Standard & Poor’s recent decision to maintain Greece’s credit rating at stable was no surprise, but it was instructive. It confirmed that the markets view Greece as fiscally disciplined and institutionally credible, yet still in need of deeper structural renewal.

In highlighting what they see as the excesses of capitalism, the strategy of many progressives is to slander capitalists as terrible human beings. Their message is that capitalism is bad because capitalists are racists, fascists, and Nazis. For example, the socialist Quinn Slobodian described Murray Rothbard as a “racist.”

Last week, the US’s total federal debt surpassed $38 trillion. Federal debt now increases at a shocking rate, with the US’s debt increasing from $37 trillion to $38 trillion in just 73 days. It took nine months for the debt to increase from $36 to $37 trillion.

“I think the early campus riots, such as Columbia, were exhilarating, but perhaps because I agreed with the goals; but in general and increasingly, I find all the demonstrations, bombings, etc. pains in the ass or worse,” Murray Rothbard, who boasted three degrees from the institution, wrote Frank Meyer in 1969 shortly after the older man’s son had attended the institution as a graduate student.   

By popular thinking, it is not always possible to establish the state of an economy by just inspecting the data as a whole. Instead, it is argued, what is required is to break the data down into its key components. This will enable economists to identify the true state of the economy.