After many months of covid stimulus, there's a bonanza in US pandemic profits. But unlike price inflation, these profits really are likely to be transitory.
The central bank can manipulate the interest rate to whatever level it desires. But it cannot control how the interest rate is dictated by each individual's time preference. That's a problem.
The classical gold standard brought the rise of central banks and state-imposed monetary "standardization." This set the stage for later monetary disasters.
Joe Biden thinks that unless there's widespread government intervention in the economy, economic inequality "brews and ferments political discord and basic revolutions."
It took many centuries for regimes to secure the sort of prestige and power necessary to claim a monopoly over money. From the state's perspective, it has been worth it.
The causes of today's skyrocketing housing prices are different in many ways from what happened in 2008. But that doesn't mean we're barreling toward a happy ending.
