Free Trade, and the US as “an Antiquated and Unnatural Construct”
Every now and then, I get a letter from a reader that is full of great observations. Here is one of them:
Mises Wire
Marc Faber: Some Misallocation Is Worse than Others
Is government spending on infrastructure less of a misallocation than other spending?
Against Public Policy
Mises: To seek to organize society is just as crazy as it would be to tear a living plant to bits in order to make a new one out of the dead parts.
German Response to Negative Interest Rates: Safe Deposit Boxes
The Japanese response to negative interest rates was to buy personal safes. The German response is to pull money out of bank accounts and stick it in safe deposit boxes. Both are perfectly understandable reactions to the prospect of having to pay interest to a bank for holding deposits.
“Who Will Pay for It?” is the Wrong Question To Ask Politicians
It's vital to debunk promises of "free stuff" but we often concentrate too much on the "free," and not enough on the "stuff."
Salerno Reviews Grant’s The Forgotten Depression
Joseph Salerno reviews James Grant's new book The Forgotten Depression — 1921: The Crash That Cured Itself in the spring 2016 issue of The Independent Review.
Impaled On Its Own Petard — The Fed’s Folly Festers Further
Listening to even a small portion of Simple Janet's incoherent babble makes very clear that the nation's central bank is well and truly impaled on its own petard.
Foreign Regimes Dumping US Debt — Will the Fed Just Monetize the Debt Instead?
The Chinese regime is broke, so its liquidating its US debt holdings to keep its welfare-warfare state going. The problem is that the US depends on China holding that debt so the US can keep its welfare-warfare state going.
Including the Ocean Floor, the Feds Own Much More Land than You Think
The US government owns immense amounts of dry land, but the US government also owns far larger amounts of ocean floor. Government ownership of such immense amounts of natural resources causes substantial distortions to prices and markets.
