The ECB’s announcement on Thursday July 21 of a “new instrument” for tackling “fragmentation risk” is ominous for the future of the euro. The idea is to pre-empt the emergence of serious break-up risk for the euro-zone as the policy interest rate continues to move higher in coming quarters towards “neutral.”

The Right: The Hundred-Year War for American Conservatism
By Matthew Continetti
Basic Books, 2022
503 pp.

For the first time in more than a decade, the European Central Bank (ECB) raised its key interest rate this past Thursday. The deposit facility rate went from –0.5 to 0.0 percent. The change comes after fourteen months of price inflation in the European Union above the ECB’s 2 percent target.

Nothing is so permanent as a temporary government program. - Milton Friedman

Not only does Milton’s quote hold true in times of dire crisis, but worse, programs expand with even less scrutiny and oversight.

Jeff Deist: Welcome, Dr. Smith. I know you are a University of Oklahoma alum and your surgery center is in Oklahoma City. Are you an Oklahoma native?

Keith Smith: Yes, I am. I was born in Tulsa and lived in the Southeast corner, in the Southwest corner, and ended up right in the middle.

JD: Do you think being a Midwesterner informed your worldview or your medical career?