The latest data show that the yearly rate of growth of the US consumer price index (CPI) climbed to 4.1% in May from 3.9% in the month before. Most economists and Federal Reserve policy makers attribute this to sharp increases in commodity prices.
In his speech at the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston, Fed Chairman Bernanke said,
As I noted in The Schizo Feds: Patent Monopolies and the FTC, the state grants patent monopolies and then uses antitrust law to attack the beneficiaries of those monopolies.
I didn’t realize that Japan had enacted a law that will certainly improve it’s economic malaise:
Under a national law that came into effect two months ago, companies and local governments must measure the waistlines of Japanese people ages 40 to 74 as part of their annual checkups. That represents more than 56 million waistlines, or about 44 percent of the population.
At this point it is just a waiting game for the National Bureau of Economic Research to declare that we have been in recession. Of course they work from past data; we all do. But the data will show what has been true for months. Investment is falling. Unemployment is rising. The trends are consistent with every single recession on record. Have a look for yourself.
A friend recently pointed me to this interesting article on The Seasteading Institute. The article is skeptical without being at all dismissive. I’d even call it encouraging.
I’d heard the term “seasteading” but hadn’t yet looked into it.
In the escalating negativity in American politics, each side of every battle constantly unearths arcane new details that attack the other sides, which partisans quickly incorporate into dueling character assassinations. As a result, we are inundated with stories about ministers with controversial statements, supposed examples of corruption, potentially tainted campaign staff or advisers and the like. At the same time, voters are dangerously uninformed about important political policies and their consequences.
