As news of the Hamas attack on southern Israel began to trickle in on October 7, many who follow the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict knew the bad news was just beginning. It was immediately obvious that the ferocity of the Hamas attack, and the high proportion of women and children among the victims, would provide the Israeli state with political justification to launch devastating and revanchist attacks against civilians within the Gaza strip in retaliation. 

According to the U.S. Treasury, year-end data from September 2023 show that the deficit for the full year 2023 was $1.7 trillion, $320 billion higher than the prior year’s deficit. As a percentage of GDP, the deficit was 6.3%, an increase from 5.4% in FY 2022. This means that the United States will likely post the worst GDP growth excluding debt increases since 1929, or, in other words, that the country is in a recession disguised by bloated deficit spending.

This week bitcoin found life rising above $30,000 per coin on the news that exchange traded funds will be able to invest in the cryptocurrency’s number one brand. Meanwhile, in a New York courtroom prosecution witnesses have hammered crypto wizard Sam Bankman-Fried with damaging testimony.

Many economists, including Milton Friedman, have claimed that reality is elusive and that one cannot know its true nature. Most mainstream economists also believe that data gives us the state of the economy. By inspecting numbers such as gross domestic product (GDP) or the consumer price index, only then can an economist accurately assess the state of economic conditions.

The Economist, a disappointing magazine, has a fittingly disappointing list of “What to read to understand how economists think.” It’s one of their “evergreen” articles that they repost from time to time.

This week Congressman Mike Johnson was voted in as Speaker of the House, following three weeks of rare genuine uncertainty in Washington. Johnson’s path to one of the most powerful positions in DC is an unusual one, a historically modest fundraiser who previously held a lower-level position in Republican leadership as Vice Chairman of the GOP Conference.