Not that long ago people, especially those in government, were consumed with the most-significant crisis in world history, or so we were encouraged to believe – the so-called global pandemic, which, left to run its course un-diverted by government intervention, would end humanity as we knew it. So significant was the threat of this contagion, that civil liberties were suspended, businesses were closed, false-idols and talismans such as mRNA vaccines and masks were mandated across the globe.

Thank goodness for memes! A witty, well-placed caption on a still frame from a movie, cartoon, etc. provides welcome comic relief amidst the steady drip of stressful news these last few years. 

The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) put in place under Donald Trump and extended by Joe Biden is a prime example of government wastefulness. A recent working paper by the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), “The $800 Billion Paycheck Protection Program: Where Did the Money Go and Why Did It Go There?“ investigated the effectiveness of the PPP. 

Most people believe lending is associated with money. But there is more to lending. A lender lends savings to a borrower as opposed to “just money.” Let us explain.

Take a farmer, Joe, who has produced two kilograms of potatoes. For his own consumption, he requires one kilogram, and the rest he agrees to lend for one year to another farmer, Bob. The unconsumed kilogram of potatoes that he agrees to lend is his savings. 

In this week’s article, I’d like to discuss an aspect of Murray Rothbard’s criticism of Marxism that is often misunderstood. The topic is important not only for understanding the essay by Rothbard I’ll be discussing, “Karl Marx as Religious Eschatologist,” but also for grasping a useful style of conceptual analysis of which Rothbard’s essay is a fine example.

Rothbard argues in the essay that Marxism is a religious movement that centers on the violent arrival of a heaven on earth.

It was hoped at the outset that high-level meetings this week between Washington and Beijing might go some way toward bringing the crisis in Ukraine to an end.