The Mexican Peso (MXN) has been perhaps the strongest currency in the post-pandemic era, going from $4 US Dollars per $100 Mexican Pesos as the crisis started in March 2020 to shy under $6 US Dollars per $100 Mexican Pesos in the present, which is a 50 percent increase in three years, or around a 15 percent increase per annum. Around half of this increase was due to a stabilization of trade during the summer of 2020, as Mexican manufacturers regained productivity and exports flowed north as they did before.

A recurring theme in American politics is the cynical use of federal power by those who simultaneously pretend to favor “states’ rights” or “local control.” We see this today when Republicans one minute say they favor local control with gun laws or Obamacare—and then demand the federal government impose nationwide drug prohibitions.

Estimates of United States growth have improved but remain massively below the Federal Reserve projections.

After the largest monetary and fiscal stimulus in recent years, growth remains well below trend, and debt is significantly higher. It is interesting to hear Janet Yellen say that “trickle-down economics did not work” when this is the failed trickle-down: massive government deficit spending leads to negative real wage growth and weaker GDP.

The state has a monopoly on violence. However, abusive repression harms government credibility and alienates public support in the long run. A more subtle and effective way to exercise power is to surveil the population and to prevent open manifestations of discontent.

Words matter and definitions often become imprecise and “slippery.” There is a natural evolution of language wherein words gradually change over time, but often a key meaning gets lost and there no longer remains a single word to describe a concept. This has been the case with the common word “inflation.”