The recent inflationary episodes in the USA have led to the emergence of several different explanations, ranging from overexpansion of the money supply to supply-side constraints, not to mention the role of rising markups along with price gouging and greed for profits. Each emphases the unique role that the category has played in the elevated price level.
One of the most devastating moments in American history took place on August 6 and August 9, 1945, with the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Approximately three hundred thousand civilians, forty-three thousand soldiers, forty-five thousand Korean slave laborers, and over a thousand American citizens (including twenty-three prisoners of war) would die.
There are surely other worlds than this—other thoughts than the thoughts of the multitude—other speculations than the speculations of the sophist.
—Edgar Allan Poe, “The Assignation”
Nothing brings out misleading or false narratives like the subject of money.
Not that long ago, my grandparents explained to me why they never discussed politics, religion, or sex in mixed company. Politeness was their currency. And why antagonize people or create ill will over private matters?
Fast-forward to 2023, and their advice seems needed more than ever. Today nothing is private; everything is political. And American politics is characterized by a perverse degree of bad faith.
Here we go again. Every few years in Congress there is a purely political battle over the debt ceiling. We’re supposed to be horrified and worried that the US might default on some of its debt. Some commentators will insist the US has never defaulted, and that default be a disaster. (That’s wrong, by the way. The US has defaulted before.)
It’s theoretically impossible for government to regulate vaccines effectively. To see why, consider the following thought experiment: Imagine you were an expert employed somewhere in the government’s sprawling healthcare apparatus, and further imagine that you received incontrovertible evidence that every single person who took the covid vaccines would die as a result of those vaccines at some point in the next five years.
Whenever an armed conflict breaks out, regardless of where it is, we are instantly presented with the number of people killed, along with how many families and entire communities have been forced from their homes. As regrettable as it sounds, those of us who have been so lucky to remain safely distant from such conflicts throughout our lives have become relatively inured to them. Ukraine, to put it coldly and crudely, is the folie du jour in this regard.
Aeon J. Skoble is an outstanding political philosopher, and, to my mind even better, he has honored me by contributing an excellent essay, “Anarchy, Nozick, and Gordon,” to my festschrift, Defending Liberty.
