures is gorgeous and filmed in incredible detail, it isn’t one that most people would care to live in. One theme in particular recurs throughout each episode: the harsh conditions endured by animals in the wild. From tropical islands to mountain peaks to arid deserts, almost every species—and even the fiercest predators—face a constant, brutal battle for survival.
The strong showing in banking stocks may show some optimism following the presidential election victory of Donald Trump. But, a healthy future for US banking will only take root if that industry comes to terms with the original purpose for which banking was intended — wealth management. As such, the great American bank in generations to come will not be of the calamitous Wells Fargo or Bank of America type — or even Facebook’s Electronic Money Institution license or Google’s Mobile Wallet. The most solid banks will be remakes of that timeless classic, the Swiss private banker.
MISES INSTITUTE: Why is the concept of the “unseen” so important to understanding the effects of regulation?
PER BYLUND: It is essential for understanding regulation, but the “unseen” is actually fundamental for economic understanding and analysis in general. What’s “unseen” is the proper benchmark. We need to consider both what didn’t happen but would have happened.
