While central banks use administered interest rates in hopes of emulating the natural rate, these efforts are always going to fail. Without free markets, there is no natural rate.
This is the first time in human history that the energy transition has been decided by politicians without allowing technology, competition, or human ingenuity to come up with a better, more flexible, and more economical alternative.
In the recent killing of an elderly Utah man by federal agents, the government shows it will come down hardest on those who don't pose realistic threats.
We should not be surprised that credit in the eurozone is falling along with monetary aggregates. The entire burden of monetary normalization is falling on the productive sector, families, and businesses, while many governments continue to increase deficit spending.
Censoring and shutting down speech on the Internet is not a random thing. The people doing it are highly organized and almost always tied to ruling elites.
It's easy to see why many young people don't find military service especially enticing. The US military lost in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the usual regime propaganda may not be working anymore. But we'll only know the full extent of the "problem" once unemployment starts to go up.
