It appears that the government of Zimbabwe is giving the Hungarian pengo, a run for its money (literally): Cash runs out in land where the bus fare is 1.6 m dollars Some sobering points: - October’s annualized inflation was 14,840%, up nearly double from September - The highest paper currency, the Z$200,000 note, has almost disappeared - Cash machines don’t wor
Peter Klein recently observed that the majority of popular tourist attractions in Paris were financed by coerced philanthropy (i.e., taxation). While there are exceptions to this rule, the same hold true for most of the state edifying temples in the DC/Kremlin areas as well. In addition, Peter linked to an interesting story from of all places, Esquire.
The currently observed turmoil in financial markets, which is believed to have been ignited by the collapse of the subprime mortgage market, has recently brought to prominence the ideas of Hyman Minsky (1919–1996), a prominent member of the post-Keynesian school of economics. Many commentators are of the view that Minsky’s framework of thinking accurately anticipated the current financial crisis.
Tomorrow is Thanksgiving, the day reserved for giving thanks and feasting. In Ohio, at least, another day may be reserved in the future: a day for apologizing to the state. In 2006, an Ohio hunter shot a deer out-of-season. It doesn’t matter whose property the deer was on, all deer in Ohio are the assumed property of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources.
As late as 1999, oil was trading at $10 per barrel and gold at $250 per ounce, down from their nominal peaks in 1980 of $39 and $850 respectively. And that’s not even adjusted for the fact that the value of a dollar was a lot lower in 1999 than in 1980. Many pundits at the time argued that prices would continue to go down. The Economist had a cover in March 1999 entitled “Drowning in Oil” where it argued that oil would continue to fall well below $10 per oil.
From a letter in today’s Wall Street Journal:
Pat Buchanan’s recent attempt to diagnose the sinking dollar demonstrates that ignorance of basic economics is not limited to the Left. Buchanan points out the plummeting value of the dollar relative to other currencies and major commodities such as gold (up 24% this year) and oil (up over 50% in 12 months).
At least, according to law professor John Tehranian. He has detailed how he alone rings up approximately $12.5 million each day in copyright violations. And due to how copyright law is written and enforced, you may too. See also: everything by Stephan Kinsella
