It is commonly held that the long-term interest rate is an average of current and expected short-term interest rates. The short-term interest rate, it is maintained, is determined by the central bank policy rate, such as the federal funds rate in the US.

Many libertarians hope that Donald Trump would favor many free market policies. The claim by these libertarians was that, aside from obvious exceptions like eminent domain and tariffs, he was basically sympathetic to the free market. Unfortunately, these hopes have not been fulfilled, and in this week’s article, I’ll try to show this. Before going ahead, though, I’d like to avert a possible misunderstanding. The issue we have to deal with is Trump’s policy, not whether he was a marginally more acceptable choice for president than his Democratic Party opponent, the “woke” Kamala Harris.

Where is the “duly elected” president we were told about? Turns out none of the US-supported leaders have enough public support to take power. 

He was almost VP. Soon he’ll be just another “visiting scholar” at a leftwing think tank. Perhaps he can hang out with Liz Cheney. 

Democratic socialist Zohran Mamdani was sworn in as mayor of New York City and members of the Big Apple’s chapter of the Democratic Socialists of America were ready to party, the New York Times reported. “The event served as a fund-raiser for the N.Y.C.-D.S.A., with 500 tickets sold, most at the socialist-friendly price of $25.” (Why not free?).

In his 1982 article, “Monetary Policy: Theory and Practice,” Nobel laureate Milton Friedman—no friend of gold—said that,

If a domestic money consists of a commodity, a pure gold standard or cowrie bead standard, the principles of monetary policy are very simple. There aren’t any. The commodity money takes care of itself. (emphasis added)

Jack Hunter: “From WMDs to bombing Iran, the president who consistently mocked the GWOT is now pushing the same old buttons.”