All economists, whether they are of an Austrian, a Keynesian, or a monetarist bent, as well as nearly every investor, would agree that money plays a vitally important role in the economy. And a correct measure of its supply is an indispensable input into every economic and financial forecast. How could it not be? Money is one half of every economic transaction.

Yet, despite its importance, the money-supply metrics used by the majority of today’s economists and investors are seriously flawed, for they are founded on a faulty definition of money.

[Rule of Law, Misrule of Men • By Elaine Scarry • MIT Press: A Boston Review Book, 2010 • Xxii + 191 pages]

Elaine Scarry, a distinguished English professor at Harvard, attracted great acclaim early in her academic career for her study The Body in Pain (1985). It is hardly surprising, then, that the use of torture in the Iraq War has attracted her attention.

In Rule of Law, Misrule of Men, her searing indictment of the Bush administration, Scarry argues that the absolute prohibition of torture lies at the basis of the rule of law.

[The Power Problem: How American Military Dominance Makes Us Less Safe, Less Prosperous, and Less Free • By Christopher A. Preble • Cornell University Press, 2009 • Xiii + 212 pages]

Steve Wynn told CNBC on the eve of the opening of his new Encore at Wynn Macau that he may move the company headquarters to the Chinese gaming hot spot. Wynn sounds like he has soured on Las Vegas and on the business climate in the United States.

And, in the words of Groundhog Day’s Ned Ryerson, “It’s a doosy”.

As noted previously (see Stop the ACTA (Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement)), this treaty was being negotiated in secret and is an attempt to extend the reach of the west’s horrible and draconian IP (patent and copyright) regimes to other countries. As I noted, the

It’s not new colors and security features that make money, “Safer. Smarter. More Secure.” Money will never be safe and secure as long as the Federal Reserve and the Treasury can create money unchecked, writes Doug French.